Amateur Draft

NECBL Does Well in Amateur Draft_July 2, 2004

Chris Lambert, who two years ago spent his summer pitching for the Concord Quarry Dogs of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, has signed with the Cardinals for $1.5 million.

The NECBL, home to the Holyoke Giants, had 92 of its current or past players drafted this June, and 15 more have been free-agent signees this year.

Lambert, though, is the league's poster boy. The former Boston College hurler was picked in the first round, 19th overall. He was 3-2 with a 1.55 ERA for Concord, punching out 72 batters in 46êinnings.

But, Lambert showed control issues that have followed him, walking 28, hitting six and throwing five wild pitches.

SOX SIGNEES: Four of the players who have the NECBL on their resumes were picked by the Boston Red Sox, and one, former University of Connecticut pitcher Michael James, has signed.

James, a 28th-rounder played for Middletown, the NECBL franchise that is not the Holyoke Giants. He was started out at Lowell of the short-season New York-Penn League.

The top pick of the unsigned trio is eighth-rounder Kyle Bono, a right-hander out of University of Central Florida, who was Boston's eighth-round pick.

Brandon Winn, from University of South Carolina (31st round), and Harvard shortstop Zak Farkas (39th) are the others who haven't signed.

The Red Sox signed three of the 15 free agents. One, third baseman Jake Otness, who played for the NECBL Newport Gulls, is off to a fine pro start. He played three games for the Rookie-level Gulf Coast Red Sox, went 4-10 and got plunked twice, and was promoted to Lowell, where he had six hits in his first 12 at-bats