Harvard's Perlman Drafted by Oakland

At Harvard, any student has to put in the maximum level of effort in order to get A’s.

For recently-graduated starting pitcher Max Perlman, that hard work has finally paid off, and the A’s have literally been achieved.

Perlman was drafted by Oakland on Wednesday during the third day of the 2011 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. He was taken in the 35th round as the 1066th selection overall.

The Crimson ace was named to the All-Ivy League first team in 2011 after leading the Ancient Eight with a miniscule 1.80 ERA. He was the fourth Ivy League player to come off the board in this year's draft, after Dartmouth pitcher Kyle Hendricks (Texas Rangers, 8th round), Brown catcher Matthew Colantonio (San Diego Padres, 22nd round), and Yale pitcher Brook Hart (Colorado Rockies, 23rd round).

When Perlman arrived at Harvard in 2007, he immediately impressed and was named a freshman All-American. The rookie formed a strong 1-2 punch atop Harvard’s rotation with junior Shawn Haviland, who left Perlman as the Crimson’s lone ace after getting drafted by the A's in the 33rd round a year later.

But Haviland and Perlman could soon be reunited again, as the latter will soon be joining his former teammate in Oakland’s farm system.

Haviland is currently starting for AA Midland and was named Pitcher of the Year by the organization’s high-A affiliate in 2010. He was the last Harvard player to be drafted before Perlman, who was the 19th pitcher selected in 2011 by the A’s. Oakland’s general manager, Billy Beane, is known for his sabermetric approach to scouting.

The only Harvard alumnus on an active MLB roster is reliever Frank Hermann ’06, who plays for the Cleveland Indians after signing with the team as an undrafted free agent out of college.

But with continued hard work from a former pair of Crimson aces, Hermann may soon have company in Oakland.