Current Contract
Contract renewable through 2013.

Became a Cardinal
Selected in the 30th round (922nd overall) of the June, 2007 First-Year Player Draft.

2008 Season
Derba basically started the 2008 campaign on the DL, being placed on the list on April 19th, after missing playing time from the 13th of April. Derba returned to play a month later, and would go on and play in 66 games for the Palm Beach Cardinals. A great arm, Derba struggled at the plate, hitting just .166 (32-for-193) with only 10 extra base hits on the season, with two home runs and eight doubles. He did close out the season, hitting .333 (9-for-27), in his final 10 games, which may be a sign of more offense to come from the 23-year-old backstop.

2007 Season
The 30th-round draft pick moved two levels in his first professional season. At Batavia, started 13 games at catcher and five games as designated hitter. His first professional hit was a solo home run, on 6/19 at Auburn. Derba combined to bat .325 (25-for-77) in the month of July getting promoted to Quad Cities on 7/12 and after hitting in nine of his first 11 Midwest League games (.405, 15-for-37). He batted .345 (10-29) in nine starts as designated hitter for Quad Cities.

MISC
Nick earned an invitation to the St. Louis Cardinals 2008 spring training camp.

Attended Manhattan College and is one of two Cardinals from that school (RHP Mike Parisi). Hewas a co-captain three of his four years with the Jaspers. He is the Manhattan College career leader in runs scored and his 212 career hits ranked 3rd on the school’s all-time list.

Nick graduated from Archbishop Molloy H.S. in Queens, NY. where he was a member of school record 4x400 track relay team at Molloy. He played for Chatham of the Cape Cod League in the summer of 2006.

Photo: Doug Bene/Getty Images