Muenster pitcher says he’s ready to play after being selected by Pirates
This week’s Major League Baseball draft was short, but nerve-wracking.
Logan Hofmann fretted as the five-round draft — shortened from 40 rounds because of COVID-19 — zipped along on Thursday night. And then, he heard what he’d been waiting for.
“It was the most nervous day of my life, but it turned into the best day of my life,” says Hoffman, a Muenster pitcher who was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the fifth round (138th overall) on Thursday.
No other Saskatchewan player has gone earlier in the draft. He passes pitcher James Avery, who was selected by Cincinnati in the fifth round (152nd overall) of the 2005 draft.
Avery, who has coached and done some one-on-one work with Hofmann, said an emphatic “good for him,” Thursday when told that his Saskatchewan record had been beaten.
He said Hofmann is ahead of where he was at the same age when it comes to pitching sequences and other mental aspects of the game.
“I think he’s going to be really, really good,” said Avery, who played minor-league baseball for several years and pitched for Canada at the 2008 Olympics. “He understands how to pitch, he knows how to take care of his body, and he works extremely hard. He’s set up. The one bit of advice I’d give is stay focused. The goal is not to make it to the draft, and a lot of guys get caught up in that after the fact, and they lose focus. You just can’t. The competition is too fierce.
“I honestly think he’s got a real shot. The way he throws is so effortless. I think he’s got as good a shot as anyone to be a really successful big-league pitcher.”
As the quarantine continues, Hofmann is home in Muenster, throwing at the local diamond.
He’s coming off what he says was the biggest developmental year of his collegiate baseball career, after being selected in the 35th round by St. Louis in 2019.
He went back to school, enrolling at Northwestern State University in Louisiana, and pitched 28 innings this spring before the pandemic hit. He recorded a 0.00 ERA — not a single earned run was charged to his account — which landed him a second-team All-american berth.
Hofmann was a surefire pick before COVID-19. After the process was cut from 40 rounds to five, he knew it would be a tough list to crack.
“I don’t know how to put it into words, other than pure joy and excitement,” said Hofmann, who watched everything unfold from the family living room in Muenster.
Teams have until Aug. 1 to sign their drafted players, and Hofmann says that it’s time to launch the professional side of his baseball journey.
The question now, assuming he signs with the Pirates, is what comes next — a wide-open scenario, given the current baseball shutdown.
“I’m ready to face hitters again and get to game situations,” Hofmann said.