Hurler Bouchey happy to be home
Big right-hander from White Rock admits to slight case of nerves but says ‘it’s still baseball’
Homegrown hurler Brayden Bouchey swears he didn’t have to give a heads-up to this year’s crop of Vancouver Canadians about how boisterous Nat Bailey Stadium can get.
“I really didn’t have to — it’s a pretty big legend in the organization,” said Bouchey, a right-hander from White Rock who the Toronto Blue Jays drafted in the 33rd round last summer out of the University of Louisiana Monroe Warhawks program.
“I didn’t have to pump the tires on it. Everyone else did.”
The C’s drew 6,177 fans per game to the Nat last season, leading the short-season, single-A Northwest League. More telling, they maintained a better per-game average than 12 of 30 triple-A clubs.
For another comparable, Bouchey and several players on this year’s Vancouver roster spent last summer with the rookie level Appalachian League Bluefield Blue Jays, who averaged 731 fans per game at home.
You would think that coming to Vancouver would ramp up the pressure, especially for someone like Bouchey, 21, who would take in a handful of games at the Nat every summer as a kid. He admits it has taken some getting used to.
“It’s a little bit more nerve-racking, but I’d like to think I got that out in the first game and I’ve started to settle in a bit more,” said Bouchey, a 6-foot-6, 212 pounder.
“When it comes down to it, it’s still the game of baseball. There are more fans here than there was in Bluefield, and I know a few more faces in the stadium, but it’s baseball. I just have do what I have to do.”
Bouchey started in baseball in the White Rock South Surrey Little League, before eventually moving on to the White Rock Tritons Premier League program and then to the Langley Blaze of the Premier League.
His Blaze teammates included Seattle Mariners’ hotshot outfield prospect Tyler O’Neill, 22, who is in triple-A this season with the Tacoma Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League. O’Neill is off to a slow start, carrying a .216 average into action on Thursday, but his rapid rise through the ranks and Bouchey’s time together with him on the Blaze offers Bouchey some idea of what’s required.
“It was an awesome experience,” Bouchey said.
In 10 relief appearances with Bluefield last season, Bouchey was 1-0, with a 2.57 earned run average. He struck out an impressive 32 in 21 innings, but says: “I’m not going to overpower a whole lot of guys with my fastball velocity.”
He says that he generally tops out at about 92 m.p.h. With his frame, the hope is that he’ll add a few more clicks on the radar gun.
He also throws a curveball, a slider and a change-up and he thinks using those three pitches frequently makes the fastball look quicker.
“It’s about continuing to fine-tune my mechanics and get that as consistent as I can,” he said of his time with the C’s this season.
Bouchey is staying with a host family close to the stadium rather than living at home, to cut down on travel time.