A quick study when choosing his college
After playing third base at NCAA level, will Carl Wise become a catcher in pro ball?
The College of Charleston had Carl Wise at “hello.”
Wise, the Vancouver Canadians third baseman from Lexington, S.C., committed to the NCAA school in the opening few minutes of the first phone call he received from thencoach Monte Lee three years ago.
Wise had fallen hard for the area, which is about a two-hour drive southeast of his family’s home, tucked away along the South Carolina coast. He had liked what he had heard about the baseball program, which is best known as the alma mater of New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner.
He didn’t need to make recruiting visits to Charleston or other universities. He wasn’t into trying to play one school off against another, even though he did have some credentials, including having made allstate teams in 2011 and 2012.
Tag this with a “Kids, Don’t Try This At Home,” warning. For Wise, it worked.
“I was thinking about going there regardless,” explained Wise, 21, who was the first position player taken by the C’s parent club, the Toronto Blue Jays, in June’s major league draft, going in the fourth round. “It just so happened that Coach Lee called me and offered me over the phone.”
Wise is somebody who obviously knows what he wants. What he obviously wants next is to rise through the Blue Jays’ system. To do that, he needs to be an effective run producer, a middle-of-the-order type.
Through his first seven games in Short Season Single A with the C’s, he batted .233 (7-for-30), with four runs batted in. Those are pedestrian numbers by his previous standards. Wise wound up tied for sixth in the NCAA in RBI this season, driving in 70 in 60 games with a Charleston team that made the NCAA regionals and finished the campaign with a 45-15 record.
The 6-foot-2, 210-pound righthanded hitter tied for 14th nationally in runs (64), too, to go along with a .313 average and 12 home runs.
As well, Wise ended up tied for second in home runs (6) and tied for eighth in RBI (22) in 35 games in the 2014 Cape Cod college all-star league, a loop that also included C’s right-hander Jon Harris.
There’s a school of thought that Wise might be better suited as a catcher over the long haul. Charleston toyed with the idea, apparently, and Wise’s Baseball America predraft scouting report stated: “Scouts who believe in Wise’s ability to play behind the dish see him as a potential Major League regular, while those who see him at third view him as sort of a tweener.”
He’s lined up at third or designated hitter so far with the C’s since arriving in Vancouver for the recent home stand against the Spokane Indians.
“I need to keep doing what I’ve done,” said Wise when asked about what will lead him to success in pro ball. “I need to stay relaxed and stay confident and compete out there.”
He did have a built-in advantage when he came to Vancouver after seven games with the Bluefield Blue Jays, a team in the Rookie Appalachian League. Wise and Vancouver shortstop Gunnar Heidt, 22, were teammates at Charleston.
Heidt was a 13th rounder for the Blue Jays last June, and spent part of last season with Vancouver. He started this year one level up, with the Single A Midwest League Lansing Lugnuts, but hit only .170 through 52 games and was shipped back to Vancouver just before Wise arrived here.
“It seems like it would never happen,” Wise said of playing pro ball with a college teammate. “It’s luck of the draw.
“It helps out a lot. It makes me feel comfortable, seeing somebody that I’m so familiar with.”