Young talent in short supply for MLB draft
Number of B. C. baseball players down after banner years, but a couple of prospects stand out
It’s not a complete drought, but it’s unlikely to be a prosperous spring. A number of coaches and executives with the B. C. Premier Baseball League, as well as Major League Baseball scouts, have conceded the crop of young talent coming from the provincial high school- aged circuit this season is in a state of decline, and an expected lower- than- average number of players taken in the upcoming MLB first- year draft could reflect that.
“It is an off- year. I might be a little bit of a pessimist but I think we’re going to be lucky to get four or five guys drafted out of B. C. this year,” said BCPBL president Ted Hotzak.
“It’s cyclical. Some years you get more players, some years you get fewer.” This year’s draft runs June 4 to 6. This news comes after nine players, who were either in the BCPBL or having recently graduated and playing college ball, were selected in last year’s draft.
In 2010, there were 11 players selected. The 2009 crop produced more major league draftees, a total of 14, than any other since the BCPBL began operations in 1995.
Struggles to find blue- chip talent in 2012 aren’t a revelation to those within the league.
Look no further than the Canadian national junior team roster as the greatest indicator. Only two active members of the BCPBL — Clayton Isherwood and Jesse Hodges — are on the team’s Dominican Summer League roster, compared to 22 from Ontario.
In a typical year, B. C. usually sends up to 10 players to the national junior team, according to Walt Burrows, the Canadian adviser for the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau.
“Hopefully it’s a one- year thing,” said Burrows.
Explanations for the dip are numerous. Arm strength, by all accounts, is the most prevalent, and players aren’t spending enough time working on that aspect, said Abbotsford Cardinals head coach and general manager Corey Eckstein.
“The guys up here just don’t throw enough,” said Eckstein, adding scouts are mostly looking for young pitchers that can register up to 90 miles per hour on the radar gun.
“Going from 87 to 90 … those three miles per hour are the toughest to get,” he said. “Kids should go out and throw every day.”
It’s believed at the core of the downward trend is a decline in player registration provincewide.
According to an email from Baseball BC executive director David Laing, the registration “numbers are showing some flat lining … we did drop a bit [ two or three] years ago after a one year increase … but have held our ground through to this year.”
Specific registration totals for 2012 were not available, however Laing added the recent drop was: “A couple of thousand athletes provincewide I would guess …”
Wallace said today’s athletes are hindering themselves by specializing in just one sport at an early age.
“I think that’s detrimental,” he said.
“Baseball does not attract the best athletes right now and that’s because kids specialize too soon. There’s so many opportunities. In fact, there are more opportunities in baseball for school and professional in other sports.
“I’m not blaming anybody. I just don’t think baseball does a good enough job of collectively promoting the opportunities that are out there for kids.”
Despite the impending gloom, it doesn’t appear as though B. C. will be completely shut out of the draft.
Left- handed pitcher David Otterman, a graduate of the Coquitlam Reds program and now with the UBC Thunderbirds, is the top- ranked British Columbian heading into the draft, at least according to the Canadian Baseball Network, which had him sixth in the top 20.
Otterman finished the NAIA season with a 5- 3 record and a 2.57 earnedrun average, but he also kept his opponents to an overall .192 batting average.
Isherwood may be the top prospect currently chucking in the BCPBL, although he wasn’t ranked by the CBN.
During his interview, Burrows said scouts aren’t necessarily looking at the end result — or the stat line — of a prospect, and just because a player isn’t taken in the draft as a teenager, doesn’t mean he won’t develop his skills to draft level in a few years playing in college.
But one can’t help but marvel at Isherwood’s numbers today, despite question marks surrounding his velocity.
As of Thursday, the 18- year- old lefthander was 2- 2 in four starts, but had an earned- run average of 0.79 in 26.2 innings pitched. His strikeout to walk ratio was even more impressive. In the innings he’s worked, Isherwood struck out 34 batters compared to allowing just five base- on- balls.
“His change- up is as good as any high school kid’s in Canada,” said Dave Wallace, Isherwood’s coach with the Parksville Royals and one of the founders of the BCPBL.
“He has the best change- up I’ve ever seen in a high school pitcher and his emotional makeup is really good. He’s got good athletic ability.”
Despite 2012’ s blip, the BCPBL has garnered rave reviews in the past for producing quality baseball players. On average, roughly nine players — either currently in the BCPBL or having graduated to the college ranks — are drafted. Since 1995, there have been 139 players who have had that distinction.
More importantly, a strong number of players has moved on to the college ranks. A total of 161 BCPBL graduates played college ball, both in Canada and the U. S., in 2012.
“And that’s what it’s all about,” said Hotzak.
The likes of pitcher Ryan Dempster, Blue Jays slugger and rising star Brett Lawrie, former American League MVP Justin Morneau, World Series pitcher Jeff Francis, and pitcher Rich Harden have all spent time in the BCPBL and given it publicity beyond the borders of B. C.
The aforementioned big leaguers are the exception rather than the rule, said Burrows, who still praised the league for its overall strong reputation.
“They’ve created an environment for the elite players,” Burrows said of the league.
Scouts and coaches also believe that using wooden bats as opposed to aluminum has given players an advantage. All players, including those in the B. C. Junior Premier Baseball League — the feeder system to the BCPBL — and the Canadian College Baseball Conference, use wooden bats.
The change from aluminum to wood took place in 2006.
“We’d be crazy to go back to aluminum bats,” said Wallace.
“With an aluminum bat, it’s very forgiving. You don’t break them, so you can hit the ball on the poor part of the bat, and you don’t break it and you get rewarded. With a wood bat, you don’t get rewarded for bad swings.”
Consider this year to be one of those ‘ bad swings’ — one that can be adjusted. For now, the BCPBL seems to be in a state of transition as those involved with the league figure out new ways to improve developing young players.
“There is no magic dust. It’s hard work and it’s talent,” said Wallace. “The future is bright, but we have to work at it, and we have to keep working at it.”