SUMMER LEAGUE NOTEBOOK

August 4, 2006

SMOAK IN A CLASS OF HIS OWN

BY ALLAN SIMPSON

Mike Roberts has had a front-row seat to see almost all the elite talent that has passed through the Cape Cod League for most of the last 25 years. In his mind, Cotuit first baseman Justin Smoak is the best all-around talent he has ever seen play in the league.

“In my 20-plus years off and on in the Cape, I’ve never seen a player as good offensively and defensively as he is,” said Roberts, the third-year coach at Cotuit who began coaching in the league at Wareham in 1984. “I knew that he was an impressive offensive player when he came here, but what has impressed me most this summer is what an excellent defensive player he is.

“He’s the only young first baseman in 20 years who uses both his feet interchangeably at first base. He’s been well taught extremely well. He’s light on his feet both on ground balls and around the bag.”

But Smoak’s bat is his real calling card. He hit 17 home runs with 63 RBIs this spring as a freshman at South Carolina , and his offensive exploits have been the talk of the Cape Cod League this summer. He led the league with 11 home runs and was in the top five in batting (.295) and RBIs (27) with three days remaining in the season. He was the leading candidate to be the league MVP as Cotuit clinched the Western Division pennant with a week to go.

“Offensively,” Roberts said, “he’s one of the few players I’ve coached who takes the power he shows in BP into games. Pitchers have been extremely careful with him, throwing him a lot of off-speed stuff, and he’s done a great job of disciplining himself. He has learned not to swing at bad pitches, and while he’s learned to be patient at the plate, he has a very aggressive approach at the same time.

“He has a wonderful overall approach to the game and has learned to keep it all in perspective. He really likes the game; he works hard at improving his skills. He’s one of the few players I’ve been around who is interested in knowing what his weaknesses are. With him, it’s more a case of a little tweaking here and there. Like most switch-hitters, he likes to even things out from both sides, to become more consistent. Right now, he’s more consistent from the right side than his left, though his left is his dominant side.”

Smoak would in all likelihood have been drafted in the first two rounds out of a South Carolina high school in 2005 had teams been willing to meet his $1 million price tag. Oakland took him in the 16^th round, but the A’s $960,000 offer fell just short of Smoak’s price tag and he elected to play in college for three years.

“I was always going to school if I didn’t get the money,” Smoak told the Cape Cod Times. “School’s helped me out a lot. Being at school, you mature a lot as a person and as a player.”

Roberts, whose own son Brian played in the Cape in 1998 and was a supplemental first-round pick a year later before going on to an all-star career with the Baltimore Orioles, has no doubt Smoak will be an early first-round pick in 2008, when he’s eligible again.

“He’s got the total package,” said Roberts, who coached No. 1 overall draft pick B.J. Surhoff at North Carolina in 1985. “I’ve never seen anyone that is so disciplined, that combines his ability to hit for both average and power, and is so projectable at his age. And he keeps it all in perspective. I’m pleased and so proud of him that he is able to do that.”

 

BRACKMAN PONDERS BASEBALL-ONLY CAREER

Six-foot-10 righthander Andrew Brackman hasn’t enjoyed much success on the baseball field in 2006, but he’s accomplished just enough to know his future lies in baseball, not basketball.

“I know I want to get better at baseball, and I know I have a lot of work to do,” Brackman told the Durham-Morning Herald. “I’m definitely leaning toward baseball, but if I could get out on that basketball court, then I would love it.”

Brackman spent his first two years at North Carolina State juggling the two sports. His sophomore season on the baseball diamond ended early because of a stress fracture in his hip, caused he thinks, by adding 25 pounds to bulk up for basketball. He went to the sidelines for good in April, with just a 1-3, 6.35 record.

The injury impacted his summer season as well, as he pitched sparingly at the start of the Cape Cod League season and worked just 17 innings in six appearances for Orleans . But he went 1-0, 1.06 in his limited action and his fastball was clocked as high as 99 mph. Suddenly, baseball has moved to the forefront among his athletic priorities.

“My first two years, it was all basketball, and then baseball came second,” said Brackman, who is at State on a basketball scholarship. “I think it should be baseball first and basketball second.”

His encouraging performance on the Cape not only led Team USA to add Brackman to its roster as it traveled to Cuba for the World University Games, but fueled speculation that he would drop basketball to concentrate solely on baseball as a junior. Brackman has already been projected as one of the top picks in the 2007 draft.

“As of right now, I’m still playing basketball,” Brackman said. “But I’m going to go on this trip with the guys and go to Cuba and just focus on baseball. When I come back to school, I think I’m going to have a sit down with the basketball coaches and just tell them what I want.”

NBC SERIES BECOME JAYHAWK INVITATIONAL

The annual National Baseball Congress World Series has been a home-court advantage for the Jayhawk League since the league was formed in 1976, but it has never been quite as pronounced an advantage as this year.

Through Thursday games at the 42-team event, played at Wichita ’s Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, Jayhawk League had a combined 9-1 record, with the only loss coming in a head-to-head matchup Thursday night between two Jayhawk League clubs, El Dorado and Nevada , with Nevada winning 3-0. Five of the league’s six teams are entered in the tournament, with Hays, Derby and Nevada already moving on to the quarter-finals of the winner’s bracket.

Hays, winners of the Jayhawk League title in five of the last six years, won its first two games by 10 runs each. Larks catcher Kyle Day (Michigan State ) went 5-for-5 with triples in his first three at-bats and six RBIs in a 20-10 win over the Houston Apollos, then went 2-for-5 with two more RBIs in an 11-1 win over the Havasu (Ariz. ) Heat.

Four-time NBC champion Liberal could become a fourth team to move on to the quarter-finals. The Bee Jays were scheduled to play their next game on Friday night, right at the start of the NBC’s Baseball ‘Round The Clock, the signature event of the NBC World Series. Games are scheduled around the clock from 5 p.m. Friday through 10 p.m. Sunday—17 games in a 56-hour span.

CAPE ALL-STAR GAME TURNS INTO DEBACLE

Mitch Moreland wasn’t even selected to play in the Cape Cod League All-Star Game, but ended up being the losing pitcher in the contest. The winner? None other than Luke Sommer, who had not won a game in his Cape Cod League career.

The Cape Cod League All-Star Game normally showcases the league’s best talent, but many of the top pitchers selected for the game this year were unable to pitch because of a backlog of doubleheaders immediately before the event.

That led to both teams running out of legitimate pitchers as early as the fifth inning, forcing them to resort to position players like Moreland and Sommer to finish out the contest, won by the Eastern Division 7-2.

The West was forced to recruit Moreland (Mississippi State ), who won the home run hitting contest prior to the game, blasting 25, but wasn’t originally selected to play in the game. Moreland went in to pitch in the sixth inning and was saddled with the loss when East MVP Josh Satin blasted a two-run homer, putting the East up 3-2. The East tacked on four more runs in the seventh against infielder Dave Cash (Florida ), who had not previously pitched in a game this year.

The East used outfielder Justin Snyder (San Diego) in the fifth inning and turned to Sommer (San Francisco ) in the sixth. Sommer, who was selected to the game as an outfielder but had pitched sparingly this summer, worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings to earn the win.

TEAM USA HEADED ABROAD

College National Team

USA Baseball’s college national team ended the domestic portion of its schedule Wednesday with a 20-2-1 record, before it left for Cuba to defend its title as the World University Games champion. The U.S. won the event when it was last played in 2004.

A pitching staff that had posted a 1.33 ERA overall and limited opponents to a .165 average has been the strength of the team, and is expected to be the backbone of the team in Cuba, though the team has had to replace two of its top arms, righthanders Bryan Augenstein (Florida) and Wes Roemer.

Augenstein (1-0, 2.45) left the team because of a sore shoulder, while Roemer (2-0, 2.45) left because of a family illness. Augenstein was replaced by Casey Weathers (Vanderbilt), who starred as a closer this summer in Alaska before joining Team USA , while Roemer was replaced by Brackman.

Lefthander David Price (Vanderbilt), the team’s ace and early favorite to be drafted No. 1 overall in the 2007 draft, is scheduled to get the nod in the tournament opener for Team USA , Sunday against Taiwan .

That may be the U.S. team’s stiffest test in pool play. The Czech Republic , Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are also in the U.S. pool, but none is considered a title contender. Eight teams advance to the playoffs, with the gold medal game scheduled for Aug. 15.

Price has gone 3-1, 0.30 for Team USA this summer, with 47 strikeouts and only five walks in 47 innings. His Vanderbilt teammate, freshman third baseman Pedro Alvarez, has been the unquestioned star of the team offensively, as he led the team with a .381 average, five home runs and 29 RBIs.

Team USA is coached by Tim Corbin, also of Vanderbilt.

Youth National Team

Team USA ’s national youth squad (16-and-under) headed Thursday for Venezuela , where it will compete in the Pan Am championship, which officially serves as a qualifier for the 2007 World Youth Championship, played ever two years.

The U.S. has not won the Pan Am title since 2000, but has never failed to qualify for the World tournament as the top three or four teams from the qualifier advance.

SUMMER NOTEBOOK

--Vermont righthander Mark Murray (Evansville ) set a New England Collegiate record for saves this season, with 17, breaking the old mark of 13. He also recorded a 0.00 ERA in 32 innings, while allowing just nine hits. “His fastball is only 86-88 mph,” Vermont manager John Russo said, “but he throws from a low three-quarters slot and he gets 6 to 12 inches of run on the pitch. He also has an above average breaking ball and changeup, so he’s pretty effective for an inning or two.” Murray saved 11 games for the Mountaineers a year ago, while giving up just one earned run. Ironically, the run he surrendered in 2005 came on June 28; the lone unearned run he gave up this year also came on that date.

--Kenai Peninsula Oilers righthander Jordan Meaker, a ninth-round draft pick of the Houston Astros in 2005, pitched in only one game at Dallas Baptist this spring as a freshman, and had worked just 24 this summer for the Oilers. But he ended up pitching the clinching game, a 1-0 win over the second-place Anchorage Bucs, as the Oilers won the Alaska League pennant and with it the league’s berth in the NBC World Series. The 6-foot-5, 198-pound righthander pitched eight shutout innings, allowing just four hits and walking none. “I’ve never gone more than five, six innings in my life,” said Meaker. “I was just on. My adrenaline was going so much.” Meaker’s sinking fastball touched 94 mph and he complemented it with a split-change and a ‘show-me’ slider.