By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
August 16, 2010
California high school right-hander Dylan Covey has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and will honor his commitment to play college baseball at the University of San Diego, bypassing signing a professional contract with the Milwaukee Brewers, who drafted him with the 14th overall pick, Covey told Baseball Beginnings exclusively Monday night.
Covey said that college baseball would be a better fit for adjusting to his new lifestyle than would professional baseball at this point. He stressed that there were no ill feelings toward the Brewers organization, and decided for himself that college would make the transition to a diabetic lifestyle smoother.
Covey, whose late-season slump fueled speculation that he had a shoulder injury, received a clean bill of health for his arm in a pre-draft medical examination last weekend.
However, blood work showed that he has Type 1 diabetes, a condition he previously did not know he had. The diagnosis explained his late season velocity drop and threw a curveball into Covey’s future plans.
Covey said the decision became about how to manage his health in the immediate future. He said he believed that college baseball is a better option to learn how to regulate and maintain the lifestyle. Both Dylan and his father, Darrell, expressed positive feelings toward the Brewers. They both said negotiations were not acrimonious, but conducive to what was best for Covey’s future. The family declined to discuss financial specifics.
“The news was such a shock to me,” Dylan Covey told Baseball Beginnings Monday night. “It explained a lot of what went on late in the season. At this point, it’s going to take about six months to get used to the treatment cycle. I’ve got about six months till the college season begins. This is all new stuff and a lot of it is hard to remember. I just felt like it was going to be easier to get used to what this lifestyle is going to be in college than in pro ball.”
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Category: 2010 Draft, Baseball Beginnings Exclusives |
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Tags: Dylan Covey, Milwaukee Brewers, News, University of San Diego
