Baseball Beginnings Exclusive: Dylan Covey Bypasses Brewers; Rumored Shoulder Injury turns out to be Type 1 Diabetes; Will Play for the University San Diego
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.”
Tyler Matzek granted his first interview as a professional pitcher to Baseball Beginnings on Tuesday evening.
Jake Marisnick has agreed to terms with the Toronto Blue Jays for a $1 million signing bonus, Marisnick told Baseball Beginnings first Monday afternoon. Marisnick confirmed his earlier Twitter message that he had come to terms with the club. “I was hoping to get my number and (the Blue Jays) said they were there,” Marisnick told Baseball Beginnings. “I was all set on going to Oregon.”
Bryan Berglund, the 66th overall choice in the 2009 MLB draft by the Florida Marlins, agreed to terms with the club on Friday and will complete physicals this weekend before formally signing his first professional contract on Monday. Berglund told Baseball Beginnings first on Saturday evening that the signing bonus will be for $572,500. The Royal High School product, who will forever be immortalized as the first guy we ever interviewed for the site, will begin in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League. 
