Baseball Prospect Report

By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
February 17, 2012

Ryan Wheeler is the classic example of why, as a scout, you must refute the notion that “there are no secrets.”

Man, I love Wheeler. Pretty soon he’ll have a dollar for everyone who missed him.

He played more basketball than baseball. And when he played baseball, you would have seen a left-handed high school hitter with a smooth, easy swing. Now, about five years later, he’s knocking on the door of the big leagues. This is a guy who was going to beg his way onto a junior college team until he tripped into Loyola Marymount.

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Category: 2009 California League, 2009 Draft, 2009 Minor Leagues, 2010 Minor Leagues, Baseball Beginnings Exclusives | No Comments »
Tags: Arizona Diamondbacks, Loyola Marymount, Ryan Wheeler, Ryan Wheeler Interview

By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
June 17, 2010

It is a sad day in the life of the young minor league ballplayer when his last good bat breaks – on the road, no less. What he’s left with is the stock wood the parent club gives the kids. For those unfamiliar with how this feels for a young player, it’s a little bit like trying to cut a tin can with a plastic knife. As if the life on the road isn’t lonely enough, it is a little rougher to do it without a bat that feels right and helps create solid contact.

Solid contact has always been what Ryan Wheeler is about. Drafted in the 5^th round of the 2009 draft from Loyola Marymount, Wheeler is in his first full pro season at Class A Visalia in the California League, where Baseball Beginnings had a fresh look at Wheeler playing at Lancaster.

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Category: 2009 Draft | 1 Comment »
Tags: Arizona Diamondbacks, LMU, Pro Interview, Pro Video, Ryan Wheeler, Ryan Wheeler Interview, Ryan Wheeler video

By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
June 10, 2009

Ryan Wheeler worked out for the Diamondbacks, Giants, Mariners, Padres and Dodgers at their respective major league parks. He also had a workout for the Cardinals. The Diamondbacks, placing an emphasis on hitters in the early rounds, were pleased to find that Wheeler was available in the 5^th round with the 156^th overall pick.

“I think it’s a really good fit for both of us,” Wheeler said. “I thought I saw the ball real well in their park and I know they were looking for bats. I’m looking forward to getting started.”

Read Ryan Wheeler Q&A
Read Ryan Wheeler Scouting Report
Watch Ryan Wheeler Scouting Video
Read about Ryan Wheeler in the Cape Cod League
Ryan Wheeler Drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks

Category: 2009 Draft | No Comments »
Tags: Diamondbacks, LMU, Ryan Wheeler, Ryan Wheeler Interview, Torrance

By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
May 18, 2009

Ryan Wheeler is that one rare guy the head coach of a Division I college baseball team would probably trust enough to give him a key to the batting cage. This is always a funny moment and it goes something like this: Coach gives kid key. Coach tells kid not to tell anyone else. Coach makes sure nobody saw it. This conversation never existed.

Unlocking the key to his own swing has been at the core of Wheeler-Gate at Loyola Marymount, where the left-handed first baseman used a good sophomore season and a better summer in the Cape Cod League to grow beyond his days as a high school non-prospect.

Wheeler wasn’t drafted out of Torrance High School in 2006 because he spent more time drilling jumpers in an empty gym than he spent hitting liners in the batting cage. By his own admission, he came into his high school baseball seasons in basketball shape, but his legs were faster than his bat.

Most players of this stature are not drafted out of high school because scouts consider them impossible to sign based on college commitments and would rather spend the pick on a player they can send out to the minors.

Those were not Wheeler’s circumstances. He was simply discarded because he was too far behind other high school players. But a kid can catch up if the ability is actually there. Wheeler is a textbook example of why experience matters in scouting and why impatient, quick-to-judgment scouting can make you miss players.

Wheeler wasn’t ready to sign, but he was probably worth somebody’s 30^th round pick. Instead, Wheeler never filled out a follow card. What he showed was, in his own words, a slow guy who could make contact but not drive the ball.

When he showed up as a last-minute roster addition in the Cape last summer, he showed the pull and straight-away power that he began to unlock as a sophomore. He was only two summers removed from being a player who was going to either have to be a junior college player or a recruited walk-on. Instead, we doubt he’ll get past the first 100 picks.

The player with the key to the batting cage has been found. Baseball Beginnings caught up with our old friend Wheeler, who one day might see his name in canvas on that chain link fence back home in Torrance.  (more…)

Category: '09 Meet the Player | No Comments »
Tags: Cape Cod League All-Star, Deon Thompson, LMU, Ryan Wheeler, Ryan Wheeler Interview

By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
April 6, 2009

Never let it be said that every single prospect has to be drafted out of high school.

When Deon Thompson takes the floor with his North Carolina Tar Heels tonight in the NCAA championship basketball game against Michigan State, you can be sure Ryan Wheeler will be watching.

Wheeler, a 2009 draft prospect as a corner infielder with power at Loyola Marymount University, played high school and club basketball with Thompson, who was in his 2006 graduating class at Torrance (Calif.) HS.

“I played basketball because it was a blast,” Wheeler said. “I just wanted to play Division I in whatever sport, but basketball didn’t look like it. Being a middle-sized guy, it wasn’t going to work out. Playing with Deon was awesome. He was a great player and you could tell he was going to be the one who was going to have the basketball career. I knew I was probably hurting myself in baseball by not quitting basketball, but I wouldn’t trade playing with Deon.”

Thompson was a 6-8, 245-pound national-level recruit out of high school. When Wheeler entered his senior season at Torrance High, a school with a storied athletic tradition that produced, among others, a war hero and track Olympian in former B-24 bombardier (The ‘Toughest Miler Ever’ himself, Louis Zamperini) and major league catcher Jason Kendall, he was a self-admitted slow left-handed hitter who looked like he would never hit for power.

Scouts took a look and dismissed him. Wheeler said he never filled out a single follow-card as a senior. He would have paid for his own stamp to mail the card back. He hit only two home runs as a high school senior.

“I was in running shape from basketball, but never in baseball shape early in the spring,” he said. “I didn’t hit that much during basketball season. I pitched and hit a lot of singles.”

It took Wheeler two seasons at LMU to catch up. His body grew and his strength flourished. He wound up in the Cape Cod League last summer. Scouts who missed him at Torrance were suddenly on him. Agents who never knew he existed before started showing their sharp elbows. It’s hard to miss a 6-4, 220-pound left-handed power hitter.

Now a full-fledged draft prospect who several clubs like because of his left-handed power bat as a first baseman, Wheeler is in demand partly – you guessed it – because of basketball.

Draft prospects who have played more than one sport are increasingly rare in the showcase and club era, but old-school scouts will tell you that a good baseball player is going to be better than he is today if he developed other muscles and motor skills playing football, basketball or soccer before focusing on baseball.

Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson was a soccer player whose footwork transferred from the pitch to the pitch. Former Angel outfielder Jim Edmonds played baseball, football and soccer as an amateuer and transferred his athleticism into a career as a Gold Glove center fielder and an offensive threat.

Longtime major leaguers Tony Clark and Kenny Lofton were basketball players.

Willie Mays played football and led Jefferson County, Alabama, in basketball scoring as a sophomore.

The list goes on. Baseball players with multiple sport talent doesn’t ensure success, but it sure doesn’t hurt one’s chances. A decent comparison for Wheeler’s career path might be former basketball player and longtime third baseman Scott Rolen.

Wheeler will be watching Thomspon and UNC, and like President Obama, I’m betting he’s got the Tar Heels picked to win it all. We’ll have video on him and a scouting report coming soon (when have I ever let the faithful customers down?)

In the meantime, here’s the story of how Wheeler came to be discovered playing in the Cape Cod League in 2008.  (more…)

Category: '09 Meet the Player | 1 Comment »
Tags: Barack Obama, Cape Cod League, Deon Thomspon, Fenway Park, Jack Wilson, Jason Kendall, Jim Edmonds, Kenny Lofton, LMU baseball, Louis Zamperini, NCAA championship game, Ryan Wheeler, Ryan Wheeler Interview, Scott Rolen, Tar Heels, Tony Clark, Torrance High School, UNC basketball, Willie Mays