GLENDALE, Ariz. – When the then 14-year-old Blake Paugh left the Camelback Ranch spring training complex at the conclusion of the 2013 Perfect Game National Underclass Showcase-Session 1 a year ago this weekend, it would have been impossible for him to anticipate all the really good things that would happen to him in 2014.
Not that Paugh was a disappointment at that event a year ago – far from it, in fact. As a high school freshman surrounded by juniors and sophomores, he was named to both the Top Prospect List and the Top Prospect Team at the showcase, and earned a glossy 8.5 PG Grade for his efforts.
Paugh, now a 6-foot-2, 190-pound, 15-year-old sophomore at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Ariz., is back at Camelback Ranch this weekend for the renamed PG National Underclass West Showcase with even more accolades on his resume and even more eager to show how much his game blossomed in the last 12 months.
”I did this same (event) last year and it was lots of fun so I thought I’d do it again this year,” Paugh said Saturday morning. “I wanted to get my (PG Grade) up because I think colleges really look at Perfect Game’s (website), so it’s important to get your velocities up and each year see how you progressed.
“I come in with some expectations but it’s really just how you feel that day – how your arm feels, how your swing feels.”
Paugh enjoyed a real nice workout session Saturday morning. His 88 mph throw from the outfield was the second best effort of the day, his 6.86-second 60-yard dash ranked fourth and his batting practice session left a favorable impression with PG scouts.
This is the sixth PG event Paugh has attended since January 2013 and he has impressed PG’s scouts with each subsequent appearance. Four of those were at PG tournaments with Scottsdale-based T-Rex Baseball, and after being named to all-tournament teams at the 2014 16u PG MLK Championship and the 2014 16u PG WWBA West Memorial Day Classic, he has risen to No.168 in the class of 2017 national rankings.
“Over the summer he developed into a good outfielder and that’s where he’s been playing,” Blake’s dad, Tom Paugh, said Saturday. “There are no statistics on him playing in the outfield so he wanted to show scouts or coaches what he can do in the outfield and he wanted to continue that.
“He likes it and he’s got some guys he plays with on his club team (T-Rex Baseball) here and I think it’s a good thing for him. It’s exposure and it’s like anything, you’re marketing yourself.”
Paugh’s association with T-Rex Baseball and founder/director of coaching Rex Gonzalez has helped elevate his game. Rex is the brother of former big league All-Star Luis Gonzalez, whose son Jacob Gonzalez in the No. 112-ranked national prospect in the class of 2017.
Jacob Gonzalez, Scott Mehan and Marcus Christy are all members of the same T-Rex team as Paugh and are also at this weekend’s showcase, and Rex Gonzalez is one of the showcase team’s coaches. “It’s been great because Rex Gonzalez, he’s a great coach … and we have a lot of really good players on our team,” Paugh said.
“Perfect Game along with T-Rex, Rex Gonzalez and Luis and the influence of the team, they teach the fundamentals of baseball and I think that translates here when they play,” Tom Paugh said. “When he made Team USA he tweeted that the biggest reason he was there was because of T-Rex, which is kind of neat.”
That whole Team USA thing was the biggest and brightest achievement Paugh reached this summer. He was one of 20 players from all across the country named to the roster of the 2014 USA Baseball 15u National Team that traveled to Mazatlán, Mexico, the first week in August to represent the United States at the 2014 WBSC “AA” 15u World Cup, and the only player from Arizona to make the trip.
Paugh made the 20-man team after taking part in the 40-player USA Baseball 15u National Team Trials in Cary, N.C., in late July. Team USA won its first nine games at the 15u World Cup before losing to Cuba in the Gold Medal Game.
“It was unbelievable. It was a once in a lifetime thing and it was just crazy,” Paugh said. “It was a great learning experience, meeting all of these new people, and the coaches there were great so I got to learn a lot of things from them.”
After the USA Baseball 15u National Team experience, it was as if Blake had an epiphany, according to his father.
“He said, ‘Dad, this is what I want to do. I love baseball, I got to meet 20 guys from around the country, we bonded, I played for my country,’” Tom Paugh recalled. “I think that’s what he kind of worked for starting last year. He wants to play baseball after high school and he’s got the bug now.”
Tom Paugh played hockey at the University of Minnesota and Blake’s mother, Dawn, was involved in diving at the University of Florida. Tom took Blake and his fraternal twin sister Arden ice skating and introduced hockey to the kids when they were younger, and while Arden kind of took a liking to it Blake resisted.
“He didn’t like skating and I said, ‘Shoot, you could have been a hockey player,’” Tom said with a laugh. “But he got into whiffle ball and all that stuff, and started hitting (the ball) over the house and he decided he liked baseball.”
Living in the Valley of the Sun – although it rained heavily here Thursday and the warning tracks on the fields at Camelback were still muddy Saturday morning – the prospects here are able to play baseball the year around. The most high-profile guys like Paugh and Jacob Gonzalez wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We never really have a break,” Paugh said. “After this (event) I’ll probably take some time off because the high school season starts in February, so I’ll probably take three or four weeks off and then start preparing for high school. I really think (my progression is) coming along good. Each year I think I get better and better at whatever it is I do.”
Paugh has started receiving recruiting literature from schools and instead of listing specific schools of interest on his PG profile he lists conferences: Big 12, Big West, Pac-12 and SEC. He has also started attending camps, including one at Arizona State where he drew some intense interest.
“He’s maturing as a young man and the (recruiting) process is going to be interesting,” Tom Paugh said. “I told him he should start thinking about places he wants to go but the most important thing is, he just wants to play somewhere. It’s like all kids, they want to play and not just sit around someplace.
“I told him he has to keep working hard and it’s just like in hockey: if you’re one of the better players on the ice, they’re going to play you.”
The much smaller PG West Uncommitted Showcase – designed to give high school seniors another opportunity to be seen by college coaches another time – is also being staged at Camelback Ranch this weekend. The two events drew nearly 110 prospects to the desert all with the hope the experience might lead to bigger and better things in the year ahead, like it did for Paugh a year ago.
“I think this is very beneficial and it’s fun to meet new people out here; I love it,” he said. “This is a big part of what colleges look at because it’s out there for everyone, so I think it’s important to do these things. Just day by day I’m trying to get better and where ever that takes me, that’s where I’ll go.”