Draft Pack April 9 (Detailed Scouting Report) | Top 100 MLB Draft Prospects
The first impression Eric Jenkins leaves on folks ranging from the most discerning scout to the most casual of observers might really be nothing more than a blur. The 6-foot-2, 165-pound outfielder from the small southeastern North Carolina town of Chadbourn has been known for his not-so-subtle swiftness on a baseball field ever since he began playing the game as a 3-year-old.
“My biggest strength is my speed and I think that can have an effect on both sides of the lines,” Jenkins told PG during a telephone conversation early this week. “I can bring a lot of energy to the team as a leadoff hitter and with my range in the outfield. I’ve got long legs and my strides help me cover a lot of (ground) in the outfield.”
That unmitigated speed – liquid mercury on the base paths and in the expanses of center field – was on display at three prominent showcase events last summer, beginning with Jenkins’ performance at the Perfect Game National Showcase in Fort Myers, Fla., in mid-June, when he covered 60-yards in 6.57-seconds.
In early August, he arrived at the East Coast Professional Showcase in Syracuse, N.Y., where he posted a hand-timed effort of 6.32-seconds in the 60. About two weeks later, while in attendance at the PG Atlantic Coast Top Prospect Showcase, he ran a laser-timed 6.46 60 on his way to being named to the event’s Top Prospect List.
Jenkins is winding down his senior season at West Columbus High School in Cerro Gordo, N.C., which plays in North Carolina small-school Class 1A. The Vikings went into this week’s 2A/1A Three Rivers Baseball League tournament with an overall mark of 12-11 and 7-7 in league play. In 74 varsity games since his sophomore season, Jenkins is a career .397 hitter with four home runs, seven triples and 26 doubles sprinkled among his 95 hits.
“I’ve worked a lot on my hitting, especially,” Jenkins said. “I have quick, quick hands – electric hands – and I’ve got a little bit of power. (Scouts) say when I add a little more weight I should be hitting in double-figures in home runs.”
But Jenkins’ most impressive prep stat goes back to his ability to run the bases. In those 74 high school games, he has stolen 56 bases in 57 attempts.
So there it is, all laid out in glossy numbers that tell an interesting tale but certainly not the whole story. This is an 18-year-old from small-town North Carolina who has developed into not only one of the top national prospects in the high school class of 2015 but also a top prospect in June’s MLB First-Year Player Draft.
While a player who possesses the innate ability to run fast and hit and field a baseball will always be coveted by the major league scouting community, the wisest of the scouts look beyond the numbers to those always important “intangible” qualities.
Andy Partin, an associate scout with the Houston Astros and the owner and founder of Impact Baseball, Inc., and Dirtbags Baseball, has seen those qualities in full display while Jenkins played for Partin’s top age-group teams each of the past three summers.
Jenkins was named to all-tournament teams while playing for the Dirtbags at three PG WWBA and PG BCS tournaments the past two summers. One of those selections was at the 2014 PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., when he was 6-for-13 (.462) with two triples, a 1.231 OPS and four stolen bases in four attempts. Partin is one who looks well beyond the numbers.
“Eric Jenkins is a breath of fresh air; he’s got the goods, man,” he said over the telephone this week. “He’s got the smile, he’s got the energy – you just walk up to the field and you see the life in his body. This dude genuinely loves the game, but more importantly he loves his teammates; he loves his coaches.”
ERIC JENKINS’ FATHER, WHO IS ALSO NAMED ERIC, IS A DISABLED VETERAN, after spending 12 years in the Navy and serving in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm during the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s. Both the father and the son believe that the elder Jenkins’ military background has made a difference in the son’s upbringing.
“The hard-but-fair attitude that I’ve taken with him … has basically put him where he is now because of how he was raised,” the elder Jenkins said. “We stayed on him and made sure he kept his grades up before he could start enjoying his leisure time. The hard work that’s he’s (put in) is paying off now.”
The elder Eric Jenkins was not a baseball player himself, but his wife and the younger Jenkins’ mother, Patricia, was a four-year softball player in high school. “Most of his baseball background and skills came from her side of the family,” he said with a laugh.
The younger Jenkins said his father has had a tremendous impact on his life and his burgeoning baseball career, guiding him over and around every speed bump or pothole that got in the way with his own brand of tough love.
“He’s very, very hard on me and I thank him and love him for that; his criticism brings out the best in me,” Jenkins, the son, said. “He’s always there for me, he’s always there at my showcases and he’ll go beyond his borders to get me to where I need to be at.”
Jenkins has been a standout in several sports at West Columbus but baseball has always been his favorite. His parents got him involved in local youth leagues early and he then started playing in some USAAA events in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
It was at one of those events that the elder Jenkins inquired about getting his son connected with a high-profile organization that would lead to more and more exposure, and the Dirtbags quickly entered the conversation. The younger Jenkins attended a Dirtbags tryout just after his freshman year in high school and made his Perfect Game debut with the team at the 2012 PG WWBA 15u National Championship in Marietta, Ga.
“It’s been a very good experience playing with (the Dirtbags),” he said. “I got a chance to play against some of the best competition in the world and it’s been a real pleasure seeing some good pitching. It’s pretty cool seeing the guys that are chasing the same dreams you’re chasing.”
Jenkins first entered Perfect Game’s class of 2015 national prospect rankings on Sept. 5, 2013, when he debuted at No. 162. Over the next 17 months and through six updated versions of the rankings, he sat steadfastly between Nos. 64 and 75 before landing at No. 62 in the most recent version, published on May 1.
Partin is used to having highly ranked prospects on his rosters. Seventeen Dirtbags’ alumni have moved onto the big leagues, including former PG All-American Madison Bumgarner with the Giants, and the Padres’ Wil Myers and the Mariners’ Kyle Seager; more than 160 others have drafted.
Partin has been running the organization since 2002 and he still loves working with those ultra-talented prospects. But as he’s gotten a little bit older and wiser he has also come to appreciate the truly high-character kids even more. With Jenkins, he has the best of both worlds.
“It’s probably more enjoyable to coach a kid … who just genuinely loves to play,” Partin said. “It’s hard to find a kid who is that talented and that humble and really enjoys every aspect of the game. He’s just a super respectful kid. From day-one, it’s been ‘Yes sir, no sir; I’ll do anything you want me to do.’
“That’s the God-honest truth. That kid would do anything for any one of his teammates that he’s had through our program. He’s awesome, man; he’s got it going off. He’s going to be just fine.”
JENKINS COMMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA-WILMINGTON about midway through his sophomore year in high school. The commitment came quickly and with very little fanfare: he made his official visit, an offer was extended and accepted, and that was that.
He said the coaching staff literally made him an offer he couldn’t refuse and it didn’t hurt that the UNC-Wilmington’s main campus is only about a 45-minute drive from his home in Chadbourn. “At the beginning I only had about four other schools looking at me, and after I made my verbal commitment a lot of other offers started coming in, but it was too late for them,” Jenkins said.
It was undoubtedly Jenkins’ speed and ability to handle a bat that first caught the eye of the UNC-Wilmington coaching staff. But professional scouts are looking a little further down the road, and another aspect they take into consideration – as PG’s Vice President of Player Personnel David Rawnsley pointed out during a PG Draft Pack feature published on April 9 – is “projectability.” In his report dealing with Jenkins’ projectable attributes, Rawnsley wrote:
“He's loose with long limbs on his 6-foot-2, 170-pound build but he shows signs of muscle-generated bat speed and strength at contact and has some present gap power. It's easy to see Jenkins filling out to 185-190 pounds when he's fully mature and being able to contribute some power on offense in addition to what his speed and barrel skills bring to the table.”
Rawnsley went on to comment on Jenkins’ range and arm strength in the outfield, and compares his tools favorably to those of Washington Nationals’ center fielder Denard Span at the same age; Span was the 20th overall selection in the 2002 MLB June Amateur Draft.
PG ranks Jenkins as the No. 31 overall (college, juco, high school) prospect in this year’s draft, leading to speculation that he could be a first-round supplemental or early second-round pick.
The family has sat down with the young Jenkins’ advisor and talked about the upcoming MLB June Amateur Draft, mostly just trying to keep all those involved on the same page while they go through the process. Everyone – including his high school teammates – is enjoying the attention he’s bringing to West Columbus HS, because this kind of excitement just doesn’t come around very often.
In fact, the last West Columbus baseball alumnus to be drafted was Donell Nixon, who the Seattle Mariners selected in the 10th round of the 1980 draft out of Louisburg (N.C.) College. Donell’s brother Otis was a first-round pick (third overall) of the New York Yankees in the 1979 draft, also out of Louisburg College.
“I try not to worry about it too much,” Jenkins said of all the draft talk and speculation within the community. “I want to have fun and finish my senior year because it’s almost over and I just want to enjoy it as much as I can. But it’s always been my dream to play professional baseball and I hope one day my parents can watch me play on TV one day.”
That would certainly be an enjoyable experience for Eric and Patricia Jenkins back home in Chadbourn. The elder Eric Jenkins calls what the family is experiencing with young Eric’s success a “blessing” and feels fortunate that his son was given the opportunities to perform on some of amateur baseball’s most prestigious national stages, playing with and against the best of his peers.
“I always knew he was a good athlete but I didn’t really know how good he was until we got him out there on the big stage against elite competition at those showcases,” the elder Jenkins said. “He took off and did really well … and he made a couple of all-tournament teams down there with Perfect Game.
“He loves the game of baseball, and that’s all he knows is baseball,” he concluded. “I’ll ask him, ‘Son, what are you going to do after baseball, you can’t play baseball the rest of your life,’ but he doesn’t know nothing but baseball right now.”
Look for him out on the field. He’ll be that blur on the base paths, the kid that covers center field with ease, the same one with those “electric” hands wrapped around the bat. He’ll be that “breath of fresh air” the kid who has “got the goods.”