FORT MYERS, Fla. – Every one of the more than 190 underclass prospects that will have taken part in the Perfect Game Junior National Showcase by the time it concludes its three-day run sometime late afternoon or early evening on Tuesday have their own reasons for attending the event.
They’ll all have some of the same reasons, of course. They’ll cite the quality of the competition they expected to face. They’ll talk about old friendships rekindled and new friendships made. They’ll speak favorably of the exposure they’ll receive on such a large national stage.
So what keeps a 16-year-old coming back time and time again, even when that particular teenager had already attended 24 PG events in the three years since he celebrated his 13th birthday? In a nutshell, it’s the quality of competition, the friendships made and maintained and all those glorious achievements, and all that priceless exposure.
If there is a tendency to scoff at those assertions, it might be best to ask 6-foot-1, 215-pound standout 2017 first baseman/outfielder/left-handed pitcher Alejandro Toral about his thoughts on the matter. He is the 16-year-old who counts his second appearance at the PG Jr. National his 25th PG event overall.
“I’m so excited because these Perfect Game events are so amazing,” Toral said Monday afternoon from JetBlue Park. “Especially here in this stadium, I’m really excited to go out there and play with a bunch of great ballplayers from all over the country. I just like the atmosphere and the players are obviously the (most) top-notch in the country.
“To be able to play against them every couple of weeks during the summer is neat, so I try to come to as many (events) as I can.”
He just might be on a record-setting pace. Toral, who calls Davie, Fla., home, is part of the Pembroke Pines, Fla.-based Elite Squad Baseball organization and 23 of the 25 PG events at which he has participated have been tournaments played while wearing an Elite Squad uniform. Those tournaments include PG WWBA, PG BCS, PG World Series, PG Super25 and PG-East Cobb Invitationals.
And Toral doesn’t just play at these tournaments, he excels at them. He has been named to four all-tournament teams (Super25 events do not name an all-tournament team) and was the Most Valuable Player the 2013 PG WWBA Freshman World Championship.
His only other PG showcase appearance before this one came at last year’s PG Jr. National at JetBlue Park where he was named to both the Top Prospect Team and the more prestigious Top Prospect List.
Richie Palmer, Elite Squad Baseball’s general manager who often serves as the field manager as well, talked extensively about Toral’s leadership abilities even when he was an underclassman playing on an upper class team.
Palmer called Toral – who goes by the shortened first name of Alex – the “heart and soul” of the Elite Squad teams he has played on, a sentiment shared by Elite Squad 17u Prime head coach Alan Kunkel, who has been at JetBlue the last two days.
“Alex is special, and not only special as a player, he’s special as a kid,” Kunkel said. “The leadership intangibles that he has are silly; we’re not the same team with him off the field. … He’s the guy that the kids look to for leadership, he’s the guy giving pregame speeches, he’s the guy that kind of emotionally charges the team; we kind of go as he goes.”
Kunkel noted that in the scout-ball world of about 20 elite travel teams it is often unusual to have an underclassman lead the team, but Toral has stepped easily into that role. Most importantly, Kunkel said, there has been no power struggle among the other players.
“He’s a bigger than life personality and again, obviously, he’s a great player,” Kunkel said. “He’s fun to watch, he’s a great defender; the hit-tool is really, really coming along. But he’s a special kid and just the leadership intangibles that he brings every day to the field with lots of energy drives our ship.”
Toral left the Elite Squad for a stretch last season when he was playing for the USA Baseball 15u National Team. It was a team that did a lot of traveling during the summer months and eventually lost the gold medal game to Cuba at the WBSC “AA” 15u World Cup played in Mazatlan, Mexico.
He was named to the tournament honor squad at the conclusion of the event after hitting .385 with a home run and six RBI while walking nine times and getting hit by a pitch another seven times.
Even when Toral was playing with the 15u National Team his thoughts were going back to his Elite Squad brothers, who at the time were playing the 16u Perfect Game World Series. Before each one of the Elite Squad’s games, Toral would send his teammates back home videos in an effort to get them pumped up.
“He was getting them ready for each game and letting them know that even though he couldn’t be with them physically he was following along with their progress,” Palmer said. “That’s pretty cool when you’ve got a guy that is playing for Team USA and he’s sending video messages to the entire team in a group chat, letting them know that he’s thinking about them.”
Toral will be playing up again this year with the Elite Squad 17u Prime which sits atop the organization’s pecking order. It is exactly where he belongs, according to Palmer: “He is so well-loved, and not just by the other kids but throughout the organization. There is not one person who would ever say one negative about him; he’s just a very special kid.”
Added Toral: “The organization is amazing and Coach Richie is doing a wonderful job with the organization itself. He’s surrounding us with a bunch of good coaches – they know what they’re talking about, they know what they’re doing – and he’s got a good group of kids there so it’s fun to be with them.”
Elite Squad Baseball isn’t the only winning baseball program Toral is associated with. He will be a junior this fall at Archbishop McCarthy High School in Southwest Ranches, Fla., and the Mavericks are coming off a 2015 spring season in which they finished 37-5 and won the Florida Class 5A state championship, their fifth title in six years. As a sophomore starter, Toral hit .386 (32-for-83) with five home runs, 14 doubles, 36 RBI and 28 runs scored.
They beat Lynn Haven Mosley High School 3-0 in the championship, a game that played right here on the field at JetBlue Park.
“I had played on this field before and told my team, ‘Listen guys, this is a different field but we’re the same team and it’s the same game; let’s just go out and have fun,” Toral said.
As a youngster growing up, Toral was always picking up a baseball or a bat instead of a basketball or soccer ball. Baseball was something he began enjoying as a little tyke and that has carried over into what is already been a nice high school career with two years down and two to go. Simply put, he loves baseball and appreciates all of its nuances.
“It’s a slow game – I guess you could say that – but then everything happens so fast,” he said. “You can stop paying attention for one second and you can miss the whole game, pretty much … so I sort of like it that you have to be into it the whole time, just the way that the game is. It’s slow, but at the same time, it’s at a fast pace.”
An excellent student (4.26 GPA) and a solid citizen – as his Elite Squad coaches are quick to point out – a Toral has not committed to a college yet. He recognizes that choosing a college will be one of the biggest decisions he makes while still in high school – he calls it a milestone – and wants to be sure he doesn’t make a mistake while he studies all of his options.
Alex Toral came into this PG Jr. National Showcase – his 25th PG event in three years for those keeping score at home – ranked the No. 5 national prospect in PG’s class of 2017 prospect rankings. While he looked out onto the JetBlue Park field before he was to begin his workout session Monday afternoon – it was delayed by lightning and rain for four hours – national rankings were the furthest thing from his mind.
“I really don’t feel like I get caught up in that stuff but it’s a true blessing to up there with all these great baseball players from across the country,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get better every day. That’s the main goal, to get up and go to work and try to get better than you were when you woke up that morning. You want to do the best that you think you’re capable of doing, so it’s just that expectation that you have to go out there and be your best.”
The most impressive batting practice session at the Jr. National belonged to Toral, hands-down. He used his smooth and easy but powerful left-handed swing to drop three long bombs into the JetBlue Park bullpen in right-centerfield, conveniently depositing them over a billboard that simply read “NEVERMIND.”
The Elite Squad had several other highly ranked players at the Jr. National. Shortstop/third baseman Vientos (Pembroke Pines, U of Miami) is rnaked No. 13, corner-infielder Joseph Perez (Pembroke Pines, South Florida) is at No. 20 and catcher/right-hander/third baseman Zach Jackson (Haines City, Fla., Central Florida) is No. 22.
Toral knows there is a lot learn from the players and coaches alike that were out on the field at the Jr. National. Kunkel, one of those coaches out on the field, was appreciative of the front-row seat he’s had the last three watching Toral grow as a player – and a young man.
“Just to watch his development as a kid on and off the field to make good decisions and to do the right thing and to be the type of teammate that he is, it’s been pretty special to be around,” Kunkel said. “Predicting the future is one thing but in my mind that kid’s a first-rounder just on the type of kid that he is alone.”