Class in session at PG National (Alex Speas feature)


Handley balances baseball, books

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Maverick Handley arrived at the Perfect Game National Showcase Wednesday morning with a noticeable bounce in his step and a smile wider than the Green Monster that constitutes JetBlue Park’s leftfield wall.

This is what Handley – a highly regarded catching prospect from the Denver suburb of Lakewood, Colo., who will be a senior at Denver’s Mullen High School in the fall – lives for. If he arrived in Southwest Florida feeling slightly overlooked coming from the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, he knew this is a perfect place to get on the map.

“Me being from Colorado, it’s really tough to see new kids, so being invited to these events out here in Florida and seeing kids of this scale on the national talent level, it’s unbelievable,” Handley said Wednesday. “I’m excited to see kids throwing 96 (mph) and it’s going to be an amazing event.”

Handley is a cerebral kid – not exactly breaking news considering he’s a Stanford University commit – and he admits it’s a trait that sometimes gets him in trouble. He plays his best when he plays relaxed, and he only gets himself tied-up in knots when he starts thinking too much. Over these next three days he plans to work up a nice sweat while just doing his “thing”, which is staying loose and playing at the highest level possible.

His past performances have earned him the No. 75 overall ranking nationally in the 2016 class (he is ranked the No. 10 catching prospect) and the No. 1-ranked prospect in Colorado. Due to a short spring season, the level of play at Colorado high schools is often pooh-poohed, and that is regrettable. The state annually produces its share of Division-I caliber players along with a fair number of draft picks.

“We have some of the best coaches out in Colorado and we have the facilities that can help us perform,” Handley said. “The level of baseball in Colorado has often been criticized … but coming in here I feel as prepared as I can be.”

An all-around athlete, Handley takes complete advantage of Colorado’s four seasons. He has played football, basketball and baseball at Mullen HS, and at one time was an avid skier. He has put each one of those endeavors on the shelf now that baseball has become his priority.

Academics is another priority that Handley’s parents, Jeff and Jill, have made sure he doesn’t lose sight of. He carries a 4.3 grade-point-average and scored a 32 on his ACT college entrance exam, a test he took as a high school freshman just to see where he stood.

Stanford demands excellence in both academics and athletics, which is the reason Handley made the prestigious Pac-12 Conference university in Palo Alto, Calif., his school of choice.

“Stanford has always been a dream school for me,” he said. “I was talking to a couple of other schools but once Stanford popped its head in there it was hard to look anywhere else. With my parents being so high on my grades … and just how high they feel I should be academically … when Stanford came knocking I didn’t need anything else.”

Handley has been involved with Slammers Baseball and its owner Mark Holzemer for five years and played in eight PG tournament with Slammers Black-Holzemer the last two years (he was at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., last October with Mountain West). He’s got another full slate of tournament play planned with Slammers Black and Holzemer this summer.

Holzemer, who also attended Mullen HS, was a fourth-round pick of the California Angels in the 1987 MLB Amateur Draft and pitched briefly for the Angels in parts of six big-league seasons. Holzemer started coaching the summer ball team Handley plays for when the youngsters were 12 years old and has continued to coach them right up through high school.

“He’s really been a second father for me,” Handley said. “He’s helped me along and he’s traveled with me and he’s really shown me what type of man I want to be when I’m older."

That in no way diminishes the impact Handley’s parents have on him. Other obligations often keep Jeff and Jill from traveling to Maverick’s events – he made this trip on his own – but their influences are always with him.

“They’ve pushed me to be the best I can be,” Handley said. “They won’t let me make any excuses like, ‘I play in Colorado’ and they believe in me and they do everything they can do to send me off to these (events) – and it’s not cheap at all. … They love me and I’m so lucky to have such great parents.”

Catching is Handley’s forte, although he played every position on the field growing up. He feels that’s the position he’s best suited for and he loves everything involved with it, particularly handling all the high-level arms at events like the PG National Showcase. He describes himself as a “high-energy guy” loves to play the game and goes crazy when he’s sitting on the bench. Catching allows him to be in on every play.

“Baseball is just such a great sport because every pitch is so important, and a lot of people don’t understand that,” Handley said. “One single pitch – even though there are hundreds of them in a game – can turn around the whole momentum of the game. I get antsy just thinking about it because I just want to play all the time.”

Handley broke an ankle playing basketball in the winter of 2013-14 and it took five months of rehabilitation before he was able to start playing baseball. He came back strong and performed well at the 16u PG WWBA National Championship in mid-July and the 16u PG World Series later that month before earning all-tournament recognition at the PG/EvoShield National Championship (Upperclass) in late September.

He feels stronger in every respect as this summer of play gets under way. He feels like the ball is jumping off his bat with a real sense of urgency and his catcher’s Pop time is dropping every time he makes a throw.

More than anything, perhaps, he is respectful of the higher profile he is enjoying within the close-knit Colorado baseball community – being the state’s top-ranked prospect has its rewards – and he likes that he has become not only one of the best players in the state but a leader who younger kids look up to.

“This helps bring me back down to earth,” Handley said of being at the PG National. “It keeps me humble and lets me know I have to keep working, because you might think you’re really good in Colorado but you come to these showcases and you see some high-level pitching and makes you want to go back into the classroom – go back into the lab – and start working some more.”

– Jeff Dahn



Live Streaming

For the fourth consecutive year the Perfect Game National Showcase is available for everyone to watch online. The live stream to all of the workouts, batting practice sessions and games can be accessed in real time here (archives of the events will be added at a later point in time):

https://iframe.dacast.com/b/53363/c/70773



PG National Scout Blogs

Read even more about the game-by-game highlights and the workout results from the 2015 Perfect Game National Showcase scout blogs:

https://www.perfectgame.org/blogs/View.aspx?blog=534



National Impressions



• Lefthander Mitchell Miller is going to be an interesting arm to follow moving forward given his highly projectable 6-foot-5, 180-pound frame with impressive stuff to match. Working with an up-tempo delivery, Miller shows a fast and loose left arm from a lower three-quarters slot, creating nice velocity and difficult angle on hitters. Running his fastball up to 89 mph while sitting consistently in the upper-80s, Miller has the ability to work down in the zone. To complement his fastball, the Mississippi State commit featured three different off-speed pitches with his changeup featuring some late fade in the in the 78-80 mph range.

• One of the louder overall performances of the 2015 PG National Opening Day belonged to Clemson commit Carter Kieboom. Beginning the day with a 6.72 60-yard dash, the 6-foot-2 Kieboom showed well defensively with a top throw of 88 mph, but it was with the bat where he truly stood out. Showing a very fluid and easy swing with interesting power, and a steady feel for the barrel, Kieboom put one of the better swings on live pitching, keeping his weight back on a low-80s slider from hard-throwing right-hander Zach Linginfelter for a standup double down the left field line.

• Speaking of Zach Linginfelter, he caught the immediate attention of everybody in JetBlue Stadium Wednesday afternoon. Strongly built and committed to the University of Tennessee, Linginfelter came out pumping a steady 92-95 mph with his fastball, showing a fast right arm with sharp running life to his arm side while locating down in the zone. Both his changeup in the mid-80s and slider in the low-80s are solid average pitches at present and project to be at least above average in the future.

• While day one belonged primarily to the pitchers, Khalil Lee put an impressive swing on a ball in game, and just like Kieboom, he took a loud and impressive round of batting practice. A lefthanded hitter, Lee’s swing is extremely fluid with looseness and whip in the barrel, generating solid hard line drive contact.

• With possibly the best arm speed of the day and certainly the biggest velocity, righthander Alex Speas came out firing for his two innings of work. A very long and loose-limbed athlete with a high waist, Speas continues to make impressive strides on the mound, peaking as high as 97 mph, working comfortably in the mid-90s that comes out of his hand rather easily with late life down in the zone. His curveball has also continued to make strides since last summer and developed nicely throughout his outing, with his last curveball serving as the best one, dropping in at 82 mph with late depth, giving him another above average pitch.

• Rivaling Speas for the easiest arm action is Michigan native and University of Michigan commit righthander Karl Kauffmann. With plenty of fluidity and ease in his arm action, Kauffmann worked in the 89-92 mph range with his fastball, touching 93 with nice extension and angle on his pitches. The ball comes out of his hand cleanly and maintains his arm slot on his changeup in the 80-83 mph range, flashing a curveball in the upper-70s. He’s certainly an arm that will have eyes watching him throughout the summer circuit.

• Showing the biggest velocity of game two, North Carolina righthander Bryse Wilson ran his fastball up to 94 mph early while pitching in the low-90s throughout and did so rather comfortably. He did a nice job of working down in the zone and over his front side and showed the ability to work to both sides of the plate. Wilson was able to miss bats on the strength of his fastball but also shows a low-80s changeup with nice fading life and flashed a slider at 77 mph.

– Jheremy Brown