FORT MYERS, Fla. – A dominant left hemisphere in a person’s brain leads to right-handedness while a dominant right hemisphere leads to left-handedness. It is this “cross-wiring” that led to the oft-used phrase that only left-handed people are in their right minds.
With that as a primer, the two hemispheres of multi-talented Mississippi prep catcher/utility player Thomas Dillard’s brain have been in a constant battle for supremacy for at least as long as the highly ranked and regarded class of 2016 prospect has been playing baseball.
Consider this: Dillard is a powerfully built, 6-foot, 215-pounder who is considered one of the country’s top catchers. When he plays that position he puts his catcher’s mitt on his left hand and returns the ball to the pitcher with his right hand.
There is nothing unusual about that except that he is a natural left-hander. He might throw the ball back to the pitcher or down to second base with his right hand, but if someone sitting at the dinner table asks him to pass the biscuits, please, he’ll toss a couple their way using his left hand.
Again, an ambidextrous thrower isn’t that unusual – there are both-handed pitchers these days. But, as one final affront, Dillard’s brain couldn’t seem to make up its mind at all when it came to taking his cuts in the batter’s box – he is also a switch-hitter.
Those are the intricacies within his game that Dillard brought with him to this three-day segment of the Perfect Game National Showcase, which began its six-day run JetBlue Park on Wednesday and concludes Monday.
He arrived Thursday as the country’s No. 15-ranked overall prospect in the prep class of 2016 and is ranked as the No. 3 catching prospect in the land. He has committed to the University of Mississippi.
Competing at the PG National requires a special mindset, and even if the right and left hemispheres of Dillard’s brain may seem conflicted at times, they get together like two happy twin brothers when it comes to formulating focused plan of attack.
“You always want to try to do your best and try not to press too much. It’s a big event, but at the same time it’s still baseball and you want to come out here and have fun,” Dillard said Friday before taking the field. “It’s mainly about just showing your best and coming out here and meeting new kids and enjoying the whole experience; that’s what I look forward to.”
Dillard got his first taste of big-time PG showcase baseball a year ago when he attended the PG Junior National Showcase here at JetBlue Park. He was named to the event’s Top Prospect List, and the PG scout that assembled the list called Dillard “the strongest and most physically mature player at the Jr. National” and noted that not only is he a switch-hitting catcher, “his strength gives him top of the charts power from both sides of the plate.”
“The Junior National was such a great experience for both of us, and when we got the invite to come to this one, it was a no-brainer,” Thomas Lillard’s father, Tom Lillard, said Friday. “Obviously, you want to be included in the top 300 (prospects) in 2016 class – that’s a great honor – and we certainly wanted to be here again.”
Later in the summer, Lillard was named to the Top Prospect List at the PG Underclass All-American Games in San Diego, and the scouting report was more of the same: “Dillard has fearsome power from both sides of the plate and especially from the left side, where his towering home run … was one of the offensive highlights of the event.”
His experiences at those two underclass showcases left him feeling prepared for what he would encounter this weekend, even if everything is ratcheted up a notch or two. The newness and the sense of the unknown are gone and so is some of the nervousness – some, but not all.
“There are always nerves,” Dillard said with a knowing smile. “I don’t get nervous that much, but when I come here and I’m with the best players from around the country, you’re still a little nervous about playing with all of them. Once you get into it and start going, it’s like you’re back playing baseball behind your house – it’s just a lot of fun.”
Hundreds of scouts and college coaches/recruiters populate the stadium seats and – for a fortunate few – the air-conditioned suites at JetBlue, all of whom are taking meticulous hand-written and mental notes of what they’re seeing on the field. The PG National Showcase serves as Opening Day for the scouting community as they turn their full attention to the 2016 MLB First-Year Player Draft.
It’s a lot of eyes scrutinizing each one of the prospects’ every move. It can be unnerving for the uninitiated, at least until they experience it for the first time. After that – at least in the case of the very good ones like Dillard – they feed off of it.
“I like having scouts out there and then going out and showing off what I can do,” he said. “I try not to think about them too much and just play my game.”
Dillard spent the first couple of years of his high school career at Briarcrest Christian School in Eads, Tenn., but the family recently moved to Oxford, Miss.; Dillard will spend his senior year at Oxford High School, a Mississippi high school baseball juggernaut. The move made sense for Tom and Kris Dillard, considering they have two daughters – Thomas’s older sisters – already living there.
The family has a long history with Ole Miss. Thomas’s grandfather – and Tom’s father – Wilson Dillard played football at Ole Miss and both sisters/daughters went to school there. The family has had season tickets to Ole Miss football and baseball games for as long as Thomas can remember, so his decision to become an Ole Miss Rebel was about as clear-cut as such a decision could be.
“I looked at other colleges but it was just an easy decision to go to Ole Miss,” Dillard said. “The baseball atmosphere around there is just amazing and it’s the best college out there. And to be able to play in the SEC is just a dream.”
Back in the days when Dillard was living in Greenwood, Miss., he started working with a hitting coach named Dee Haynes, an outfielder who played six seasons (2000-2005) in the minor leagues, reaching the Triple-A level with both the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals organizations.
Dillard has been with Haynes since he was eight years old and refers to Haynes as his mentor. But as big of a role as Haynes may have played in Dillard’s development, his most beneficial association has been with Tim Dulin and the Cordova, Tenn.-based Dulins Dodgers Baseball organization.
He has played in four PG WWBA tournaments with the Dodgers since 2012 and was named to the all-tournament teams at the 2013 15u PG WWBA National Championship (Dulins won the championship at the event), the 2014 16u PG WWBA National Championship and the 2014 PG WWBA World Championship (playing with Dulins Dodgers/Rockies Scout Team).
Tim Dulin has kept this Dodgers group of 2016s together since they were 12 years old and has become an especially tight-knit group. Dillard can shortstop Grae Kessinger among his longtime Dulins’ teammates, which is interesting because Kessinger will also be a senior at Oxford HS in the fall. To further extend the link, Kessinger is also here at the PG National Showcase.
“Tim Dulin has really been kind of the cog in this whole deal,” Tom Dillard said. “Every piece of advice or information that he’s given us has been perfect and has worked out to a ‘T’. He’s a hard-working guy and he really does put the kids. He’s not all about winning – of course we do win a lot; we’ve had a lot of success – but it’s more about the development of the kids. Tim has been such a big part of this deal, I can’t thank him enough for that.”
Tom Lillard, a shortstop, played NCAA Division I baseball at the University of Memphis for a year but soon left it behind. Tom recognizes that his son is much more talented than he was at the same age and when it comes to advice he sticks with telling his son what not to do as opposed to what he should do. As a dad, he knew there was a time to be more hands-off than hands-off and only wanted to make sure his son was surrounded by the right people.
Like most American kids growing up, Dillard played football, basketball and baseball as a kid growing up, but gave up football after being injured playing the sport a couple of years ago but still enjoys playing basketball. With so much down time on his hands in the fall, he decided to follow another pursuit: he joined his school’s bowling team.
“I picked up bowling after I quit playing football and really like it,” he said with a laugh. “I actually started getting a little bit better as the season went on, so I have a hobby now; I can (bowl) over 200 every now and then.” Alas, he’s put the lanes in his rearview mirror. He’ll play only baseball during his senior year at Oxford.
“I’ve played other sports but there is really nothing like baseball,” Dillard said. “I don’t know what it is about it, but no matter what you’re doing – even practicing – it’s always fun; it’s just one of those games that you grow to love.”
As the nation’s No. 3-ranked catching prospect in the class of 2016, Dillard understandingly takes a lot of pride in his defensive abilities behind the plate. But it is Dillard’s bat that draws the most attention when he performs at PG showcases and tournaments, and he takes special pride in his ability to switch-hit.
His dad starting turning him around when he was seven-years-old but he didn’t start switch-hitting in games until he was 12. That was when both father and son felt he was equally capable of hitting from both sides.
Over the course of the last couple of years, Thomas Dillard isn’t the only member of the family who has matured a little bit. His dad, Tom, admits to being a little high-strung – he said his wife, Kris, would back up that assertion – but he’s learned that he can’t sit back and hang on every pitch. He’s come to discover that these young guys are out here for a reason, they’re talented and they’re good ball players.
“You just have to relax and enjoy it,” Tom Dillard said. “You only get once chance at this and at the end of the day, Kris and I both want not only for him to be a good ballplayer but we want him to be a good man; that’s the number-one priority. We want him to give glory to God in everything that he does and show that on the field – the success will come after that.”
And Thomas Dillard can use either hand he wants in making sure he delivers that message. And the both-handed catcher and switch-hitting slugger knows exactly what he wants to take away from the time he spent at the PG National Showcase.
“I really want to just do the best that I can and meets some new players that I will be going forward with,” he said. “I want to enjoy these experiences and not let go. Getting to play at JetBlue is just so much and adds to this great experience.”