GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Every player on each of the 20 teams invited to play in this year’s edition of the 17u Perfect Game World Series – one of amateur baseball’s biggest scouting magnets – arrived at the Goodyear Ballpark Sports Complex livin’ the baseball dream.
But what’s truly amazing Is how each of these nearly 500 top prospects – the vast majority in the high school class of 2016 – can come together from all corners of this expansive, diverse country and all share a dream that is so remarkably similar.
Carlos A. Cortes from Oviedo, Fla., a member of the eternally elite, always stellar Orlando Scorpions Prime team from Altamonte Springs, Fla., is one of those guys. He’s a Florida kid who celebrated his 18th birthday on June 30, and in terms of what he wants out of life, he is no different than the 17-year-old from some small town in Oregon who is suiting up for Baseball Northwest this weekend. Everyone, it seems, is here for the same reasons.
“It’s cool because you’re surrounding yourself with the same type of people (like yourself) who you want to be with – the type of people that you’re going to be with for the rest of your life,” Cortes said Saturday morning, speaking from the Cincinnati Reds side of the Goodyear complex. “I’m just out here trying to win a (PG national championship) ring with my team; show people that I can play. This has been my number-one sport forever; I’m a baseball junkie.”
As much as Cortes has in common with his Scorpions’ teammates and the other top guys at the 17u PG World Series, he has a unique physical make-up and tool-set. He is listed at 5-foot-8, 185-pounds and delivers quite a wallop with his powerful left-handed swing, perhaps his most notable talent.
He also plays outfield and second base, but when playing the two distinct positions, he looks like a completely different player. When he’s at second base, he throws right-handed; when in the outfield, he uses his left arm; he is also a “both-handed” pitcher.
Cortes, who will be a senior at Oviedo High School in the fall, was born a natural left-hander but when he was 7 years old he broke a bone in his left elbow. His father, Juan Carlos Cortes, encouraged him to start doing some things – like throwing – with his right arm and at first the youngster wasn’t completely sold on his dad’s sales pitch. Juan Carlos was persistent, however, and after several years of keeping at it, the whole idea of ambidexterity became much more appealing to the young Carlos.
“I started taking it more seriously when I was about 14, and here I am now – throwing right-handed,” he said. “I feel real comfortable throwing both ways but I’m not as strong (with my right arm) as I am with my left.”
At the PG National Showcase in mid-June, Cortes recorded a throw from the outfield that was gunned at 90 mph, but he insists he has been throwing 92-93 mph from the outfield since the National. His top throw across the infield recorded at a PG showcase (the 2014 National Underclass Showcase-Main Event) was clocked at 85 mph, but he said he has improved that to 88 mph in the last eight months.
It’s difficult to imagine any more versatility in a young player than what Cortes possesses. Yet, in the mind of Orlando Scorpions Prime head coach Jesse Marlo, it is Cortes’ mental approach to the game that situates him a couple of rungs higher on the ladder than his peers.
“I think what separates him from other guys is that he’s a very cerebral player; he’s always looking in at pitches, he’s always paying attention to the game,” Marlo said Saturday. “He’s one of those guys where it could be the first inning and he’s the third batter, and after two pitches from the stretch he knows what that pitcher is doing and what his tendencies are. He studies the game well and that helps elevate his game.”
After three 17u PGWS games played Friday and Saturday morning (the event’s game scheduled for Saturday morning and evening were, incredibly, postponed by rain), Cortes had already shown he ranks among the best at the prospect-laden event.
He smoked two doubles and a home run in eight at-bats, driving in three runs and scoring two, and compiled a 1.444 on-base-plus-slugging percentage while the Scorpions Prime won 2-of-3. They beat the SGV Arsenal 2-1 and the San Diego Show 8-0 on Friday, and lost to the Dallas Patriots, 2-1, Saturday morning.
“He’s our team leader; he’s our spokesman for the organization,” Marlo said. “He’s the guy that gets the team up and he’s been like that since day-one when he showed up to play with us. We’re excited to have a player like him, for sure.”
There are more than a dozen class of 2016 prospects on this Scorpions’ roster that Perfect Game ranks in the top-200 nationally and Cortes, a South Carolina commit, comes in at No. 34. Left-hander Cole Ragans from Crawfordville, Fla., is a Florida State commit ranked No. 21 nationally and shortstop Drew Mendoza, another Florida State commit from Minneola, Fla., is at No. 33.
Cortes, Ragans and Mendoza have all accepted invitations to August’s Perfect Game All-American Classic in San Diego, an exclusive all-star showcase that features 50 of the top incoming high school seniors and is played at the Padres’ beautiful Petco Park right downtown.
“It’s been a pleasure playing with this kind of caliber of guys, and we’ve bonded into a real nice family,” Cortes said of his experiences playing with the Scorpions. “We’re all really close and we’re good friends, and we’re obviously really good playing with each other. It’s been a great ride so far.”
There isn’t an over-abundance of players that have been as decorated at PG tournaments and showcases as Cortes over the last two summers. He was included on the Top Prospect List at the 2014 PG Junior National Showcase, 2014 PG National Underclass Showcase-Main Event and most recently at June’s PG National Showcase as upperclassman.
He’s been named to four all-tournament teams playing with the Scorps, including the 2014 PG WWBA Underclass World Championship in Fort Myers, Fla., and the 2014 PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla.
The Scorpions organization finished runner-up to the EvoShield Canes in Jupiter last October, and Cortes was joined on the all-tournament team by seven of his Orlando Scorpions/Mets Scout Team teammates. Among them were 2014 PG All-Americans Brendan Rodgers and Kep Brown – Rodgers was a first-round pick (No. 3 overall) of the Colorado Rockies while Brown went in the 10th-round to the St. Louis Cardinals. The PG WWBA World Championship was an eye-opener for the young Cortes.
“Just facing that type of pitching on a daily basis really helped me,” he said. “And just being around a great group of guys like Brendan, Nick Fortes, Nick Plummer, Kep Brown – playing with those guys is great stepping stone; a great way to learn.
“You see how they play and you kind of learn from that,” he continued. “You see how they (carry) themselves, just how they walk around like they’re not any better than anyone else; they stay within themselves.”
The life of an elite travel ball player isn’t always glamorous, but there is a reason it’s called travel ball. Cortes figures he’s been home in Oviedo for all of about 10 hours in the last five weeks, a stretch that included his appearance at the PG National Showcase in Fort Myers, Fla. – his performance there was what earned him the PG All-American Classic invite – and three tournament stops in Emerson, Ga.
As much experience as this group of Orlando Scorpions Prime players have gained this summer, Marlo honestly believes the 17u PG World Series will be the most beneficial experience of them all. There is just too much high-level baseball being played that it would be nearly impossible for a serious-minded prospect not to leave here a better a player – or at least a better educated player.
“This is a great tournament and it’s great competition; every team that you play is going to be good so you’ve got to bring it to the table,” he said. “That’s good for this team because we haven’t been tested a whole lot with a lot of our guys going to showcases, and we really haven’t had our full team together. … We really want to come out here and make a statement and try to win something at this tournament.”
With his stable stocked with so many talented players – 19 prospects on the Scorpions Prime’s official roster have committed to D-I schools, including six to Florida State and four to South Florida – Marlo is able to sit back and watch the not-so-distant future of college and professional baseball unfold before his eyes.
He is of the humble opinion that Cortes has the skill-set to be an early round selection in the 2016 MLB First-Year Player Draft but he also admits that he’s not always right-on when it comes to reading the minds of scouts. “But I don’t care if you’re 5-(foot)-8 or 6-8, if you hit the ball as far as he does, I don’t think it should matter,” Marlo said emphatically. “In my opinion, yes, I think he’s a high draft pick.”
And just like every one of the other 500 top prospects in attendance here, Cortes will let that stuff sort itself out on its own. But he is also not hesitant to let a listener know just how much he is looking forward to the next 11 months, at the end of which Carlos A. Cortes’ life could be very different. He’s still livin’ the dream, after all.
“I feel like I’ve been getting better every single year, hitting-wise,” he said when asked to look ahead. “With my fielding, I feel like I’m getting faster, and I’m throwing harder and throwing better. Everything is just getting a lot better.
“(The coming year has) been something I’ve been looking forward to – I mean, I can’t even count (how many years),” Cortes said. “It’s just something I’ve been looking forward to forever.”