GOODYEAR, Ariz. – The opening round of the playoffs at the 17u Perfect Game World Series got underway right on time Monday morning at the Goodyear Ballpark Complex, and the players and coaches from Orlando, Fla., powerhouse FTB Tucci were on hand ready to make some memories.
FTB Tucci head coach Jered Goodwin was spotted in a practice field dugout on the Cleveland Indians side of the complex – the Goodyear BallPark Complex hosts the Indians and Cincinnati Reds during spring training – filling out a lineup card for No. 8-seeded FTB’s first-round game against unbeaten and No. 1 CBA Marucci.
“We’ve got some tired kids from a long summer, but they’re competitive kids so I know they’re going to come out and give it everything they have,” Goodwin told a visitor who had invaded his space inside the dugout. Not that the visitor had any doubts about FTB’s effort.
Goodwin kind of shook things up for the FTB Tucci 17u team this summer by deciding to join the exclusive, invitation-only, 20-team field at the 17u PG World Series. In the 10 years he has been doing this, FTB 17u’s summer was always structured around mid-July’s 17u PG WWBA National Championship held in the suburbs north of Atlanta. When that PG national championship tournament concluded, FTB’s summer season did likewise.
FTB Tucci was, in fact, in attendance at the 17u PG WWBA National earlier this month and enjoyed a terrific run. It finished 8-2-0 at the 336-team event after losing in the quarterfinals to eventual champion CBA Marucci – the same team it faced here Monday morning – and had nine of its players named to the all-tournament team.
Two weeks later, the FTB Tucci crew found itself in the Arizona desert for the first time eager to see how it matched-up against 19 of the best 17u teams in the land.
“I don’t think our kids really looked at it as this being the type of talent that we’re not going to see every day,” Goodwin said. “One of the hard things about coming here is that you’re going to see everybody’s ace, and everybody’s ace is really good.
“But with us never being here before I don’t know what the expectations were, so it’s kind of all of us trying to learn more than anything else; it’s been an interesting process.”
The FTBer’s qualified for the eight-team playoffs after a 2-1-1 pool-play showing, with wins over the EvoShield Canes (Virginia) and the Dbacks Elite Scout Team (Arizona), a tie with the Southern California Bombers (California) and a loss to NorCal Baseball (California).
They were beaten by CBA Marucci, 4-2, in Monday’s first-round playoff action and were scheduled to play in a loser’s bracket semifinal game Monday night in a rematch with the So Cal Bombers. The winner advances to Tuesday morning’s third-place game.
The original roster Goodwin submitted for this tournament featured 19 prospects from the classes of 2016 and 2017 with NCAA Division-I commitments, and three that accepted invitations to this year’s Perfect Game All-American Classic at Petco Park in San Diego on Aug. 16: third baseman/catcher Max Guzman, a Florida Invitational commit from Miami; catcher/third baseman Herbert Iser, a U. of Miami recruit from Miami; and shortstop Francisco Thomas from Carolina, P.R.
Of the three, only Thomas played in FTB’s first five games. Guzman played in the first four but had to leave Sunday night and Iser wasn’t able to be here at all.
Offensively, 2016 corner-infielder Austin Shenton (a Washington commit), 2016 infielder Bo Bichette (Arizona State), 2016 first baseman Zach Zientarski (uncommitted) and 2017 corner-infielder Bubba Sangster (South Florida) picked up any slack. 2016 left-hander Joe Sheridan (Central Florida) turned in one of the team’s best pitching performances by working five, three-hit, shutout innings with seven strikeouts and one walk.
“This team has been great the whole summer – the energy, the chemistry – and we’ve got some talented kids, too,” Goodwin said. “After that first day when we kind of saw what the competition was like … we knew that we had to build on what we’ve building on since May.”
The dugout visitor was curious to learn as much as he could about Guzman, the 6-foot, 215-pound slugger that has reached No. 51 in PG’s class of 2016 national prospect rankings, a slot he earned primarily by his advanced approach at the plate and his play as a corner-infielder.
“Max has relentless energy; he’s a high, high motor kid,” Goodwin said. “You can tell by watching him play that his is just what he wants to do for the rest of his life. This is what he’s going to give everything he has toward trying to make it happen, and it shows with the energy that he brings.”
“Max has relentless energy; he’s a high, high motor kid,” Goodwin said. “You can tell by watching him play that his is just what he wants to do for the rest of his life. This is what he’s going to give everything he has toward trying to make it happen, and it shows with the energy that he brings.”
Recently, Guzman decided that he wants to move forward as a catcher, and Goodwin said he has taken huge steps in learning that position every time he sets up behind the plate. His transition to the catching position gave Goodwin three outstanding options at backstop this summer, with Guzman, Iser and 2016 standout Dallas Beaver, another Central Florida commit who was originally added to the roster to spell Iser.
“(Beaver) has real good bat-speed and he’s got all the intangibles that you want behind the plate, too,” Goodwin said. “He’s another real high-energy guy that controls the staff so well. So this year, in particular, we’ve been really blessed with Herbert and Max and Dallas.”
FTB has always been blessed with talented guys, or so it seems, and it wasn’t all that many years ago that Daniel Vogelbach was one of these young FTB prospects running around out there on the field.
Vogelbach, a first baseman, played in five PG WWBA and PG BCS tournaments with Goodwin and FTB in 2010 – he was also at the 2010 PG National Showcase and 2011 PG World Showcase – before the Chicago Cubs selected him in the second-round (68th overall) of the 2011 MLB June Amateur Draft.
He has been in nearby Mesa for the last several weeks rehabbing a minor injury and plans on rejoining the Tennessee Smokies – the Cubs’ Class-AA affiliate in the Southern League – in the very new future. He was hitting .284 with five home runs, 13 doubles and 34 RBI in 61 games before setting out on his rehab assignment.
Vogelbach’s mood brightened considerably when he found out Goodwin was going to have his top FTB team here at the same time he would be rehabbing. He worried boredom would set in during the hours of down-time the rehab assignment affords and jumped at the chance to join Goodwin and his young players on the fields at the Goodyear Ballpark Complex for a few days.
“There is nothing better than FTB,” Vogelbach said Monday. “It’s more than just baseball; they make it a family. That’s the way I’ve been raised and that’s what it’s all about – there’s more to life than baseball – and that’s the way they take it here. Goodwin treats the kids like he’s their dad and they respect him every day. It’s good to see all these kids out here who are so talented working to make their dreams come true.”
Although any chance FTB Tucci had of winning a PG national championship at this week’s 17u PG World Series blew away in a light desert breeze after Monday morning’s loss, that didn’t in any way diminish the high regard in which Goodwin holds this FTB squad.
“I feel great about this team and about this roster,” he said. “The thing with a lot of these Perfect Game events, when you get to bracket-play, it’s like, ‘Hey, congratulations, you made it out of pool-play, now go play CBA.’ We’re like, ‘Ohhh-K’. But that’s what makes it fun.”
Goodwin promised that this FTB Tucci team would continue to play hard at the 17u PG World Series until tournament officials told them it was time to go home. The most important thing now is to enjoy what remains of their time in the desert and continue to make memories they have the rest of their lives. Just ask the former FTBer, Vogelbach.
“Some of the best memories I’ve had have been with FTB,” the current Cubs’ farmhand said. “Going toe East Cobb (PG WWBA National) and Jupiter (PG WWBA World) – this all brings back memories and it makes it seem like I was just here. Being out here is really fun and I enjoy watching the kids play.”