GLENDALE, Ariz. – Here it was, the first weekend in December, and the warm sunshine radiating out of the desert sky was working it medicinal magic on the young ballplayer from central Nebraska.
Sam Wibbels spent the past two days in his element, one of only a half-dozen class of 2019 prospects that took part in the Perfect Game National Underclass West Showcase at the Camelback Ranch Complex. There were about 80 others from the classes of 2017 and 2018 in attendance.
This is how the “Desert Does December” with a daytime high temperature in the mid- to upper-70s with only an occasional cloud wafting past. For the players from northern states – and there were quite a few at both the PG National Underclass West and PG West Uncommitted showcases this weekend – this is truly their time in the sun.
“It’s been great; it’s just fun to get our here and throw,” Wibbels, a right-handed pitcher/third baseman/shortstop, told PG Sunday morning. “I throw a lot back home but it’s been snowing already so my dad got a new snowplow and we cleared off some of it off and started throwing out in the backyard. It’s pretty cool.”
That is pretty cool and Wibbels continued to do some pretty cool things at the PG National Underclass West, particularly on Saturday. He first took part in the morning workout session – he threw an event-best 89 mph across the infield – and then went to work from the pitcher’s mound in the early afternoon.
Considering his status as a high school freshman, Wibbels was most impressive on the mound. His fastball sat 84-86 mph, topping out at 86, and he showed a 72 mph curveball and 78 mph changeup. “I felt pretty good out there,” he said Sunday. “This is a great environment and these are great fields, man. We don’t have fields like this back in Nebraska.”
Wibbels just celebrated his 15th birthday in late October but already calls himself “a baseball lifer” which is saying something considering he is not even halfway through his freshman year. But he speaks easily and carries himself well both on and off the field, and seemed to fit right in with the other players at the showcase, many of whom are two years ahead of him in school.
The young man certainly knows the language of a pitcher. When asked about his pitching repertoire he didn’t miss a beat: “I’m working on a good curveball here and I’m working on a two-seam (fastball) that cuts in a little bit and sits around 85-84; my four-seamer is usually around 84, 85, 86 so that’s pretty good. And my changeup moves down and in, so that’s pretty good; I like that pitch.”
The Wibbels family lives in Hastings, Neb., but the high school there doesn’t have a baseball program, so Sam attends Grand Island Senior High School, which is 25 miles to the north in central Nebraska. “It’s kind of difficult but that’s what I have to do to play baseball,” he said.
Wibbels’ parents, Paul Wibbels and Michelle Seizys – both physicians – accompanied Sam on this trip, and Sam said his dad has had the most influence on his baseball career. Paul is the one who gently pushes his son to get better while playing catch with him every day, even breaking the radar gun out every third day. It was Paul who noticed that his son was blowing his fastball past the B League hitters as a 10-year-old and the two set off down this path.
As far as his baseball development has gone to this point, Wibbels said he is working hard to get his hitting and fielding tools on the same level he’s achieved with his pitching. He stands 6-feet tall and weighs in at 165 pounds and it is expected he will continue to get bigger and stronger. His dad believes experiences like this one will only serve to accelerate his development.
“It’s important for him to get exposed to this level of talent because we don’t have this in Nebraska. We can’t expose him to these kind of hitters up there,” Paul said. “We can’t get this experience in Nebraska, it’s impossible. Even at the high school level or the Legion level, you can’t see this. You can be the best in your backyard but this is the real world; this is what he’s going to have to play against and it make him better.”
“This is absolutely fun for me and it keeps Sam working hard,” his mother Michelle added. “Up in Nebraska you can’t play ball the year around so this keeps him interested; it’s a lot of fun.”
The National Underclass West was the second PG showcase Wibbels has attended. He was at the PG South Underclass Showcase in McKinney, Texas, in early August where he was one of only nine 2019s named to the Top Prospect List. The scouting report from that event noted Wibbels’ “big mound presence” and how he was “locked in for every second of every inning.”
These experiences are what the youngster lives for. Wibbels enjoys everything about the PG showcase format from the workouts right through the games. He likes the way he can get all his work done in front of more than a dozen note-taking PG scouts and be in-and-out and back home in about 48 hours. And, of course, he loves the competition.
“All of these guys, they want to go to a higher level just like I do,” Wibbels said. “It’s just awesome to get around these guys – get around these different personalities – and it’s just great to meet these guys. This thing is kind of like a personal showcase, but baseball is a team sport. It can be one individual out there but you have to have a team to actually win the games.
“I think (his PG Red team) showed (Saturday) that you have to play the game to win and if you don’t play the game to win you’re not going to play well.”
Even at this young age, Wibbels said he has started to think a little bit about college, but with four seasons of high school ball left to play a college career is a long way off. “It seems a little bit early to me,” he said. “I see all these guys (committing) to all these colleges and that’s just way out there for me. I’m just a kid from Nebraska, so I don’t know about that.”
It’s easy to imagine that this “kid from Nebraska” will be heard from often on the PG showcase and tournament circuit over the next three years. Wibbels appears to be the kind of kid who has the maturity and drive to stay on top of his game no matter what the harsh realities that face a budding baseball prospect growing up in Nebraska throw his way.
“Somebody asked me yesterday how we practice and I said, ‘Well, we bought a new snow-blower,’” his mother Michelle said with a laugh. “We blow off the backyard and we go out and play.”