FORT MYERS, Fla. – Radar guns were omnipresent at last weekend’s 19th annual Perfect Game World Showcase at Terry Park, just as they are at every PG showcase event. Recently re-settled 2017 Florida right-hander Conner Nurse was aware of the guns, took note of them and then starting devising a plan of how to best take advantage of the numbers they spit out.
The guns’ readings are not an end-all for Nurse, of course. They are just one more useful piece he can add to his expanding resume, one more data bit for scouts to mull over. He is not dismissive of the numbers by any stretch, but is also very careful about how he interprets them.
Several hours before the 6-foot-5, 195-pound, 16-year-old Nurse was scheduled to pitch his three innings last Saturday night, he told a PG note-taker what he was hoping to show the scouts in attendance when it was finally his turn to go take the mound.
“I’ve got a plan. I’m looking to put up maybe a 94 (mph) today,” he said, referring to the velocity on his fastball. “I always say you shoot for as high as you think you can go and maybe you’ll surprise yourself. I think if you always shoot for the top then you’re good to go, but it’s just as important not to push yourself too hard to where you’re going to get hurt.”
The thought of Nurse delivering a 94 mph fastball during his outing was not all that farfetched. He had produced a 92 mph heater while pitching for the Richmond Braves National at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., a little over two months earlier; he hit 90 mph at the PG WWBA Underclass World Championship with the Braves two weeks before Jupiter.
Nurse’s radar readings over the past two years have risen steadily but never monumentally, picking up a mile-an-hour or two or three with each subsequent outing. His fastball topped-out at 83, 84 and 85 mph at three PG events in 2014; at 84 and 89 (twice) in his first three tournaments of 2015 and at 90 and 92 in his last two.
“I was thinking the other day that (my velocity increases) have been moderate. I haven’t jumped a crazy amount at all, and I’m OK with that,” Nurse said. “I think you can build slow and steady and then you don’t have any injuries. I think it’s better to work hard to an extent but you don’t want to push yourself too hard to the point where you’re going to get hurt; I think that’s key at a younger age.”
More than 130 prospects took part in this year’s PG World Showcase, a number that included about a dozen players from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Virgin Islands, and one from Australia. The prospects were primarily high school seniors (class of 2106; the grad years of some of the Dominican players weren’t readily available) and, in fact, Nurse was one of only seven or eight juniors at the event. This was his first PG showcase experience.
“I think this is a key part (of the process) for a lot of these kids out here, and especially me as a pitcher. You really get to show what you’ve got and the hitters can show what they’ve got against you,” Nurse said. “And it’s a lot of fun, too, just being down here. You get to see a lot of really good competition and it’s just a great experience.
“There is a respect level, too,” he added. “I 100-percent respect some of these (older) guys being out here. I don’t expect to dominate them and I understand that.”
Conner Nurse was born in Clermont, Fla., and he lived there for roughly the first 10 years of his life. His father, John Nurse, works for the FAA and job obligations forced a move to the Washington D.C. area and a new home in Charles Town, W.V.
The family – Conner’s mother Andrea works at Disney World in Orlando – relocated to Winter Garden, Fla., just recently and Conner enrolled at Montverde (Fla.) Academy, an academic and athletic prep school powerhouse (the Montverde boys’ basketball team is ranked No. 1 in the country by USA Today Sports).
There were decisions to be made when Conner enrolled at Montverde. He celebrated his 16th birthday on July 31 making him a very young high school junior and he will be 17 years old when the 2017 MLB June Amateur Draft takes place. There were discussions about Conner reclassifying to the class of 2018 but the family decided to hold the course.
“Based on his academics and because he’s so big, we said, ‘You know what, let’s just leave you where you’re at and whatever happens, happens,’” his father John said last weekend. “We just want him to go out and have fun and enjoy it.”
While his baseball experiences are sure to be enhanced at Montverde, Nurse was quick to point out that he enjoyed many great experiences while living in the DC area, as well. He played in eight PG WWBA and PG BCS tournaments with the Richmond Braves in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and was named to the all-tournament team at the 2013 13u PG BCS Finals, the 2014 15u PG WWBA National Championship and the 2015 PG WWBA Underclass World Championship.
Nurse’s association with the Richmond Braves has been so positive he and plans to continue to play with them again this summer. Braves’ coaches Tommy Mayers and Rusty Stadler have had a big impact on his baseball career and he wants to continue to play for them and work with them. “They’ve already told me whenever I might be able to help them out they would (welcome me), so it’s great,” he said.
At Montverde, Nurse will be working with head coach Tim Layden and pitching coach John Denny, both of whom pitched professionally. Denny, in fact, pitched 13 years in the big leagues (1974-86) and won the 1983 National League Cy Young Award while with the Philadelphia Phillies.
“The pitching coach and the head coach, they have (professional baseball) experience and they can kind of give him more (information) on what it’s going to take to survive in that environment,” John Nurse said. “It was a decision (of his) that he wanted to get more extensive training and be around that kind of baseball.”
Many of the class of 2017 prospects that have already climbed into the top-100 of PG’s national rankings – Nurse is ranked No. 95 nationally – are already looking ahead to the rewards that can be reaped in the summer of 2016.
The first goal is to earn an invitation to the PG National Showcase June 15-20 at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, and perform well enough there to be invited to the prestigious PG All-American Classic later in the summer. It was with those goals in the offing that Nurse felt it was important to get an exposure boost at the first-of-the-year PG World Showcase.
“Basically, I kind of let him make the decisions on which goals he wants to achieve,” John Nurse said. “He just tells me what he wants to do and we just kind of figure out the best path to get there.”
Nurse has always been one of the tallest kids in his class and while he started out his baseball career as a hitter and position player, he made the switch over to pitcher around the age of 12 when, in his words, he began “sprouting up.” As he continued to grow and improve on the mound, he also started thinking about college, and the academically inclined Nurse made an early commitment to Liberty University.
The Nurses made visits to a lot of colleges, including many from the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), but when they arrived on the Liberty campus in Lynchburg, Va., and met with head coach Jim Toman and his staff, Conner didn’t feel the need to look any farther.
“(Toman) looked him right in the eye and answered every question Conner had,” John Nurse related. “I think that’s kind of what sold him: ‘Here’s a college where the coach took the time to talk to me face to face and answered every question I had.’ To Conner, he respects that … and that was one of the major draws for him to commit to Liberty.”
The radar guns did, indeed, make an appearance at Terry Park when Conner Nurse was finally able to get out on the mound. There would be no 94 mph fastball on this day but he did hit 90 while sitting consistently at 86-89.
PG scouts also raved about his 74 mph curveball that had “good depth to it with sharp break (showing) a good feel for the pitch and throwing it for strikes multiple times in different counts.”
Dominican right-hander Juan Jose Contreras did hit 94 mph at the event and another Dominican, right-hander Mitchell Miliano Alvares, reached 91 mph. 2016 Jupiter, Fla., right-hander Kieren Casey also hit 91 in the same game Nurse pitched, and right-handers Sylvester Toe, Jr. (2016, Douglasville, Ga.), Nelson Alvarez (2016, Miami, Fla.), Andrew Carber (2013, Blue Bell, Pa.) and Matthew Beattie (2017, Victoria, Australia) matched Nurse’s 90 mph effort.
All of the pitchers listed above were named to the Top Prospect List, including Nurse and Beattie as two of four 2017s. And in reality, at least most of the time, a 94 mph fastball isn't required to make the PG World Showcase experience a positive one.
“I just want him to get to know the other players that are his caliber, and enjoy what he’s doing, enjoy being around the other kids and just enjoy the game,” Conner’s dad, John, said. “That’s what it’s all about, to let him have fun and enjoy what he’s doing, and I know he respects PG. … I tell him all the time, ‘You’re young, don’t stress this stuff and everything will come as long as you work hard and do what you’ve got to do.
“I always said if I could be out here in the warm weather and just watch him play every day I would, and I look forward to being able to do that as he develops and move onto the next level.”