2016 Perfect Game MLB Draft Preview Index
The 2015 college baseball season qualified as a successful one at Mercer University, a private school with about 8,600 undergraduate students located in Macon, Ga., that has established a pretty darn good baseball program. The Bears, playing their first season in the nine-team Southern Conference, won the league’s regular season championship with a 16-7 mark and then won four games in four days to capture the SoCon Tournament title.
From there, it was on to the NCAA Division I Regional in Tallahassee, Fla., where they lost to host Florida State, 5-4 in 10 innings, and to Auburn, 1-0. Mercer finished the campaign, the 12th at the school for veteran head coach Craig Gibson, with an overall record of 35-23.
It was a talented team Gibson took to Tallahassee on May 29-30 of last year, and contributions came from up and down the roster. But it was sophomore centerfielder Kyle Lewis who emerged with the most impeccable credentials as a consensus All-American, and who today Perfect Game ranks as the No. 7 overall prospect in the upcoming MLB June Amateur First-Year Player Draft.
Gibson sat down with Lewis at the end of the 2015 season and the head coach asked his All-American outfielder point-blank what he hoped to accomplish in 2016. Lewis, always the humblest person in any room, responded simply that he wanted to be recognized as one of the top-five players in the country; it appears he’s living his dream.
“I think June the 9th he’ll go off the (draft) board early and whoever is lucky enough to get him, they’re going to have a great guy off the field and they’ve got a talent that is going to be fun to watch the next couple of years progressing through the minor leagues,” Gibson said of the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Lewis, who went undrafted out of Shiloh High School in nearby Snellville, Ga., in June 2013.
And what a fun, fun ride it’s been in Macon. Lewis started this season as a Perfect Game Preseason First Team All-American and has not disappointed, slashing .431/.559/.790 with 17 home runs, a combined 12 doubles and triples, 63 RBI, 57 runs scored, 54 bases on balls and 143 total bases through the Bears first 49 games (they stood 30-19 overall before Wednesday’s non-conference game at Florida A&M).
According to the most updated NCAA Division-I statistics report on ncaa.com. Lewis ranks in the top-12 nationally in 13 offensive categories, including No. 1 in total bases and base on balls; No. 2 in home runs, No. 3 in on-base percentage, No. 4 in slugging percentage and base on balls per game, and No. 5 in home runs per game and total runs batted in.
What began as a steady climb up the collegiate baseball ladder during Lewis’ freshman season in 2014 – he played in 42 games, started 24 and hit .281 with two home runs, 17 RBI and 21 runs scored – became meteoric in 2015. He slashed .367/.423/.677 with 17 home runs, 19 doubles, 56 RBI and 49 runs last season; his home run total ranked seventh nationally, his slugging percentage stood eighth and his total bases (153) ranked 12th.
“He’s a professional right now in an amateur game,” Gibson said. “His at-bats are better – the ability to recognize tough pitches and get good balls to hit – and the one thing I’ve told a lot of scouts is, he’s delivered. This guy was supposed to be good from day one and he’s been as good as advertised.”
The accolades and pronouncements aside, Lewis stays focused on the immediate tasks at hand, which are winning back-to-back Southern Conference regular season and tournament championships and helping Mercer advance to its fourth NCAA D-I Regional since 2010. Those opportunities remain there for the taking.
“Our team has played well at points but at other points I think we’ve underachieved a little bit,” Lewis told PG last week. “Overall, I’m happy with the effort we’ve been able to put out there on a consistent basis and I really think that going down the home stretch we’re really poised to have a strong finish, which is really what you want.
“I think the whole year has been a carryover from last year,” he continued. “Definitely for us, we’ve been able to see it because our expectations are to win it again. Anything less than that … is not acceptable and I think that’s helped our team raise the standard of play, just trying to live up to it.”
Gibson and eighth-year associate head coach/pitching coach/recruiting coordinator Brent Shade faced the task of replacing their top two starters from a year ago, right-hander Eric Nyquist (9-2, 3.11 ERA, 16 starts) and left-hander Grant Papelian (4-4, 4.90 ERA, 12 starts); Nyquist was 17-3 with a 3.05 ERA in 29 starts the last two seasons.
Junior right-hander Ryan Askew, 7-7 with a 4.88 ERA in 20 starts as a freshman and sophomore, has taken over as the Friday night starter and is 4-2 with a 4.28 ERA in 12 outings this year. Freshman righty Kevin Coulter (6-3, 5.11 ERA) and sophomore left-hander Connor Herd (2-2, 5.86 ERA) have started 21 games between them.
“It took us a little while to get going … but our guys are getting better, especially on the pitching side,” Gibson said. “We’d like to be undefeated but we lost some early that maybe we should have won and we probably won a few late that we shouldn’t have won, so it’s sort of evened out. But our club’s probably about where I thought it would be.”
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KYLE LEWIS HITS IN THE 3-HOLE OF AN EVERYDAY LINEUP THAT FEATURES SIX PLAYERS – including Lewis – that started at least 42 of the team’s 58 games last season. This is a Bears outfit that can flat-out rake, as evidenced by the fact the Bears’ rank in the top-45 nationally in eight key offensive categories, including No. 1 in home runs, home runs per game and base of balls; No. 5 in slugging percentage; No. 6 in on-base percentage; No. 7 in runs scored and No. 11 in runs per game.
The everyday players have been working well with first-year hitting coach Willie Stewart and first-year volunteer assistant coach Alex Duhaime and the results are right there in black-and-white for everyone to see.
“This is probably one of the better clubs we’ve had offensively and defensively,” Gibson said. “Our guys give us a professional at-bat everyday … and those guys are patient. They have the ability to hit with two strikes and they can grind out some at-bats and over the course of those 27 outs we’ve gotten some chances and had some big moments at the plate with them.”
Sophomore right fielder Trey Truitt, the team’s lead-off batter, is hitting .333 with 13 home runs and 41 RBI (.333-13-41) after hitting .276-8-38 last season; junior catcher Charlie Madden is at .276-.10-42 after going .272-9-49 in 2015; junior infielder Matt Meeder sits at .290-2-20 after a .293-2-27 campaign last season and junior infielder Danny Edgeworth is at .257-9-38 on the heels of .292-6-42 in 2015.
Junior second baseman Ryan Hagan, a newcomer to the program, is at .324-5-43, junior Hunter Bening, another newcomer, is at .272-4-26 and grad student and Notre Dame transfer Blaise Lezynski is contributing at .296-4-16.
“It just provides a little bit of comfort for you knowing that you’ve got a guy behind you and in front of you that can also hit really good,” the king-pin Lewis said. “You don’t have to pressure yourself or anything like that, you just kind of feel like you can take the walk and the next guy just might hit an extra-base hit and get you in. From that standpoint, we definitely feed off of each other and the success of each other. It’s fun to be at the ballpark when you’ve got a lot of other guys who also hit well.”
The Bears have put themselves in position to claim a second straight SoCon regular-season championship but they could use some help. They stand 14-7 in league play, one game behind first-place UNC Greensboro (13-5) in the standings heading into the weekend, and have a three-game non-conference series scheduled at Butler. UNCG is at third-place Western Carolina (13-8) for three critical league games; Mercer completes the regular season with a three-game set at UNC Greensboro.
“We’re located in the part of the country where all the teams are good teams,” Gibson said. “The Southern Conference has great baseball and it’s a good weekend every weekend; always a tough series. The expectations are for us to have a good club and field a team that has a chance to win a championship every year. Winning breeds expectations and our kids commit and sign with us with the expectation that we have a chance to play in the postseason.”
At Mercer, Lewis joined a program he felt confident would compete conference championships on an annual basis with very real chances of advancing to an NCAA Regional with the national exposure that advancement brings. He takes pride in the fact the three Bears teams he has been a part of have all challenged for league titles and have been comprised of players who expect to come to the ballpark every day and be competitive.
Mercer – both the school and the baseball program – has provided Lewis with a solid environment and structure that has enabled him to further develop his skills and make him a better person and a better ballplayer. Gibson also notes that Lewis takes it upon himself to do a lot of work on his own because of the limitations the NCAA puts on the contact the coaches can have with their players.
“First and foremost, Kyle is a great team guy,” Gibson said. “He’s a great guy to be around, he’s great in the classroom – everything that he’s around is just really good. He comes from a great family – his mom and dad are tremendous people – and the one quality about Kyle is he likes to be good and he wants to be the best. I think he’s just going to continue to grow; I think he’s just scratching the surface. …
“I think his best baseball is ahead of him because right now he’s still balancing the academic card and the athletic card, and once he once he gets into the pro world he’s going to be playing baseball fulltime. The next few years are going to be very exciting watching his growth and development.”
While admitting to a certain amount of frustration with the number of walks he’s received, Lewis also takes a lot of pride in his plate discipline and his ability to work the count to his favor. He feels like he’s done a good job of staying relaxed during the course of an at-bat and waiting for the right pitch he can drive to any part of the field.
Perfect Game National Scouting/Event Coordinator Jheremy Brown was effusive in his praise of Lewis while writing in a PG MLB Draft Pack notebook published March 25:
“It would be hard to find anybody in the country that could rival the explosiveness that Lewis shows in his hands and they’re a big factor in the plus bat speed he’s able to generate. And despite having some length to his swing he’s able to get the barrel to the ball with regularity while showing easy power to all parts of the field.
“With that aforementioned hand and bat speed he’s able to let the ball get deep in the zone while showing a direct and fluid bat path. Having already put on 20 pounds since last spring and still showing room to additional growth, it’s scary to think what he could end up becoming.”
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KYLE LEWIS IS THE SON OF CHARLES AND RUTH LEWIS FROM SNELLVILLE, A CITY OF ABOUT 20,000 folks located a little over 30 miles northeast of Atlanta in Gwinnett County; Charles, a graduate of Georgia Tech, works in engineering, and Ruth, an Indiana University grad, works in real estate. Kyle graduated from Shiloh High School with a 3.5 GPA after a stellar prep career and an eight-event Perfect Game history.
He started out his PG tournament career in 2011 playing in three PG WWBA and PG BCS events with the Georgia Stars, and he was also named to the Top Prospect Team at the 2011 Southeast Underclass Showcase in Marietta, Ga.
The following year, Lewis joined forces with the BigStix Gamers and earned all-tournament team recognition at both the PG WWBA 18u National Championship and the PG WWBA 17u National championship, also played in Marietta. He finished his PG career at the 2012 PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., again on the field for the Gamers.
“Playing with the BigStix Gamers was huge for me because at that point that was the first time I was able to play on a team that was competing at the national level and playing teams from all over the place,” Lewis said. “That was the first time I got a taste of that kind of lifestyle and playing against guys that got drafted that year and things like that. … Even though I didn’t get drafted out of high school I still felt like I had the ability to do some of the things they were doing, and going into my senior year it gave me a lot of confidence to carry over into college.”
Lewis was also a four-year varsity basketball player at Shiloh HS and received some attention from mid-major schools eager to see him pursue that sport in college. Gibson said it was actually the athleticism Lewis showed on the basketball floor that led to his heavy recruitment; the veteran head coach looked at Lewis and saw not a shooting guard or a power forward but a prototypical center-fielder.
When push came to shove, and after his experiences with the BigStix Gamers, Lewis decided that the pursuit of a career in baseball would suit him the best.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Lewis said it was his varsity baseball coach at Shiloh, Reggie Ingram, who had the biggest impact on his baseball career. Ingram elevated him to the varsity as a freshman and at that time Shiloh played in the same Georgia Class 8A-AAAAAA region with national power Parkview and former Perfect Game All-American and current Orioles farmhand Josh Hart. The experience only served to make Lewis even better.
“(Ingram) helped me learn the right mindset and the right mentality when it came to hitting and when I go home I still hit with him,” Lewis said. “He has definitely had one of the biggest influences on me up to this point.”
Lewis went undrafted out of high school, and after considering overtures from other home-state schools like Kennesaw State and Georgia State and also Furman in South Carolina, he decided to head to Macon and the friendly environs of Mercer University.
When Lewis arrived on campus in the fall of 2013, Mercer was a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference; it took up residence in the Southern Conference in the 2014-15 school year. The Bears won an ASC championship in 2013 and advanced to NCAA Regionals in 2010 and 2013 under Gibson.
The ultra-high level to which Lewis has elevated his game is the result of not only the hard work he put in during his three years at Mercer but also with his experiences playing in a couple of summer collegiate leagues the past two years. His first taste of summer ball came in 2014 playing in the Great Lakes League where he was ultimately named the league’s No. 2 overall top prospect at season’s end.
Last summer, he took it up a notch while playing for the Orleans Firebirds in the prestigious Cape Cod League. He was named the league’s No. 1 overall top prospect, heading a top-five that included Tennessee junior infielder Nick Senzel, Vanderbilt junior outfielder Bryan Reynolds, Oregon junior left-hander Matt Krook and Vanderbilt redshirt sophomore right-hander and former PG All-American Jordan Sheffield.
“I was able to learn a lot from the coaches up there about just having a consistent approach to the game every day and just being consistent in your preparation during batting practice before the game; being ready to play more so than going out there and just swinging it,” Lewis said. “From that standpoint, I’ve been able to really improve on being able to come out more consistently and understand how to get into the right mindset.”
The All-American Lewis has helped put Mercer and the Southern Conference in an even more prominent zip code on the college baseball map by bringing so much attention to the Bears’ program. Reports tell of at least 20 to 30 MLB scouts at every Bears game eager to watch Lewis perfect and polish his craft, and those guys don’t go unnoticed by either his teammates or the opposing players. The scouts’ very presence makes everyone turn his game up a notch or two, and everyone leaves happy.
This season, as news of his exploits reaches from coast-to-coast, Lewis has been elevated to “rock star” status. Fans throughout the Southern Conference wait in long lines for autographs, recognizing perhaps what a couple of MLB organizations have told Gibson: Lewis is the best player in the country.
“He’s a rare combination of a guy who can really run and hit a ball 400-feet to left field or right field, and that body is just developing,” Gibson said. “He’s such a great kid and I’m really happy for him. He’s so humble and he’s been a great teammate for the other guys, too.”
The draft conversations are unavoidable and Lewis admits he really doesn’t go out of his way to escape them. He was still two months shy of his 18th birthday on Draft Day 2013 and he’ll be two months short of his 21st birthday on the first day of this year’s draft, but he’s a lot more grounded and accepting of the expectations. He talks about staying in the moment and how he prefers to think about ways he can get better and fine-tune his skills instead thinking about the decisions of others that he can’t control.
He wants only to become the best player he can possibly be and he’s confident that if he able to achieve that, the door to a selection early in the first-round of the draft will swing open wide enough to drive a truck full of met expectations right through with room to spare.
“That’s definitely the dream and it’s definitely what I’ve been dreaming about for a while,” Lewis said. “If that is an opportunity that I get it’s something that I would definitely celebrate. I’d just thank God for giving me the opportunity and the ability to be able to sign a professional contract and wear one of those jerseys one day. You never know how these things go so I try not to get too caught up in it or take it for granted, but that would definitely be a dream come true.”