FORT MYERS, Fla. – It started Friday, this infestation of 13-year-olds swarming over the regulation-sized baseball fields at the jetBlue Player Development Complex, the Player Development 5-Plex and City of Palms Park down here in Lee County, Fla.
Perfect Game values, appreciates and most certainly encourages the participation of the 62 13-and-under teams from across the country taking part in the 13u PG BCS Finals and 13u PG Super25 National Championship tournaments running concurrently June 24-30. The budding prospects on those rosters are, after all, the true stars of tomorrow.
But in an effort to not totally escape a spotlight of their own, 28 home-state teams with considerably older prospects on their rosters converged on venerable old Terry Park Saturday – with one game played at COP Park – to contend for the title at the 2nd annual 18u PG WWBA Florida State Championship, which runs Saturday through Tuesday. It’s an event for Florida teams only that comes on the heels of the 18u PG BCS Finals, played June 10-16 here in Fort Myers, and the 18u PG WWBA National Championship, contested June 18-24 in Cartersville, Ga.
This was an important tournament to attend for an outfit like Delray Beach-based Florida Stealth 17u Red, because it skipped last week’s 18u PG WWBA tournament up in Georgia. It was at the 18u PG BCS Finals, however, and finished as runner-up in that event with a 6-1-0 record, losing to Georgia-based Team Elite 17’s Prime in the championship game.
“Perfect Game tournaments are always a test because they do bring in the best and the brightest of the prospects,” Florida Stealth 17u Red head coach David Manning said Saturday morning from inside the first base dugout at Terry Park Stadium. “You’re always going to end up playing the people that you are hopefully going to be playing at the next level, and you can show your skill-set against them.”
Manning and his Florida Stealth 17u Red assistant coach, Chris Ashby, combined to play 32 seasons of professional baseball and became friends with former big-league left-hander and current director of the Perfect Game Series, Ben Ford, when all three were enjoying their playing days; Manning and Ashby also got to know PG President Jerry Ford, Ben’s father.
Once Manning started doing individual instruction with high school-aged pitchers, he noticed that many of them were signing college letter-of-intents or profession contracts after playing for travel ball teams at PG tournaments.
“Perfect Game was the only show in town and now when you come here you realize that Perfect Game is the prestigious name,” Manning said. “I would say about 90 percent of the schools look to Perfect Game when I call them about any kid I have working with me, so getting to these events is of vital importance. That’s why I try to get these guys into every Perfect Game tournament I can because (PG) is the Yankees of travel ball.”
This Florida Stealth 17u Red roster was built around pitching prospects to whom Manning was giving private lessons; the pitcher, in turn, used their own networking skills to add position players around them. The Florida Stealth organization, owned and operated by Fort Lauderdale attorney Anthony Russo, had previously fielded younger age-group teams and Manning gave them their first 17u team.
And this 17u roster is a talented one, led by 2017 right-hander Brandon McCabe and 2017 lefty Sawyer Losey, both of whom will join the team one of the next three days when it’s their turn to pitch. McCabe is a home-schooled University of Miami commit from Boynton Beach who touched 95 mph with his fastball at last week’s PG National Showcase and is ranked No. 54 nationally; Losey is a home-schooled Florida State University recruit from Wellington ranked No. 261 nationally. 2017 right-hander/third baseman Max Charnin from Boynton Beach recently committed to Palm Beach State College and has been playing for the Florida Stealth organization since last October.
“This is a great team and we all play well together,” Charnin said Saturday. “We have great team chemistry … and we seem to always go pretty deep into all of our tournaments. With most of these kids, we’ve known each other for a couple of years. We all live pretty close to each other and we go to different high schools, but it’s fun when we play against each other, too.”
Florida Stealth 17u Red got Saturday’s pool-play at the 18u PG WWBA Florida State Championship under way in fine fashion, taking down the Clay Cobras out of Green Grove Springs, 9-1 in six innings. Josh Katinger homered, drove in two runs and scored two runs; Chase Ashby tripled, singled, drove in two and scored two, and Trevor Wever doubled and drove in a run; all are 2017s.
2018 right-hander Justin Rivero, the Most Valuable Pitcher at the 18u PG BCS Finals, started and threw four two-hit innings, allowing one earned run, striking out four and walking two.
“I’m always trying to do the best that I can and see if I can get to where I want to go,” Rivero said Saturday. “We’re all trying to get better and after every tournament you’re always going to have learned something. We always look forward to Perfect Game (tournaments). It’s always a good environment with good competition, and everybody in the stands is looking at you. That’s really what makes it fun.”
Manning, a right-handed pitcher, played professionally in 15 seasons over 16 years (1992-2007), sitting out 2001 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The Texas Rangers selected him in the third-round of the 1992 MLB Amateur Draft out of Palm Beach (Fla.) Community College and he played all or parts of 13 seasons in the minor leagues. Interestingly, he also had stints in the Mexican League, Mexican Pacific Winter League and the Venezuelan Winter League.
His chance to enjoy a taste of The Show came in 2003 when he started two games for the National League’s Milwaukee Brewers, at the age of 30. His organizational affiliations throughout his career were with the Rangers, Cubs, Twins, Brewers and Orioles.
Since starting to work with young pitchers giving individual lessons, Manning has reached the conclusion there is a difference in what MLB front offices are looking for today than what they were looking for when he was coming up. He senses they are after “polished pitchers,” the guys who can work through a talented batting order without any “for-sure” outs anywhere one-through-nine, and that’s what a pitcher faces at a PG tournament.
With every team playing at a Perfect Game tournament now required to be in full compliance with MLB and USA Baseball Pitch Smart Guidelines, Manning has had to readjust his way of thinking, mostly because it differs slightly from way he learned the game.
“I’ve always thought innings over-shot pitches; that’s just my humble opinion,” he said. “I think the up-and-down (of consecutive innings) is what kicks your ass more than the 45, 50 or 60 pitch-count. Obviously, if you’re throwing 23 or 24 pitches an inning, you don’t want to go three or four innings, but if a guy is out there throwing six, eight or 10 pitches over seven innings, I think that can become more taxing because he’s gone up-and-down seven times.”
The 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds took over the fields at Terry Park Saturday morning, and with coaches like Manning looking after their best interests, their parents and future coaches at the collegiate or professional level can rest assured they are in good hands. Just as the 13-year-olds playing over at the 5-Plex or down at the jetBlue complex are in good hands, as well.
The main lesson Manning will try to teach to his young men over the next four days is that consistency is what is most required in baseball, especially at the higher levels of play. Every player is going to experience an O-fer at the plate or get roughed-up out on the mound at some point during the summer but it is how a player reacts to those bumps in the road that is going to foresee his future.
“What I look for mostly is consistency in their thought process and in their skill-set,” Manning said. “At an event like this, we’re hoping the guys are learning the humility of the game; it’s not like other sports. You can go 4-for-4 with two home runs today and tomorrow strikeout four times, so I’m hoping they can take away that mental toughness; that’s how you get to the next level. You want them to learn what the idiosyncrasies are in this game. It’s the mental approach more than anything.”