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Summer Collegiate  | Story  | 6/19/2018

From the PGCBL to the Pros

Nate Schweers      Patrick Ebert     
Photo: Brett Kinneman (NC State Athletics)

Another year of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) is underway, and many of the country’s top prospects are taking their talents to upstate New York to compete against other stars of tomorrow. The PGCBL is no stranger to welcoming future MLB talent to the league, and this year, a former Amsterdam Mohawk was the next to join the list.

The Pittsburgh Pirates took Brett Kinneman in the seventh round of this year’s MLB First Year Player Draft. While the former North Carolina State standout will be joining the Single-A West Virginia Power for the season, Kinneman first burst onto the scene with an outstanding summer for the Amsterdam Mohawks in 2016.

Leading up to his summer in the PGCBL, Kinneman was a good athlete that had just had an impressive freshman season at NC State. After hitting two home runs in the first 13 games of the summer, Kinneman’s season was cut short due to a shoulder injury that sent him home; however, his short time was enough to rank his as Perfect Game’s ninth best prospect in the league in 2016.

“It was awesome. I was fortunate enough that probably about halfway through my freshman year I started to play a lot. I really enjoyed my time and I made some adjustments the first couple of days because once you adjust from high school to college you kind of get used to that atmosphere,” said Kinneman in a recent phone interview with Perfect Game, one day after he had inked his deal with the Pirates. “And then wherever you go for the summers you have to adjust to that, especially using a wood bat in the summer collegiate leagues.

“It’s a pretty fun place to play, the atmosphere is great, a lot of people come out to watch the games and I felt I had a good experience. I got to meet some new guys, play with some (new) guys and we had a really good year winning the championship with a bunch of really good players, and I thought the competition was pretty good as well.”

Before his days at NC State and beyond, Kinneman was just another high school baseball player hoping to find a home at the next level. Kinneman, knowing he wanted to participate in the Perfect Game National Showcase, made a trip to Vineland, N.J., for the Sunshine Northeast Showcase in 2014. Following the showcase, he got the invite he was looking for.

“I had talked about wanting to attend the National, and through the grapevine I heard that was the avenue I had to go to do that (attend the National Showcase),” Kinneman said. “I got to spend a week down there (Fort Myers, Fla.) with the best players in the country to see how I stacked up with those guys. I kind of viewed myself as a college guy, I didn’t really feel like signing out of high school was for me, but I (played with) a lot of guys who started their professional career right away. Competing with guys like that and seeing how you line up was a lot of fun, to be around the quality of those players.”

Kinneman has made big strides in his game since 2014, and even 2016 when he played for the Mohawks. The 6-foot, 187-pound lefthanded hitter and thrower was on display in front of Perfect Game staff this spring in a series against highly ranked Clemson. Kinneman flashed solid tools in the field, and a line drive approach during batting practice that appealed to many of the scouts in attendance.

NC State had a lot of success this year, serving as a host in Regional play with the No. 16 national seed. Kinneman was a large part of that success, blasting 17 home runs on his way to an ACC-leading 60 RBI in his junior season. A successful junior year after earning Freshman All-America honors in his first season with the Wolfpack set the stage for a call from the Pirates in last week’s MLB First Year Player Draft.

The PGCBL is no stranger to producing next level talent, and Kinneman is just the next name in a long list of professionals that have made a name for themselves in upstate New York. This year alone, 38 PGCBL alums were chosen in the draft. Kinneman’s former team, the Amsterdam Mohawks, was the league leader in draft picks for the second year in a row.

Outside of Kinneman, the Mohawks had a pair of first round competitive balance picks in Lenny Torres Jr. (St. Johns, Amsterdam 2018) and Griffin Roberts (Wake Forest, Amsterdam 2016). A former Mohawk was taken again early in the second round, as the Rays selected Tyler Frank (Florida Atlantic, Amsterdam 2016). In total, Amsterdam would have 11 former players taken in this year’s draft.

The Mohawks are one of the consistently great teams in the PGCBL, and it is no coincidence that they consistently bring in some of the top players in the nation as well.

Brian Spagnola has been the President of the Amsterdam Mohawks since 2003. A lifetime resident of Amsterdam, Spagnola believes the mix of young talent and veteran guys are what drive the success of the team year in and year out.

“We’ve historically gone with a combination of high-end freshman talent from around the country and veterans from Division I’s in the northeast,” said Spagnola. “The mix of guys really helps bring out the best in our team, and we’ve noticed that you can't have too many young guys, but you also need the young guys throughout the course of the summer.”

Kinneman was one of the young guys who played a big role for the Amsterdam Mohawks during his summer. Players like Kinneman continue to show up in Amsterdam each year, keeping the Mohawks at the top of the league consistently.

“We have great host families and a great atmosphere in Amsterdam that makes it feel like a minor league venue. We have gotten to the point where we really don't need to recruit anymore, the same teams just continue excellent players each summer.”

After the Mohawks, other notable players taken in this year’s draft include Sean Hjelle (Kentucky, Elmira 2016), Adam Scott (Wofford, Oneonta 2015), and Solomon Bates (USC, Newark 2016).

While Spagnola and the Amsterdam Mohawks have recently had some of the higher draft numbers in the league, he thinks that the league as a whole is benefitting from the talent that can be found each year, and that we will see more and more top conference talent heading to the league.

“I think the players that we have gotten has kind of opened the door for a lot of other power conference schools to send guys here as well,” said Spagnola. “That actually kind of started a few years back when John Mayotte, who used to be the head coach at Troy, coached the Glens Falls team in our league and really had good teams and forced everyone else to recruit better. I think that trend is continuing today and a lot of teams are making sure they take guys who can really play.”

The PGCBL had its inaugural season in 2011, and has quickly blossomed into of the country’s premier player development summer leagues. In addition to its own events, Perfect Game continues to see better and better players committing to spending their summer on one of the 13 teams in the league.

“From a developmental standpoint it’s awesome,” Kinneman added of his experience. “However many at-bats, however much you played during the springtime there’s probably one or two things you know that you need to get better at during the summer. Getting more at-bats, getting live reps, infielders, outfielders, whatever, it’s just big because obviously the sport has grown into more of a year-round thing and you have to continue to play.

“Even to be able to play with good players and bounce ideas off of them. Me personally I felt I really developed playing around good players with the competition being good to get more and more reps.”

As the PGCBL continues to grow, expect to see more and more players like Kinneman getting their shot in the pros as league alums. As time goes on, this young league in upstate New York will continue to attract the best of the best for summers of player development, fun and memories.
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