Back when top Georgia school boy prospect Riley Stanford walked out onto a backfield at the JetBlue Park Player Development Complex in Fort Myers, Fla., over the Labor Day Weekend in 2018, he wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
Stanford, even then a highly regarded outfielder and right-handed pitcher prospect from Gainesville, Ga., had been invited to perform at the 3rd annual Perfect Game 14u Select Baseball Festival along with more than three-dozen other top guns primarily from the high school grad class of 2022.
The young players had gotten a chance to meet one another the day before at the event hotel in Bonita Springs, but at that first practice session they were still in that “getting to know you” stage. What Stanford didn’t know was that he was receiving a real-time look into the not-so-distant future, a future that as of the weekend of Aug. 20-22, will be very much in the here and now.
Eleven players who can identify themselves as alumni of the 2018 PG 14u Select Fest will be in San Diego in a little over a week as 2021 PG All-Americans, an elite fraternity that includes now-No. 1-ranked Elijah Green, No. 2 Termarr Johnson, No. 3 Dylan Lesko and No. 4 Andruw Jones amongst its ranks. And No. 17 Riley Stanford, who was what he considered to be a kid in the know that weekend, was about to have his eyes opened ever so wide.
“It made me realize just how much talent there is out there and how much I need to compete with other kids,” Stanford told PG during a recent chat over the phone. “Before that I thought I was the best of the best and then I get there and it was like a wake-up call, almost.
“It was oh my gosh, there are kids better than me, bigger than me, [they] throw harder than me, [they] hit farther than me. It was one of those things where, OK, now it’s time to turn it on and time to start kicking it into gear.”
Glancing down from afar three years later it’s obvious that Stanford, an athletic 6-foot-4, 225-pounder and a senior at prep powerhouse Buford (Ga.) High School and a Georgia Tech commit, took the time to both turn it on and kick it into gear.
The first clue came into view almost immediately when Stanford not only played in the ’18 Select Fest but was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. And now there’s this sense that this terrific tale is coming full-circle: Riley Stanford is a PG All-American.
He called his selection to perform at the Classic “an incredible honor” especially when taking into account how many former PGAAs are now playing at the highest level in the major leagues. He called it “just crazy” to try to comprehend how he was able to put in the work required to reach this rung on the ladder.
“It’s very hard to be picked as a PG All-American but when you get that call and they tell you that you are one, it’s just a sigh of relief,” he said, “and everything that you’ve worked for is finally paying off.”
The son of Ron and April Stanford, Riley has been brought up in a baseball family. Ron Stanford pitched at Georgia Southern, as did Riley’s uncle Paul Thornton; Thornton was a 6th round pick of the Marlins in the 1993 MLB Amateur Draft and advanced as far as the Triple-A level before retiring.
Stanford was back in home in Gainesville, Ga., and on his way to school when he spoke with PG Wednesday morning. Classes started at Buford High last week but Stanford wasn’t there the first couple of days because he was at the East Coast Pro Showcase over in Hoover, Ala.
Like just about every one of the other PG All-Americans that will be gathering in San Diego late next week, Stanford, who has been rostered at nearly 70 PG events since his 14u season, is coming off a summer of play where the world “whirlwind” seems embarrassingly inadequate.
After competing for the PG High School national championship contender Buford Wolves during the spring – the team that won a PG HS Showdown championship in early March – Stanford played in seven WWBA tournaments with the Georgia Bombers 17u Marucci in a 6½-week span.
He earned all-tournament recognition at four of those, including the WWBA 18u National Championship June 24-July 1 at PG’s Top Chops East Cobb Complex in Marietta, Ga.; Stanford has been named PG all-tournament 36 times during his career, all while playing with the Bombers.
The PG 17u National Elite Championship in Hoover was up next, followed by the WWBA 17u National Championship in Marietta. Then it was time for the prestigious, invitation-only PG National Showcase at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Stanford managed to shine under The Trops’ tented roof, too, running a 6.86-second 60, throwing 97 mph from the outfield and delivering fastballs that sat 94-96 mph and topped out at 97.
“When I got to the National, I had already done most of my tournaments,” Stanford said. “I’d been to different places...and I’d pitched, hit and I was definitely at that point of the season that I was at my best. I was healthy and I was playing at the best of my abilities.”
During these post-National weeks, he took part in the MLB/USA Baseball Prospect Development Pipeline and at its conclusion he learned he had made the 40-man roster for the USA Baseball 18u National Team Trials. He then returned to Hoover for the East Coast Pro Showcase, which concluded last week.
“It’s been really busy but I know what I have to do,” Stanford said. “Of course it’s going to be busy but I know I need to do it for my future, and it’s paid off a lot; this summer I’ve done better than many of my past years.”
Stanford has been a part of the Cumming-based Georgia Bombers organization since he was 13 years old and playing up at the 14u level. He realized early on that he had found the perfect fit with a program that, like himself, loves to win a lot of ballgames. The Bombers 17u Marucci finished the summer at 34-10-0 overall.
“It kind of goes hand-in-hand,” Stanford said. “I like winning, they like winning so I might as well stick with them. They’re a hometown team – most of the players are from right around the same area – and they’re all really good players...I love the Bombers and if I had to do it all over again I’d probably stay with the same team.”
Some of his more prominent Bombers 17u Marucci teammates from the ’22 class include fellow Georgia Tech commits Logan Bogue (No. 185-ranked) and Parker Brosius (No. 331).
And then there is the program at Buford High School, undeniably one of the strongest not only in the uber-competitive Southeast but in the entire country. The Wolves under the direction of head coach Stuart Chester won PG High School Showdown championships in 2019 and ’21 with not only Stanford on board but also elite right-handed ace Dylan Lesko (No. 3, Vanderbilt) constantly at the ready.
Joining Stanford, the Buford roster also includes a couple of other highly touted Ramblin’ Wreck 2022 recruits in infielders Brant Baughcum (No. 153) and Jackson Gaspard (t-500).
The Wolves held down the No. 1 spot in the PG High School National Top 50 Rankings most of the 2021 season and stood 32-0 when they were stunned in a best of three series by Pope in the second round of the Georgia Class AAAAAA playoffs; Buford (32-2) finished No. 8 in the final rankings.
“It’s really an experience,” Stanford said when asked what it’s like to be part of the Wolves’ program. “Normally in high school you don’t play as good of teams and with as good of players as we do, so being able to (accomplish) that is like a surreal experience.
“The coaches are great; they’ve treated me so well,” he added. “It’s all really thanks to them that I’m in the position I’m in today.”
It is certainly not unprecedented to have two or more players from the same high school or academy named PG All-Americans the same year; in fact it’s become somewhat commonplace.
This year alone Jackson Ferris, Elijah Green and Brady Neal all played at Florida’s IMG Academy in the spring; Brock Porter and Nolan Schubart are at Michigan powerhouse Orchard Lake St. Mary’s; and Ryan Clifford and Eli Serrano are at North Carolina’s Pro5 Baseball Academy.
Lesko and Stanford are obviously part of that too: “We’re good friends outside of the ball field,” Stanford said. “We’ll have classes together; we’ll hang out and it’s nice knowing there’s someone else that understands the situation you’re in of being a potential first round draft pick and a PG All-American...I have someone that’s in the same situation as me in the same school as me.”
Riley Stanford has long been thought of as a two-way talent but even more so recently as his fastball velocity has climbed into the mid-upper-90s. He certainly considers himself a two-way player and at this point in time he wants to keep it that way. It’s noteworthy that PG ranks him as an outfielder (No. 5 nationally) although he has been invited to the Classic as a pitcher (hint: expect him to both pitch and hit).
He knows it’s probably difficult for people to watch what he does on the mound and not automatically think that he’s a pitcher-first prospect. But when those same people see what he’s capable of doing with a bat in his hands it’s like, wait a minute; not so fast.
“It’s just one of those situations where I can do both well,” Stanford said. “I see it in my eyes and I know my college coaches [at Georgia Tech] and some scouts also see that in me too.”
Playing for Tom “Flash” Gordon’s team at the 2018 14u Select Fest, Stanford doubled and tripled and threw one no-hit shutout inning with a strikeout (no walks) in earning that coveted MVP trophy; he was the only batter in either lineup to collect multiple hits.
“That’s my game right there and hopefully I can continue to do it in the future,” Stanford told PG during postgame comments that night. “This is amazing. I’m with the best players, and not only are they the best players but they’re the best people.”
So now Riley Stanford is going to be reunited for the umpteenth time with all of his brothers in arms and on this occasion it will be at beautiful Petco Park in beautiful downtown San Diego. He’ll smile and embrace the aforementioned ’18 Festival alums, along with the others like Jared Jones, Tristan Smith, Tucker Toman, Mikey Romero, Sal Stewart and Cole Young.
To say he’s looking forward to it just might deserve a spot on the Mount Rushmore of understatements: “It’s always going to be fun,” Stanford said. “We’re going to be in San Diego playing on a field that all these major-leaguers, the best players in the world, have played on. At first I think we’re all going to be in shock about how we’re even there.
“But then the game will start and we’ll all be cutting up and laughing around and when it gets to our time, we don’t want to disappoint. We want to show why we’re there and at the same time have fun with it and enjoy it while it lasts.”
Kind of reminds a fan of an early September evening in Fort Myers three years ago; kind of reminds a fan that everyone has a reason to believe that the future is now.