FORT MYERS, Fla. – Ever since the Perfect Game National Underclass Showcase-Main Event secured Dec. 28-30 as its annual spot on the PG event calendar in 2004, it has welcomed thousands of the top underclass prospects from across North American to the late December comforts Southwest Florida has to offer.
As proof of this, 817 alumni of the event were eventually selected in the MLB June Amateur Draft to date and 124 of those went on to make their big league debuts.
But an argument can be made that the true beneficiaries of a mega-showcase like the Main Event are the underclass prospects like 2021 catcher/shortstop Sergio Guerra, a high school junior who calls the small Texas town of San Diego home.
The 17-year-old Guerra is here this weekend competing at this year’s National Underclass-Main Event, right alongside with about 800 of his newest, closest friends. This is the second straight year Guerra has attended the ME – it is his seventh PG showcase event in the last two years – and he came in this year feeling right at home at the jetBlue Park Player Development Complex.
“I like getting exposed out here to all the (PG scouts) and trying to put up better numbers,” Guerra told PG Sunday after completing play in his second game of the event on a backfield at the jetBlue complex. “The first one of these I ever did I wasn’t really relaxed, but now that I’ve come to these things, I can stay pretty (focused).”
A 6-foot, 180-pound right-handed thrower and hitter, Guerra certainly came out and performed in a relaxed fashion during Saturday morning’s workout session, turning in top-6 performances in all three of his drills. He threw an event-best 84 mph from home plate to second in full catcher’s gear and also recorded a Pop Time of 1.86-seconds, the sixth best effort of the day; his 90 mph throw across the infield was tied for sixth-best.
Guerra is here this weekend with his dad, Pete Guerra, a former catcher himself who was a 32nd round pick of the Indians back in 1990 out of Laredo (Texas) Community College who played two minor league seasons in 1990-91.Pete feels like it was important for his son to make a return visit to the National Underclass-Main Event with all that it has to offer.
“We really just want to see how he compares with other kids and see what we need to work on,” he told PG on Sunday. “We come from a small town and we do a lot hunting and fishing and outdoor stuff. There’s baseball there but it’s just seasonal; it’s not year-around baseball.”
Baseball isn’t the only sport at which Guerra excels. He is a defensive back on the San Diego HS football team and has been named a Texas Class 3A first team all-stater each of the last two seasons.
But Pete Guerra has installed a batting cage at their home and the Guerra’s try to do as much year-around baseball as possible, keeping the younger Guerra sharp when baseball beckons in late December.
Guerra has been playing baseball ever since he was old enough to hold a ball in his hands and he considers himself a primary catcher. He plays shortstop for his high school team but generally crouches down behind the plate at PG events.
As evidenced by his workout results, arm strength is certainly Guerra’s top tool. He continues to work on developing the other tools that make a ballplayer complete, and he’s shown improvement as he makes his way through his high school years.
The National Underclass-Main Event is definitely a melting pot of talent, with the young prospects arriving for three days in the Florida sunshine from near and far. Guerra is a member of the 42-Red squad – there are 52 teams at the showcase – and its roster features players from Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas.
“It’s about meeting all these new guys and making a lot of new friends and seeing a lot of new ballplayers,” Sergio Guerra said. “There’s a lot of good competition … and it makes you want to work harder than them after seeing them play.”
Guerra’s showcase experiences have all been positive, and he has the accolades to back that statement up. He made the Top Prospect Team at last year’s Underclass-Main Event and the Top Prospect List at the 2018 and 2019 PG Sunshine South and at the 2018 and 2019 PG South Top Prospect showcases.
In the days before a showcase is scheduled to get underway, Guerra said he’ll sit down with his dad and they’ll talk about what they hope to accomplish at the event. They’ll talk specifically about the workout numbers they’ll try to reach, with the idea of improving on those numbers with each new showcase.
That definitely happened this weekend. His 84 mph catcher velo was a noticeable improvement on his 79 mph effort here a year ago; his Pop Time improved from 1.95-seconds to 1.86; his 90 mph throw across the infield was a 3 mph improvement over the 87 mph effort from last year.
Guerra came into the weekend ranked as a top-500 national prospect in the class of 2021 and as the No. 60 overall 2021 prospect in the state of Texas. Those are impressive rankings no matter how they’re sliced but the Guerra’s are looking for more.
“Hopefully we can take it to the next level,” Pete said. “I tell him what it takes – the work ethic and the dedication – and sometimes you’ve got to sacrifice. His buddies are probably out right now messing around with their girlfriends or playing video games and you’re out here busting your butt in the sun.
“But with this experience out here he gets to meet a lot of different kids from all over the country and he stays in contact with them.”
San Diego, Texas, is a town of about 4,500 hard-working folks located in southeast Texas. It lies about 60 miles west of Corpus Christi, 90 miles east of Laredo and roughly 120 miles north of the border with Mexico; Guerra is a junior at San Diego High School.
He has also committed to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, a public research university with more than 27,000 students spread across multiple campuses throughout Texas’ Rio Grande Valley region. Its baseball program competes in the Western Athletic Conference as an NCAA Division I school.
“We went to a (camp) out there and we did pretty good, so the coaches gave me an offer,” Guerra said of his commitment. “I really liked it there, so I took the offer and I’m verbally committed right now.”
Sergio Guerra doesn’t mince words when he speaks of the influence his father has had on his baseball career: “He’s had a big (impact) because I want to be like him or even better than him,” Sergio said with a smile. “He pushes me a lot.”
Pete, for his part, just wants to play the role of responsible parent, hoping to guide his son down the straight and narrow path that leads to success in both the present and the future.
“I always tell him it’s not what you do in practice it’s what you do after practice that’s going to make you better than everybody else; you’re going to get what you work for and not what you wish for,” Pete said. “My dad was a school-teacher and not into athletics, so he kept me working at the ranch. You’re only a kid once in your life and he’s got to take advantage of his youth.”
The message of taking of advantage of your youth is probably a difficult one for a teenager to really comprehend, but Sergio Guerra is taking advantage of the baseball opportunities that have been presented to him.
He’s a young man that still has two more seasons of high school baseball in front of him, and a world of opportunity awaits when that chapter of his life closes and the next one opens. An experience like the one he’s enjoying at the PG National Underclass Showcase-Main Event may end up being nothing more than a footnote but it’s valuable, nonetheless.
“Like I tell him, all this baseball stuff and athletics, it’s all lessons in life,” Pete Guerra said. “You’re part of a team and you’re working (toward) a goal, and once you go out in life and you get a job you’re going to be part of another team, so you’ve got to keep the same work ethic.
“Not too many people make a career in baseball,” he concluded, “but I think it will make him a better person.”