By now Justin Morneau, Joey Votto and Russell Martin are familiar names to any baseball fan, but Canadian talent extends beyond the big leagues.
The Seattle Mariners made Gareth Morgan their second round draft pick this summer (while paying him a $2 million bonus), and at the amateur level there’s more talent on the way, as evidenced by Josh Naylor and others at last week’s Tournament 12 in Toronto.
Greg Hamilton, Baseball Canada’s head coach and director of national teams, sees the talent up close and is impressed by it. But Hamilton, who was named the most influential Canadian in baseball by the Toronto Sun’s Bob Elliott in 2011, insists that there’s little to be gained by over-hyping teenagers who are still many steps away from establishing themselves. Instead, he works to make sure the players slow down.
“I always say that it’s very difficult to make a teenager a 24-year-old both mentally and physically from a performance perspective,” Hamilton said. “We try to keep the focus on the field. Keep the focus on their game, and on what they can do well and to not be in a hurry.”
Hours after returning from an unexpectedly long trip with the junior national team, Hamilton sat down with Sportsnet at Tournament 12 to discuss player development, dealing with pressure and some top Canadian prospects:
When you have a tournament like this and you have players of different ages and skillsets and obviously from different parts of the country, what do you look for from players of this age?
“You look for players who can play up, who have that physicality and projectability to play the game at the next level, and in particular those who can embrace the game when the game speeds up. You’ve got to find guys who can physically catch up to the game at the next level.”
When you’re looking at players of this age, I’d imagine there’s a big development curve and they can probably change a lot in a couple years as far as what their skillset is, so how do you deal with that as someone who’s evaluating these players?
“Again, I think you look at the projectability of players’ physicality for lack of a better term, and is there going to be enough strength to catch up to the game at the next level? Is there going to be enough speed to catch up to the game at the next level? I think if you can embrace the strength and speed components of the game, both as a position player and as a pitcher and you can project those as a young player, then you have somebody that has the chance to impact the game at higher levels. It’s certainly a lot of projection, but it’s I think visible, too. You can pick it out.”
A lot of people talk about baseball as being as skill game, and there’s no doubt that there’s a lot of skill involved, but how much of it is coaching and practice and getting those repetitions in and how much of it is innate ability?
“There’s no substitute for talent. Talent is born. I think we as coaches work with it. I think also there’s a huge mental component to that, and it’s the ability to manage failure in the game, because there’s an awful lot of failure, especially for hitters and pitchers experience that as they grow and mature, too. The ability for a player to handle the failure aspects of the game as they move up is really significant in realizing their potential.”
What do you tell players when they are experiencing that failure?
“I think you try to get a player to understand what he potentially can do well. Not to be burdened by his limitations, to focus on his strengths and to realize that it is a game of failure in many ways and it’s how you manage that failure that’s by and large going to allow you to be successful going forward. I think a big part of them realizing the things that they can do and not being preoccupied by the limitations they might have. There’s not too many five-tool players.”
You’ve worked with a lot of players over the years and a lot of big success stories. What’s the most rewarding part for you, or the best part about working with players of this age?
“Just having the opportunity to have an impact on their lives. Hopefully help them as baseball players, move forward in the game, realize their potential and help them as people move forward and have quality of life. You have the opportunity where they’re at an age where there’s a lot of challenges emotionally and physically. They’re maturing and growing and being able to be a part of that is tremendously rewarding.”
Obviously the hope would be that as many of these players make the big leagues as possible, but I guess the reality is there are only so many big league roster spots, so what’s your thinking for guys who maybe don’t graduate to that next level. What role can playing baseball competitively play in their lives?
“I tend to look at it along the lines that we try to move as many players forward into the collegiate environment as we can. That’s where most of our players out of high school will end up. Those that are going to be high school pros by and large they have separating talent and it’s fairly obvious. Those that make those decisions recognize that and they get rewarded. I don’t think you do so much to create that as you do to ensure that the vast majority of those kids have opportunities to continue playing after high school in the collegiate world. When you continue to play you never know.”
Some of the guys in this tournament who just got here have really stood out in the eyes of some observers. Josh Naylor, what do you see in him. He’s obviously a powerful player, but what has impressed you about Josh?
“Josh is a special hitter. You don’t see too many high school hitters with that type of power, but most importantly in Josh’s case he’s got the ability to get to that power with a lot of consistency. Most high school hitters that are projectable power guys, they tend to swing and miss a fair amount as young players, and Josh has always had the ability to barrel the baseball, find the baseball and get to his power.”
With [outfielder Jean-Francois Garon] earlier today I saw him hit a triple. It seems like he has some pretty good speed. What do you see in him?
“He’s an athletic kid. His hands work as a hitter. He’s got a frame that’s going to fill out and I think he’s going to be a very solid player going forward. I think he’ll have plenty of opportunities to play collegiately, and I think he’s going to get some professional interest all in due course.”
What about [Mike] Soroka? It seems like he’s one to watch for as well?
“He’s going to be real good. His arm works real well. He’s got in my mind the ability to win and be successful without his best stuff. He commands three pitches and he’s a kid that I think’s going to be an outstanding pitcher with a lot of opportunity coming his way going forward.”
Are there any other players that you think specifically should be watched?
“Demi Orimoloye. A special athlete that’s learning the game of baseball. You don’t see physicality like that and dimension like that on a baseball field in Canada too often, or even for that matter in the game period. He’s got size, he’s got strength, he’s got speed. He just has to learn the aspects of applying those attributes to the game of baseball. It’s coming and he’s got a chance to be a real, real special player.”
For all of these guys, and some of them heading into their draft year, you are helping them adjust to the spotlight and some bigger pressures. What’s your role in that? What do you tell them about that?
“I’m a big believer in keeping it grounded, keeping it in the moment. I always say that it’s very difficult to make a teenager a 24-year-old both mentally and physically from a performance perspective. We try to keep the focus on the field. Keep the focus on their game, and on what they can do well and to not be in a hurry. That’s a big thing for kids nowadays. There’s so much more visibility, so much more scrutiny on young players and so much opportunity out there, but oftentimes players get in a hurry. They want everything today. They want developmental challenges to be close today and instead of focusing on taking care of things today, they get preoccupied with what may or may not happen tomorrow and it’s counter-productive. We try real hard to keep them grounded and keep them in the moment developmentally and focused on things that really will make a difference.”
