{"id":545,"date":"2013-07-27T23:28:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-27T23:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=545"},"modified":"2013-07-27T23:28:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-27T23:28:32","slug":"jackets-spenser-watkins-puts-on-a-perfect-show-helps-his-goal-of-being-a-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=545","title":{"rendered":"‘Jackets’ Spenser Watkins puts on a perfect show, helps his goal of being a pro"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Spencer<\/a><\/p>\n

Spenser Watkins<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Terry Mosher<\/p>\n

Editor, Sports Paper<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is the ambition of almost every player who puts on a baseball uniform to someday get paid for play.<\/p>\n

Spenser Watkins is no different. His parents moved so he could play at a prestigious baseball high school, he spent two years at a community college and last year at Western Oregon University, which has a highly thought of baseball program, and this summer for the first time since high school he\u2019s playing ball.<\/p>\n

All of his baseball playing serves two purposes that intersect. One, its so he can get better and two so he can get noticed by pro scouts and get drafted, perhaps even by his favorite team, the Chicago White Sox.<\/p>\n

It would help his cause, sure, if something positive and extraordinary would happen. But you can\u2019t rely on minor miracles.<\/p>\n

Or can you?<\/p>\n

Watkins sure can try. He went out Friday\u00a0 (July 26) at the baseball park at the Kitsap Fairgrounds and did what every little boy with a glove and ball and a dream fantasizes about.<\/p>\n

The six-foot-one, 185-pound right-hander tossed not just a no-no. That would be incredible enough. But a perfect game \u2013 the first in West Coast League history \u2011to lead the Kitsap BlueJackets to a 2-0 victory over visiting Victoria.<\/p>\n

Imagine that? A perfect game in which no Victoria HarborCats\u2019 player reached base. Watkins struck out 10 and got his first win for the BlueJackets, and you can imagine pro scouts are now scrambling to catch the next ferry to Bremerton to see what is going on.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll have to wait. Watkins isn\u2019t scheduled to pitch again on this homestand. They may have to rent a car and drive to Klamath Falls in Oregon to see him pitch again.<\/p>\n

It is weird how some things work. Watkins said he didn\u2019t warm up very well in the bullpen before taking the mound Friday. But once he got on the mound he was perfect.<\/p>\n

Before Friday\u2019s game, BlueJackets\u2019 manager Ryan Parker said of all his pitchers Watkins had the best pro potential. There is little question about that now.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a good fastball (high 80s, low 90s), locates his off-speed down in the zone,\u201d said Parker. \u201cHe was an all-star (West Coast League) for us this year. He\u2019ll be at senior next year (Western Oregon) and I think he\u2019ll get a shot to play pro ball. He\u2019s got the stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker got Watkins by calling Western Oregon and asking if the coach had a couple arms. Watkins and Gary Steindorf, another right-hander, were sent. Steindorf was sent back after developing arm problem.<\/p>\n

The Bend Elks of the WCL were also interested in Watkins, so Parker is very pleased he is with the BlueJackets.<\/p>\n

Actually, Watkins, who threw a perfect inning in The WCL All-Star game on July 23, has been battling a sore back. Parker had been giving him some time off here and there. Watkins said it felt good prior to his perfect game.<\/p>\n

Watkins, the youngest of four sons, was living with the family in the Tempe, Az., when they moved to Paradise Valley (north Phoenix near Scottsdale) so he could attend Horizon High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents learned about Horizon and really wanted me to go to a good baseball school, so they moved out to that area,\u201d says Watkins. \u201cI was just two minutes away from Horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of Watkins older brothers were also good baseball player. Tanner Watkins was a pitcher who was drafted by the Marlins. His career ended when he blew out a shoulder in his first year after playing at South Mountain Community College in Arizona.<\/p>\n

Watkins went to Glendale Community College out of high school. One of the coaches at Western Oregon had played at Glendale, and that is how Watkins made it to Monmouth, Oregon.<\/p>\n

What is strange about the success Watkins is starting to enjoy is he didn\u2019t start pitching until his senior year at Horizon. He was a catcher and outfielder, but had trouble connecting at the plate.<\/p>\n

He had a good arm, so the coaching staff, led by the highly honored Eric Kibler (three time Arizona coach of the year, three time regional coach of the year, and in 2005 was named the American Baseball Coaches Association national coach of the year), decided to try him as a pitcher.<\/p>\n

Good move.<\/p>\n

It was Kibler, who will be in his 32nd<\/sup> year as the Horizon Huskies head baseball coach (his teams have won five Arizona 5A state championships and in 2007 his team was the No. 1 team in the country) and is also the pitching coach who made the final decision on Watkins.<\/p>\n

And Watkins has nothing but good to say about him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me there was only so much he could do with me to just get me to the next level and have another pitching coach develop me,\u201d says Watkins. \u201cSo he got me to a point where I could get to another school and advance my talents there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate everything he did for me. That was awesome,\u201d says Watkins.<\/p>\n

By the time Watkins got to Western Oregon he had become a pretty defined pitcher, considering he had gotten such a late start. This past college season he went 8-4 with a 3.19 ERA, second best among starters, and struck out 88 in 84.2 innings, which is a good ratio and usually an indication of a power pitcher.<\/p>\n

He was named the Newcomer of the Year for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and was one vote away from being named conference pitcher of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave it to one of our seniors,\u201d says Watkins. “I had a 1.75 ERA in conference. So it was a really good year for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He failed to mention he was named the National College Baseball Writers Association West Region (NCAA D-2) Pitcher of the Week (also shared the conference player of the week) after he blanked Northwest Nazarene 6-0 on five hits while striking out a GNAC season high 12 batters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pitching coach (at Western Oregon), Mike McInerney, is awesome,\u201d Watkins says. \u201cHe just tweaked little things here and there that made all the difference in the world for me. Like, learning how to use my legs. Cause I was all arms, and he taught me how to use my hips. It added two to three miles and hour on my fastball and helped me with my control and helped me be a better pitcher all-around.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ceiling right now on his fastball is 93 and he usually throws between 89-91. He throws the fastball, curve, changeup and slider. His out pitch is the slider.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a good curveball, but I\u2019m still developing it,\u201d he says. \u201cBut my slider has been my bread and butter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watkins\u2019 plan is to play for pay. He has filled out a player profile for the Cleveland Indians, has talked to the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago Cubs and has been told the Houston Astros are interested.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to keep on doing what I\u2019m doing, and hopefully it will take me far,\u201d Watkins said.<\/p>\n

If he continues to throw perfect games he will get far in a hurry. We all know that is improbable, but being perfect once might be good enough to put him over the hump with those teams already interested and kick-start some others to get interested.<\/p>\n

If baseball doesn\u2019t work out Watkins plans on doing something in the psychology field. He was going to be an engineer, but took psychology 101 his first year at Glendale and fell in love with it.<\/p>\n

Studying psychology has helped him as a pitcher in several ways, the mental approach to pitching a game and learning how to cope on the mound if his defensive support fails him or for some reason his pitches don\u2019t fool batters on a given day.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than dwelling (on mistakes) I know I can get a ground ball and everything will be okay rather than dwelling on it,” he says. “So, yeah, my schooling definitely helps my pitching.\u201d<\/p>\n

And a perfect game certainly gives him a boost, not just in confidence, but in good standing among pro scouts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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