King's Way Christian’s Damon Casetta-Stubbs pitches during a scrimmage at Luke Jensen Park on Wednesday afternoon, March 7, 2018. (Alisha Jucevic/The Columbian)
Gregg Swenson knows exactly how college coaches feel when a prized recruit opts for the big leagues.
His coaching career has tracked all over the Pacific Northwest, highlighted by a stint at University of Washington, 10 years as the pitching coach at Washington State and a stint at the University of Portland.
He understands the unique position of a prospective Major League Baseball draftee. He’s been advising them since 1997.
And his biggest piece of advice is at the negotiating table with MLB clubs, a dynamic he said is often daunting to the athlete.
It’s simple: Pick your price tag and stick with it.
That’s the type of advice the 27-year coaching veteran would give any prospective draftee.
Swenson sees it as fate that his first year as head coach at Class 1A King’s Way Christian he’d be coaching Damon Casetta-Stubbs and Sam Lauderdale, two formidable prospects in the MLB Draft, which starts Monday at 4 p.m.
Casetta-Stubbs is a right-handed pitcher committed to Seattle University, though scouts have said he projects in the three- to six-round range (Swenson heard projections around the fifth through eighth round).
Casetta-Stubbs could be the highest draft pick out of Clark County since Union grad Clint Coulter was taken in the first round by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2012. Coulter’s was the first opening round draft pick out of Clark County since Ty Howington in 1999.
Last year, only one player drafted in the first 10 rounds didn’t sign.
Casetta-Stubbs heard from every MLB team before the high school season started.
Once a player begins his NCAA eligibility, they cannot declare for the draft until after their junior season.
The first pick in the third round is worth a $750,800 signing bonus, whereas the last pick of the eighth round is $155,300, according to the MLB’s assigned pick value.
One scout told Lauderdale he could be a seventh to eighth rounder. In him, scouts see a 17-year old left-hander with a raw frame (6-foot-2, 175 pounds) and a fastball sitting at 88 and touching 93. In other words, lots of potential and plenty of time to work on it.
But Lauderdale, a Washington State commit, set a high price tag — $750,000 — to buy him out of his decision to go to college.
While Swenson will say there is no formula that determines which option is best for a kid coming out of high school, he does warn that college may not present the opportunities to develop as quickly as the major league system does. College coaches face the pressure to win, and Swenson has seen those pressures stunt the development of certain players.
“They didn’t have the opportunity to just sit on a roster and work on things,” he said.
But Swenson said all of his athletes who turned down the minor leagues to go to WSU, all of them improved their draft stock in that time.
For Swenson, this draft will be spent from a different vantage point versus when he was a college coach. He’s not sweating over losing prized recruits.
“It’s so helpless,” Swenson said. “You spend three-to-four years recruiting kids … then literally the day they’re drafted that three-year relationship is out the window and they’re solely focused on this new person that’s been around for a week. That’s not anybody’s fault, that’s just how it works.”
Swenson sees it as a win-win. Either they become professional baseball players, or they become “really good” college baseball players.
“They’ve already got the winning ticket,” Swenson said, “they just need to take a deep breath and decide what’s best for them.”
During the actual draft, the two will be in school waiting for the call. Lauderdale will have his phone ringer on.
“I don’t really care where I am, I just want to get a phone call,” Lauderdale said. “It’d be cool at school getting a phone call and having everyone at school being super excited for you.”
Other local prospects
• Skyview pitcher Daniel Copeland has talked with scouts and will listen to draft offers, but said he is leaning toward attending Gonzaga in August. The right-handed pitcher led the Storm to the 4A state title game this year, and also broke single-season program records for hits and doubles as leadoff hitter.
“Either way it’s a win-win for me,” Copeland said. “Either I get the opportunity to play professional baseball, or I go to an amazing school for a great education and coaching.”
• Former Union standout and current University of Portland junior Cody Hawken will likely be among the names called. The outfielder batted .316 with 36 RBI and 10 home runs on the season for the Pilots. He told Union coach Ben McGrew he wants to sign with a major league organization.
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