Weaver Makes Bid for Greatness
by Brian Milne, San Luis Obispo Tribune
April 23, 2004 Not that eBay has become the leading authority on scouting collegiate baseball talent. But if it was, Long Beach State ace Jered Weaver is the consensus No. 1 pick of June's amateur draft.
As of Wednesday evening, there were 30 Jered Weaver items (most of which were Team USA baseball cards from this past summer) up for auction on the site.
For the record, his older brother, Dodgers pitcher Jeff Weaver, had 32 items up for auction.
And while 76 bids had been made for Jered Weaver items, just 15 individual bids had been placed on Jeff Weaver items.
"If someone wants to spend their money on my cards and stuff, great," said Jered Weaver, who gets the start at 6 tonight against Cal Poly in Baggett Stadium. "It's just kind of cool."
So just how good is this shaggy haired right-hander from Long Beach State?
Good enough to be named national pitcher of the week a record five times this season.
(Please add Jered Weaver baseball cards to my eBay watch list)
Good enough to win all 11 of his starts this season.
(Place bid on JERED WEAVER Autographed Team USA card.)
Good enough to strike out 118 hitters in 80 innings, including the first 10 batters he faced in a game, not once, but twice this season.
(Sorry, you've been outbid. Current bid is $10.)
Good enough to be predicted as the San Diego Padres' No. 1 pick in the June draft.
(You've been outbid, again, high bid moves to $15.)
Good enough to leap tall buildings in a single bound?
His coaching staff talks as if he already has.
(Reserve not met ... $20 ... $25 ... $30 ...)
"He's been so good the expectations are so high you'd think he wouldn't be able to live up to them, but he still does," said Long Beach State head coach Mike Weathers. "Any coach would take him on his worst day, but most of the time he's just amazing. Ten strikeouts to lead off a game is special when you do it once. To do it twice, I never thought I'd see that."
All in the family
So what makes Weaver so good?
First of all, it's in the blood. His brother, Jeff, is in his first year with the Dodgers after spending the previous five seasons in the American League with Detroit and New York. Jeff Weaver also had a stellar collegiate career. At Fresno State, he set the Bulldogs' career record with 477 strikeouts before Detroit drafted him with the 14th pick in 1998.
Entering tonight's start against Cal Poly, his 6-foot-7 younger brother is even better at this stage in his career with an 11-0 record and a 1.00 ERA. The right-hander has struck out a Division I-leading 118 batters with just 11 walks in 80 2/3 innings - giving him a 10.7-to-1 strikeouts-to-walk ratio.
And get this, opponents are hitting an embarrassing .146 against him.
"When you sit here and talk about it, what he's accomplished is pretty incredible," said Long Beach State's pitching coach Troy Buckley. "I don't pay attention to it when I'm with him on a pitch-by-pitch basis (during games), but when you look back on it, it's almost holy. What we're seeing here probably is never going to happen again."
(Sorry, you've been outbid. Bidding is at $35.)
A special delivery
Another thing that makes Weaver so dominant is a deceptive delivery that puts David Copperfield to shame. His whirlybird windup, with a three-quarter and an occasional sidearm delivery, resembles something straight out of the Dizzy Dean era.
"Because he pitches at a high velocity and has that windup, his pitches are very deceptive and the ball just jumps right out at you," said Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee. "He hides the ball extremely well, turns his back to the hitter and strides to the plate slightly closed in.
It's difficult to pick up (the ball)."
Velocity-wise, Weaver can Michelangelo the corners effectively in the mid-90s and Ali hitters with the high heat in the upper 90s.
Toss in the ability to pinpoint the slider, curve or changeup in any count, and one can see why he's struck out 118 (25 off the school record) and walked only 11 in 2004.
"Against a pitcher like him, you have to manufacture runs," Cal Poly senior outfielder Chalon Tietje said. "We know this team can hit the ball. We've scored a lot of runs this season, we just have to make the most of our opportunities Friday."
(Congratulations, you're the high bidder at $40.)
Under the microscope
Every time he fires another BB to home plate, a dozen or so radar guns pop up behind the backstop. When the pitch pops the catcher's glove, or on the rare occasion somebody actually makes contact, red 93s, 94s or 95s illuminate the faces of major league scouts, salivating over the phenom from Simi Valley.
"He's handled the attention very well," Long Beach State head coach Weathers said. "I think having a big brother in the majors and a being around the big-league atmosphere, he's more advanced in dealing with that stuff than normal kids. His brother played in New York last year, talk about dealing with media attention."
After big games -- Jered Weaver already has six wins over Top-30 opponents -- he'll be stuck in the dugout doing interview after interview for 15-20 minutes.
After dealing with the press, he spends the next 15-20 minutes bantering with the Long Beach State faithful, signing every last autograph for the kids on hand.
Then he'll sprint to his car and catch up with "his boys" for pizza after the game.
"He doesn't carry on like he's a star," Weathers said. "It's about team goals with him. It's nice to get the individual accomplishments along the way, but he just wants to be part of where we are as a team."
(Sorry, you've been outbid. Bidding is at $50.)
Cal Poly's chances
The good news for the Mustangs is they've beaten Weaver before, granted it was two years ago when he was a freshman and senior ace Kevin Correia (currently in the San Francisco Giants organization) was on the hill for the Mustangs.
The Mustangs, who have always had early success against Weaver, scored four runs in the first inning of an 8-2 victory against him May 5, 2002, in Baggett Stadium.
In an April 18 game at Long Beach last season, Cal Poly notched a run in the first inning off Weaver before he settled down to blank the Mustangs the rest of the way and pulled out a 2-1 victory. Weaver allowed one earned run on six hits while striking out seven.
"We just have to keep our heads on straight," said Teitje, a senior facing Weaver for the third time around. "We saw him last year and did all right against him. Two years ago we scored eight runs in three innings against him here, so hopefully Baggett Stadium is not his place to pitch."
(The reserve for this auction has been met at $100.)
On a roll
The bad news for the Mustangs? Weaver has 11 starts and 11 victories this season.
Will the magic ever run out? One would think so.
But not at this pace he's going.
Weaver has been equally as dominant against some of the best players in the world, let alone the college landscape.
On the silver-medal winning U.S. National Team this past summer, he went 4-1 at the Pan Am Games with a microscopic 0.38 ERA that included a stretch of 452/3 consecutive scoreless innings and a win against the Dominican Republic.
The lone loss was a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Cuba in the gold medal game.
In 2003 for Long Beach State, he went 14-4 with a 1.96 ERA but won seven straight toward season's end before three unearned runs handed Weaver a loss to Stanford in the super regionals.
So in the last year, dating to April 2003, Weaver is 22-2 on the mound with losses to Cuba and Stanford.
"To me, the mound is like sacred ground," Weaver said. "You don't want anyone to walk on it.
"I'm a mellow guy, but when I get on that mound I'm the biggest competitor in terms of trying to keep my team in the game," he said. "It doesn't matter who you're playing or what their record is. You pitch the same, as if you're in the College World Series."
(Congratulations to user PADRES#1, you are the winner of this auction.) |
