Aug. 20, 2010
It's hard to tell what's rising faster for Jack Leathersich these days: the velocity on his fastball or his chances of becoming a big league pitcher.
After wrapping up a memorable summer pitching in the prestigious Cape Cod League, the Beverly native's heat is topping out around 96 miles per hour. The lefty is consistently hitting 90-plus MPH on the radar gun and relished the chance to prove himself against some of the country's best prospects on Cape Cod.
The wooden bat summer league attracts college baseball royalty from all over America. More than 200 Cape Cod alums regularly appear in Major League Baseball and most of the players have just finished their sophomore year, like Leathersich, and are looking to show their stuff before they're draft eligible the following spring.
"The talent down there is unbelievable. Half of these guys were drafted out of high school and almost all of them will be drafted next year," Leathersich said. "(Pitching there) was awesome."
The 20-year-old Leathersich is heading into his junior year at UMass-Lowell. He appeared on the big-time baseball radar after he was named Northeast-10 Freshman Pitcher of the Year in 2009, and followed that up with an excellent summer in Virginia's Valley Baseball League, where he was named the league's best pro prospect.
That performance drew an invitation from Kelly Nicholson, manager of the Orleans Firebirds, to pitch on Cape Cod this summer.
"It was pretty much a dream come true -- the experience of a lifetime," said Leathersich. "The crowds were huge; our home field in the playoffs we had probably 6,200 people there."
The unique family and small-town atmosphere of the Cape League added to the experience.
"Kids come on the field for autographs after the games -- sometimes we'd sign for an hour," said Leathersich, who worked as a instructor at a baseball camp for youngsters in the mornings before games.
"Around the community, everybody knows the team and everybody in town goes to every game."
Once Leathersich arrived in Orleans, teammates started calling him "Rocket" for his hard-throwing ways. The lefty didn't have much trouble getting outs either against powerful hitters from more traditional baseball factories like North Carolina, Texas and Rice.
"You can't go in there thinking about the hitter. You just go after him," said the 6-foot, 205-pound Leathersich. "Worrying about where someone's from, that's never been my mindset -- and it never will be."
Pitching out of the bullpen, Leathersich amassed a 1.71 earned run average while allowing just 14 hits and nine walks in 21 innings. Even more impressive were his strikeout numbers -- the power lefty fanned 31 for an average of 13 K's per nine innings.
"I love the bullpen and at the next level, that's probably what I'll do. I love coming in for just one or two innings and being able to blow it out," Leathersich said. "I love tight games, love being nervous. And when you're not seeing a line-up two or three times, you can just let it rip."
With anywhere from 30-40 Major League scouts at every Cape League game, there's no doubt Leathersich's stock soared faster than Apple's when the iPad launched. Word is the Beverly native should be chosen in the top 10 rounds next spring.
Leathersich was like a sponge all summer, soaking in as much baseball knowledge as he could. Whether it was a new grip on a pitch or a new routine in the gym, he was all ears.
"A learned a lot of new stuff and I'm always trying to pick up more velocity," he said. "It's an awesome experience being out in the 'pen during the game. You're with the same 10 kids all day long for about two months. You pick up a lot of stuff."
Not bad for a kid that was throwing 85 miles per hour as a senior at Beverly High. But the classic case of hard work paying off comes to fruition every time Leathersich releases the baseball.
"Coach (Ken) Harring (the UMass-Lowell head coach) had done so much for me and our pitching coach this summer, Jason Brown, has too," he explained. "I've picked up 10 miles an hour since high school and it's hard working, lifting weights and eating right.
"It's also getting my mechanics perfect. The ball just seems to be coming out of my hand pretty good right now."
That wasn't the case in the early part of 2010, when Leathersich had a soft start to his sophomore season as a starter at Lowell. Though his ERA was higher than he'd have liked at 4.36, he rebounded to strikeout 62 batters and had a paltry opposing batting average of .235.
"It was a mechanical issue," Leathersich said. "I figured it out and everything's been clicking ever since. To be honest, I'm glad it happened this year instead of next year; just a bump in the road."
With a great pitching summer behind him and the possibility of a life-changing Major League Baseball draft next spring, Leathersich's focus is just as it is on the mound -- singular.
"I can't be thinking about the draft. All I want right now is to go to the (Division 2) College World Series. We've got a great bunch of guys coming back, a great coach and we're working hard. I want to see our team win 35-40 games and make the World Series.
"I can't worry about me; I'm going to go out there and do what I've always done -- and things will work out."
