SWEEPING TALENT
Sports Stars Magazine
By Bill Kolb | Contributor
Alhambra High School’s baseball field in downtown Martinez is deserted; the game long since over. It was a nonleague makeup from an earlier rainout that was crammed into a weekend morning, and the players have quickly packed up and headed off to enjoy the remainder of their Saturdays.
Bulldogs coach Jay Heeb is in the dugout packing up his coaching paraphernalia. A lone player remains.
Robert Stephenson, Alhambra’s captain, ace, and (when he isn’t pitching) right fielder, lingers. Is he talking strategy with his coach? Poring over pitch charts? Working on a new grip?
Nope. Tiny bits of black rubber from the Bulldogs’ artificial playing surface in Martinez have found their way by the thousands onto the steps and the floor of the dugout.
Stephenson is sweeping.
That should tell you a great deal about the character of an 18-year old who many have ticketed as a first-round selection in Major League Baseball’s first-year player draft on June 6.
“He’s an impressive young man,” Heeb said. “He has maybe the greatest work-ethic of anybody I’ve coached in 27 years. His conditioning and dedication to improving his body is unbelievable.”
That work-ethic, coupled with an astonishing array of precise pitches — including a fastball that has been clocked at an eye-popping 99 mph — has Stephenson on the verge of becoming the first local high school baseball player to be plucked in the first round of the draft since Liberty-Brentwood’s Chris Gruler went No. 3 overall to the Cincinnati Reds in 2002. (Another Gamespeed athlete).
A recent mock draft projection by Baseball America had Stephenson going No. 29 to the San Francisco Giants, a franchise that knows something about developing young pitching talent (see: Lincecum, Tim; Cain, Matt; Wilson, Brian…).
Heeb said that scouts from the Rays, Cubs and Jays, among many, many others, have told him they would be interested in Stephenson with picks anywhere from the low teens to the 30s. The earliest an Alhambra player had been drafted directly out of high school before this year was Dave Giberti, who went to the Rangers in the seventh round (171 overall) in 1989.
The unflappable Stephenson, who already has accepted a full scholarship offer from the University of Washington, has taken the entire scout/media circus in stride. But even he can’t help but get caught up in the furor over his future.
“To go from a year ago where I was just trying to find a college to now where there are 40 or 50 pro scouts there every time I pitch is pretty cool,” he said. “It has happened all of a sudden. … Just to make the draft is incredible. To have a chance to play for my favorite team (Giants) that I’ve watched growing up would be pretty special. To be anybody’s first pick would be pretty amazing to me.”
Evolution of an ace
Stephenson wasn’t on anyone’s can’t-miss list as a sophomore. He was lucky if his fastball velocity climbed into the low 80s, and luckier still if those pitches found the strike zone. Heck, he wasn’t even really all that interested in being a pitcher.
“He wanted to be an outfielder,” Heeb said. “I was talking to him in the outfield one day, and I told him he didn’t really run very well — it was awkward and he wasn’t very fast. I told him I had sent my oldest son to Gamespeed in Dublin with (former world-class sprinter) Aaron Thigpen, and that had really helped him. Robert didn’t say anything. I find out a while later that he’s going three days a week, and two days a week he’s going to a velocity improvement program. He’s doing extra workouts five days a week.” To say it has paid off is a bit of an understatement.
In the span of an off-season Stephenson went from awkward to athletic; from erratic to exact.
“I went from low 80s as a sophomore to low 90s in the spring of my junior year,” Stephenson said.
Gary Hanks has coached some of the best players in Northern California in his 10-year run with NorCal baseball, players like the A’s Tyson Ross and the Astros’ Brett Wallace. He ranks Stephenson “at the top” of that talented group.
“The common denominator is they really want to work hard,” Hanks said. “I put Robert in the upper echelon of that group in terms of work ethic, skill level, athleticism, heart, desire, and competitiveness.”
Thanks to his desire and ability to quickly internalize the tools and processes recommended, Hanks has seen Stephenson go from what he characterized as “a spindly, gangly little character,” his sophomore year to a fairly strapping senior.
There is a good chance that the 6-foot, 3-inch, 185-pound Stephenson will add muscle to his lean frame — maybe as much as 15 to 20 pounds. Added muscle often equates to added velocity. And when you’re already popping the glove at 99, well…
“I know he wants to hit 100 before he leaves (high school),” Heeb said. “I think he can do it. His velocity is sky high because he works so hard.”
Former USC catcher and current El Cerrito High School coach Brian Nichols has noted Stephenson’s progression from the opposing dugout. His Gauchos have faced Stephenson twice in the past two years.
“He’s got, I think, an unhittable breaking ball at the high school level,” Nichols said. “His curve or slider is sharp and it’s in the 80s. He has control of all of his pitches. He has excellent command for a high school guy. … He’s hard to hit. You don’t often see that — a high school pitcher who can throw all his pitches for strikes at any time. He’s 89 to 94 with great command, including that split which is nasty. … You can look really bad because you have to gear up for the fastball, then he drops that breaking ball in for a strike.”
Nichols has been around Bay Area baseball long enough to know when he’s seeing something special. When asked to compare Stephenson to another successful local hurler, Nichols mentioned Vallejo’s own Cy Young award winner, New York Yankees ace C.C. Sabathia.
The comparison is loose — Stephenson’s a righty; Sabathia’s a lefty — but the quality is similar.
“I haven’t seen anybody as good as him in a long, long time,” Nichols said. “It’s been a long time since I remember a high schooler throwing as hard as he throws. You can tell when he throws the ball — he’s just different than other high school pitchers.”
Sky’s the limit
You’ve heard about the velocity, the accuracy, the work ethic. Stephenson is also a student of the game (and, ohbytheway, a 4.2 GPA, Advanced Placement student), and an all-around player. He leads the Bulldogs in RBI and extra-base hits. He’s batting .350 in the three-hole. Through May 14, he had a 7-2 record with 132 strikeouts vs. 23 walks, a 1.33 ERA and a sub-1.0 WHIP over 68 ⅓ innings pitched. He threw no-hitters at Encinal and De Anza early in the season, and has stared down the barrel of about 40 JUGS radar guns at every start.
“He’s very analytical — borderline introverted,” Heeb said. “He’s our captain, but he’s not rah-rah. He leads by example. … He takes things in stride. He doesn’t get too rattled by anything. He’s like a 25-year old in an 18-year-old body.”
The assumption is that he will go pro if his name gets called in the first round, but Stephenson hasn’t made a concrete decision just yet.
“I really liked the (Washington) campus and the coaches, and the chance to play in the PAC-10,” Stephenson said. “UW is a great team environment. So I don’t think there is a bad decision. I’ll have to see how the draft goes, and then think about it.”
Heeb, for one, isn’t worried at all about Stephenson’s future.
“He’s got all the intangibles,” Heeb said. “I’m sure he’s going to be very successful whatever he decides to do. He’s got a circus following him around, and it’s amazing how he handles it.”
No matter where he ends up, even if he’s still the last guy in the dugout, chances are he won’t be doing the sweeping much longer.
