A reminder that Javy Baez was an absolute monster in high school

Share

Six years ago Tuesday, the Cubs selected Javy Baez with the ninth overall pick in the MLB Draft and altered the course of the franchise forever.

That was the last draft class of general manager Jim Hendry, who gave way to Theo Epstein a few months after the 2011 Draft.

Baez was a 6-foot, 180 pound kid coming out of Arlington Country Day High School in Jacksonville, Fla. With the 2017 MLB Draft a week away, it's worth revisiting (call it "Throwback Tuesday") how simply amazing Baez was in high school. 

During his senior year of high school, he hit a whopping .771, tallying 64 hits in 83 at-bats. He also smacked 22 homers, 20 doubles and drove in 52 runs, good for a 1.807 slugging percentage.

Right after he was drafted, MLB.com broke down Baez's game, comparing his skillset to Hanley Ramirez before that famous Gary Sheffield-batspeed comp came about.

The MLB analysts thought Baez may eventually have to move to third base and there was apparently even some talk of bumping him to catcher given his rocket arm. It's funny to think that way now given how dynamic Baez is as a defender at three different infield positions.

Here's more video of Baez from high school:

[Addison Russell, Javy Baez and the state of the Cubs shortstop position]

The Cleveland Indians saw every one of Baez's high school games that spring, but wound up selecting Francisco Lindor instead the pick before the Cubs took the future 2016 NLCS co-MVP.

The Cubs also took Dan Vogelbach in the second round and wound up dealing him to the Seattle Mariners last summer for Mike Montgomery, who got the final out of Game 7, picked up his second career regular-season save Monday night and has been a valuable swingman with the Cubs over the past two seasons (2.64 ERA, 1.30 WHIP in 71.2 IP).

Also worth noting, the Cubs had an interesting 2011 draft in general. With their seventh pick, they selected Trevor Gretzky, the son of hockey superstar Wayne. Shawon Dunston's son, Shawon, was taken in the 11th round. John Andreoli — the outfielder who is currently with Triple-A Iowa and played for Team Italy in this spring's World Baseball classic — went in the 17th round.

The Cubs also took a chance on a preps outfielder named Bradley Zimmer in the 23rd round. Zimmer opted for college instead at the University of San Francisco and was later selected as a first-round pick (21st overall) by the Cleveland Indians in 2014.

Zimmer just made his MLB debut last month for the Indians and has posted a .912 OPS in his first 17 big-league games.

Contact Us