Quantrill Stanford bound, credit goes to mom

*RHP Cal Quantrill (Port, Hope, Ont.) becomes the first Canadian since Brad Drew (Waterloo, Ont.) to receive a scholarship from Stanford University .... 2012 Canadians in the Minors  2012 Canadians in College 2012 Canadians draft list Letters of Intent

By Bob Elliott

Roll these numbers around ... 490, 601, 588, 608, 658, 715, 739, 715, 726, 738, 710, 712 and 697.

That’s the yearly number of Canadians attending school in the United States or playing the majority of their baseball schedule south of the border since 2000.

Only one -- Waterloo lefty Brad Drew, 1998-2000 -- was both talented enough and smart enough to pitch for the Stanford University Cardinal.

Only one of 100s of Canadians, obviously the same player appears on multiple lists, who headed south.

Now that Port Hope right-hander Cal Quantrill of the Ontario Terriers has signed a letter of intent a second Canadian is headed to Palo Alto, Calif. in the fall of 2013.

“Two things are obvious,” said Blue Jays bullpen coach Pat Hentgen when told the news, “Cal got his arm from his father and his smarts from his mom Alyson.”

Quantrill pitched 15 scoreless against Mexico and Team USA, at the Junior World qualifier tournament in Columbia last fall as Canada won its first-ever silver medal.

Currently with the Canadian Junior National Team, Quantrill pitched two scoreless innings as the Canadian high schoolers beat the Detroit Tigers rookie-class Dominican Summer League team 8-2 on Tuesday. Quantrill walked two, struck out a man and like pop hit a batter. Papa Quantrill, who attended the University of Wisconsin, hit 45 batters during his 14-year career.

Quantrill, whose best pitch might be his changeup, pitched the championship final game in Nashville last summer when the 17u Terriers won the World Series and recorded the win with five scoreless in the gold medal game at the 2011 Canada Cup in New Brunswick. He’ll study engineering at Stanford.

“Cal obviously gets most of his talent from his mother Alyson, who certainly has all of the brains in the family,” Dan Plesac, former Jays reliever now of MLB Network, said from Weehawken, N.J. “Paul was a terrific pitcher but not the sharpest tool in the shed. ‘Mom knows best,’ the battle cry in the Quantrill household.”

Double dip win: The junior national team swept a doubleheader Tuesday in the Dominican, beating the Atlanta Braves affiliate 5-2 and the Tigers. Oakville’s Kyle Hann tripled, while Milton’s Nathan DeSouza knocked in a run. Windsor’s Brett Siddall doubled and Goderich’s Brock Dykxhoorn struck out four in two perfect innings.

Whitby’s Ryan Kellogg, Guelph’s Michael Clouthier, Jason Tarapasky of Pierrefonds, Que. Jake Marks of Brights Grove and Quantrill combined on a three-hitter. Windsor’s Jacob Robson hit a RBI single while Hann doubled and DeSouza singled in a run.

BMOC: Brampton outfielder Sean Bignall is one of 30 semifinalists for the 35th annual USA Golden Spikes Award (GSA). Previous winners include the likes of Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Buster Posey, David Price, Tim Lincecum, Alex Gordon, Jared Weaver, Rickie Weeks, Mark Prior, J.D. Drew, Travis Lee and Jason Varitek.

Bignall, the only Canuck amongst the 30, established school records for homers (18) and total bases (149), becoming the first player in school history to reach 60 runs and 60 RBIs in a season. He ended the season ranked fourth in the nation in home runs, fifth in slugging percentage (.696), fifth in total bases and sixth in RBIs. The Team Ontario grad earned first team all-Sun Belt conference honours.

Canadians can vote at GoldenSpikesAward.com until June 5 when the three finalists are named.

Private workouts: Whitby’s Julian Service and Brampton’s Derek Jones attended a private workout held by scouting director Andrew Tinnish and Canadian scouting director Jamie Lehman Tuesday morn at the Rogers Centre. Both Service and Jones are outfielders with the Ontario Blue Jays.

Ontario Cup: There were not a lot of power arms, but when 160 players showed in Vaughn coach Marc Picard found a rare Canadian baseball trait: speed. Mississauga infielder Malik Collymore, outfielder Demi Orimoloye from Orleans and infielder Justin Orton of Essex were all clocked at under 7.0 seconds in the 60-yard dash.

Scouts rated the best five players on display as Toronto righty Daniel Procopio, Windsor shortstop Jake Lumley, Toronto lefty Adam Jafine, Whitby third baseman J.D. Osborne, Etobicoke second baseman Alex Thrower and Georgetown right-hander J.C. Kirke. 

Wife of the year: Scott Robinson coaches the Pickering high school, Pickering peewees and the Ontario Youth Team. In his spare time Robinson, who pitched for the University of Maine Black Bears, is on the mound for the Brantford Red Sox.

His saintly wife Krystal Robinson welcomed their first child into their world nine weeks ago. That would be the baseball world. As Chicago Cubs fans they agreed to name their son Clark Waveland Robinson. Wrigley Field is located at the corner of Clark and Waveland.

Coach Joe Siddall guesses Clark’s first words will be “Canisius College.”