From Morgan to Shields, 20 T12 players drafted in 3 years
OF Gareth Morgan (North York, Ont.) of the Ontario Blue Jays was the first Tournament 12 grad drafted in 2014 ... the first of 20 in the first three years.
By Adam Morissette
Through three editions of the event, Tournament 12, a showcase for the best 160 amateur baseball players born in Canada, with college eligibility, is accumulating an impressive list of alumni.
You don’t need to look far down lists of Canadian players taken in Major League Baseball’s annual June draft the last three years to find players that have competed at the event that takes place every September.
Take a look at the Canadians in College list put together by the Canadian Baseball Network and you’ll come across a laundry list of Tournament 12 grads that are playing the game at schools across the United States and Canada.
At the very first Tournament 12, big league scouts were already very familiar with Toronto native Gareth Morgan who walked into Rogers Centre on workout day and peppered the second deck with loud home runs during batting practice. The following June, the Seattle Mariners took the slugger 74th overall in the MLB draft making Morgan the first Tournament 12 participant to be drafted after playing in the event.
In total, eight T12 grads from the inaugural 2013 event went on to be selected in the 2014 draft with Sooke, BC native Kurtis Horne joining Morgan as the only two players to ink deals with the clubs that drafted them, in Horne’s case, the New York Mets. However, there was one T12 grad to ink a pro contract before both Morgan and Horne and that honour belonged to Saint John, N.B.’s Andrew Case. While pitching for Maritimes Grey at T12, Case was literally unhittable as he tossed the first no-hitter in T12 history in a 4-0 semi-final victory over Québec Blue that saw him strikeout 13. Toronto Blue Jays Canadian Scout Jamie Lehman took notice and inked the Prairie Baseball Academy product shortly after his Maritimes squad became the first ever champions in Tournament 12 history. Case is currently a member of Single-A Lansing in the Blue Jays organization.
Zach Pop of nearby Brampton was one of the more highly touted pitching prospects to participate in the 2013 edition of Tournament 12 with a bevy of scouts taking up space behind home plate to watch the right-hander throw. Pop was the second Canadian high school pitcher to get taken in the ’14 draft (Winnipeg’s Ben Onyshko was the first) as the Blue Jays used their 23rd round selection on him. Pop opted to attend the University of Kentucky where he will enter his junior season with plenty of interest from scouts after hitting 100 mph while pitching out the Wildcats bullpen in 2016.
Over 70% of Tournament 12 grads from 2013 moved on to a higher level following the event including Mississauga catcher Owen Spiwak who attended Odessa (TX) College in 2015 before becoming a Blue Jays 10th round selection. He’s currently with the Blue Jays Gulf Coast League club in Dunedin.
With the inaugural T12 in the books, scouts and college evaluators were eagerly anticipating the 2014 event as one of the most talented groups of Canadian high school’ers was shaping up for the 2015 draft.
As much as evaluators were looking forward to Morgan’s power display during batting practice in 2013, there was equal anticipation for a rising high school senior from just down the road in Mississauga. Josh Naylor sent ball after ball into the empty seats beyond the right field fence further solidifying his case to be a first rounder in 2015.
Naylor’s arrival at T12 in 2014 was delayed as he along with the rest of the members of Baseball Canada’s Junior National Team were stuck in Mexico, following the 18U Pan American Championships, due to Hurricane Odile. When he finally did arrive, the then 17 year-old began a path towards the 2015 MLB Draft that saw the Miami Marlins make the first baseman the highest drafted Canadian position player ever with the 12th overall selection.
Naylor was the first of two T12 grads to go in the first round as Calgary’s Mike Soroka, who pitched for for Alberta Red in 2013 and 2014, went 28th overall to the Atlanta Braves.
Day II of the draft saw three T12 grads go off the board led by Oakville’s Miles Gordon who was nabbed by the Cincinnati Reds in the fourth round before Demi Orimoloye, who played in the 2013 and 2014 editions of T12, went later in the fourth to the Milwaukee Brewers. The Blue Jays then used their tenth round selection to draft Spiwak who was part of a class of 13 former T12 participants to be selected in the draft that saw nine of them ink professional contracts.
Two more players that made names for themselves in 2014 were selected in the latter rounds of the draft and chose to go the school route to further their baseball careers. Eric Senior, who was named Tournament 12 MVP in 2014 after hitting .529 (9-for-17) with three doubles, three runs driven in and five runs scored, was taken by the Oakland Athletics in the 23rd round before honouring his commitment to powerhouse Midland (TX) Junior College for the 2015 season. The 2014 event was also used as a coming out of sorts for Tristan Pompey who used the event to land a spot with the Junior National Team program and later, a commitment to the University of Kentucky where he became a key piece of the Wildcats lineup in his freshman season. Pompey, whom Blue Jays fans are familiar with via his older brother, Dalton, was one of 13 T12 grads from 2014 to move on to the Division 1 level.
T12 isn’t only a breeding ground for future college or professional ball players making their names known. Peyton Hoyt, a member of the Atlantic squad in 2014, was selected in the first round (sixth overall) by the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles of the Québec Major Junior Hockey League in the spring of 2015. The Lincoln, N.B. native went on to amass 18 points in his rookie season.
From eight T12 grads selected in the 2014 MLB draft, to 13 in 2015, the 2016 draft rolled around and the upward swing continued with 16 former participants taken during the three-day event.
A three-time Tournament 12 participant, dating back to the inaugural event in 2013 when he was just 15 years old, Toronto’s Andy Yerzy was the first grad taken last June as the Arizona Diamondbacks selected the catcher in the second round, 52nd overall.
Perhaps no team has fared better through the first three T12 events than teams from Québec who have appeared in all three championship contests to date and have one title (2014) to show for. A strong Québec presence was also felt at the 2016 MLB Draft, and although they didn’t all appear in the event at the same time, four T12 grads from La Belle Province were among those selected.
Headlining the foursome was Laval’s Charles LeBlanc, a T12 participant from 2013, who went to the University of Pittsburgh and made an immediate impact with the Panthers. Winning the starting shortstop job as a freshman, LeBlanc followed a solid first season at Pitt with a blistering sophomore campaign where he was among the top hitters in all of NCAA Division 1 baseball. The Texas Rangers nabbed the draft-eligible sophomore in the fourth round and made him a part of their organization shortly thereafter. Two of LeBlanc’s teammates from 2013, Abraham Toro-Hernandez and Louis Philippe Pelletier, took their games to Seminole State College in Oklahoma and terrorized pitchers combining to hit 44 home runs and ranked among conference leaders in the major offensive categories. The Houston Astros liked what they saw and used a fifth round selection on Toro-Hernandez before taking Pelletier in the 20th round. William Sierra, who will be back with Québec at this year’s T12, was taken by the New York Mets in the 28th round and will be draft-eligible again next year.
Sierra isn’t the only participant in this year’s T12 to have gone through the draft process once already as Alberta Red outfielder Clayton Keyes was taken by the Blue Jays last June. Keyes is also draft-eligible in 2017.
Twenty-two T12 grads from 2015 received Division 1 offers including tournament MVP Carson Perkins of the championship winning Prairies squad, who is on campus at Canisius (NY) College this fall.
With the fourth edition of Tournament 12 upon us, and if the first three tourneys are any indication, there will be plenty of new names to read about for years to come.
2014
Draft Player Team Round
*2014 Gareth Morgan SEA CBB
2014 Ben Onyshko MIL 16
2014 Mitch Robinson MIA 22
2014 Robert Byckowski CIN 22
2014 Zach Pop TOR 23
*2014 Kurtis Horne NYM 31
2014 Austen Swift OAK 35
2014 LP Pelletier SD 38
Total: 8 (2 signed)
2015 Draft Player Team Round
*2015 Josh Naylor MIA 1
*2015 Mike Soroka ATL 1
*2015 Miles Gordon CIN 4
*2015 Demi Orimoloye MIL 4
*2015 Owen Spiwak TOR 10
*2015 JD Williams CIN 17
*2015 Isaac Anesty CIN 18
*2015 Darren Shred CIN 22
2015 Eric Senior OAK 23
2015 Jackson Wark NYM 30
2015 Tristan Pompey MIN 31
2015 Will McAffer CIN 32
*2015 Ben Pelletier PHI 34
Total: 13 (9 signed)
2016 Draft Player Team Round
*2016 Andy Yerzy ARI 2
*2016 Charles LeBlanc TEX 4
*2016 Jordan Balazovic MIN 5
*2016 Abraham Toro-Hernandez HOU 5
*2016 Jake Polancic ARI 11
2016 Clayton Keyes TOR 17
*2016 LP Pelletier HOU 20
*2016 Luke Van Rycheghem ARI 23
*2016 Matt Jones MIN 28
2016 William Sierra NYM 28
2016 Tyler Duncan SEA 30
2016 Tristan Clarke WSH 30
2016 Josh Burgmann STL 30
*2016 Austin Shields PIT 33
2016 Jake Wilson BOS 39
2016 Carter Loewen TOR 40
Total: 16 (9 signed)