By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
Doug Mathieson, the Arizona Diamondbacks scout, sent a text to an acquaintance Thursday night:

“Heard anything on Yerzy? Where do you think he is going?” 

The reply came back: “Ah, he just went 52nd over-all to a National League club ... congrats.”

Such is life on the road for a hard-working scout: he travels, evaluates, invites players to workouts, goes to meetings, travels and when the big moment arrives he was on a Phoenix-Vancouver flight when the news happened.

Mathieson lobbied hard for the Diamondbacks to select Yerzy, but the display the Toronto Mets catcher put on at a pre-draft work out in Phoenix make it a lot easier to take him in the second round.

And 67 picks later, Arizona scooped right-hander Curtis Taylor of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in fourth round.  

Three Canucks selected in the first four rounds and Arizona had two -- the San Diego Padres took Paul Quantrill (Port Hope, Ont.) eighth over-all. Who knew Canada’s sandlot team was in the desert not inside a concrete clam down by the CN Tower?

Mathieson arranged for Yerzy, Taylor and Jake Polancic to attend a pre-draft workout along with 25 others. The Canucks knocked the doors off as the saying goes. General manager Dave Stewart, along with Mark Snipp and Tim Wilken, both special assistants to the GM, scouting director Deric Ladnier, who drafted Zach Greinke, Mike Moustakes and others with the Kansas City Royals, west coast supervisor Jeff Mousser and area scout Dennis Sheehan were all impressed with the Canadians.

Most were at the pre-draft workout at Chase Field. One of Yerzy’s Mets coaches tweeted he had hit a ball into the swimming pool 415 feet away from home plate in right centre.

“Not really,” said Wilken, the former Toronto Blue Jays scouting director, “he hit it over the pool during batting practice ... about 30 feet over. 

“I saw him hit a one-iron out of Bobby Mattick at Dunedin against the Jays extended spring team. They had a guy throwing 93-95 mph and he turned him right around. Here? Here he put on a show.”

We’ve been to Chase Field and have seen the pool, but we don’t really known its exact location say the way we know where the Westjet flight deck is located. Is hitting a ball swimming pool length a tape-measure shot or an oddity? Probably a little of both.

First timers to the park used to see the pool and after they marvelled how it resembled a back-yard pation, worried about a guy out there doing belly flops into the pool if he was pitching.

It was a hot day in Phoenix and the retractable roof had to be open in anticipation for that evening’s Kenny Chesney concert. Some scouts left behind the cage for the shade of the dugout.

Yet, neither Yerzy or Taylor wilted in the desert heat.

Yerzy was solid behind the plate and showed middle of the order power, while Taylor showed the makings of a major league starter, his fastball clocked at 92-96 mph fastball, an impressive slider and a change up.

“I never saw Taylor in a game,” Wilken said. “I was really impressed with his slider. He was easy to get along with ... he looks like he’s about 17 with that youthful face. He has chance to be a starting pitcher.”

Mathieson was surprised that Yerzy was available in the second round. 

“We didn’t think we would get him that high, I thought he was a first rounder,” said Mathieson, who discussed the players in meetings and arranged for the work outs. “Wilken had a lot of history with Canadian players first with the Jays and then moreso with the Chicago Cubs. The feed back we got was how first class the organization was.” 

And Wilken thought the same. 

“Where ever you send Andrew Yerzy, he’s not going to be intimidated,” said Wilken of the worldly Yerzy compared to most high schoolers. “He’s been to Arizona, Florida, the Dominican ... I’m not even sure where in the world they went on all their trips. 

“The boy is a class act. Our people were super impressed how he carried himself.”

Each year Mathieson takes his Diamondbacks Scout Team, composed of the Langley Blaze and the best from across the country, to Arizona for games against minor leaguers and college teams. Mike Sorotka, Josh Naylor and Quantrill have accompanied on these trips.

“We were Peoria and the A’s extended spring team roughed Cal up in the first inning, he dominated them the next four innings, but Cal still owes me a steak,” Mathieson said. “He kept bugging me for an at-bat, so we bet a steak on whether he could get the ball out of the infield. I gave him an at bat and he squibbed one back to the pitcher.”

Mathieson was asked if this was his best draft ever. 

And soon as the words were out of my mouth I realized what a dumb question it was.

Not because that Arizona would later go on and pick Jake Polancic (Langley, BC) in the 11th or 1B Luke Van Rycheghem (Kent Bridge, Ont.) in the 23rd. 

Mathieson had coached Brett Lawrie (2008), Kellin Deglan (2010) and Kyle Lotzkar (2007) with the Langley Blaze when they went in the first round.

Mathieson had coached Tyler O’Neill (2013), Tom Robson (2011), 

Mathieson has also seen Devon Stewart, Mitchell Robinson, Kurtis Horne, Dustin Houle, Justin Atkinson, Dustin Hayes, J.R. Robinson, Mike Ellis, Wes Darvill, Jon Hesketh, Mike Monster, Colin Kleven, Rory Young, Brooklyn Foster, Jordan Lennerton, Stosh Wawrzasek, Carter Morrison, Travis Nevakshonoff, Ryan Jensen, Shayne Wilson, Tyson Gillies, Kyle Paul, Denver Wynn, Adam Parliament, Jamie Metzner, Ryan Lennerton
          
Yet the best draft day had to be in 2002 ... that’s when his son Scott Mathieson was drafted. Scott pitched three years with the Philadelphia Phillies and is now in his fifth year pitching in relief for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan.