Diodati kicks off his senior year at the Super 60
Great Lake Canadians and Junior National Team standout Owen Diodati. Photo Credit: Baseball Canada
By Cam Black-Araujo
Canadian Baseball Network
For many sports fans, baseball season doesn’t get underway until the waning hours of the first Sunday every February as the Super Bowl comes to a close.
For some of the top high school and draft eligible ball players in North America, it begins in the early hours of that same Super Bowl Sunday at Prep Baseball Report’s Super 60 showcase. The showcase hosts some of the most talented players in America including 18 first-round picks in the MLB Draft who have attended in the past.
Niagara Falls native Owen Diodati walked into the Max-McCook Athletic & Exposition just outside Chicago on Sunday morning and despite playing at Fenway Park or playing for the Canadian Junior National Team this year, there was still a little bit of nerves. Diodati, the second ranked player on the 2019 Canadian Baseball Network Draft List, reminded himself as always that it’s just baseball, the sport he fell in love with a long time ago.
“It was a big place so it was a little intimidating at first but once I got in there and started warming up, I saw a couple familiar faces that I had played with in the summer and the nerves kind of went away and it just became baseball again.”
The familiar faces were not teammates from back home as Diodati was the lone Canadian in attendance, but the friendships he’s made on the national circuit over the past few years allowed him to settle in.
Another thing that allowed him to settle in was a solid start to his day as he began the morning running the 60-yard dash in 7.09 seconds, a solid time for the catching position although he knows he can improve on that number.
A catcher with lots of pop in his bat as shown by his two round trippers in this year’s T12, Diodati was most looking forward to stepping in the batter’s box for the hitting session in front of the 100+ pro scouts. The 6-foot-4 Alabama commit was pulling the ball with some violent swings leading to an exit velocity of 94 mph.
He was proud of his work throughout the entire BP session and carried that demeanor into the defensive portion of the day, something he says he’s worked hard at improving. It’s still early February and Diodati knows his arm strength probably still isn’t back to where it can be either.
“My arm is not exactly where I want it to be just yet because it’s early in the season and I haven’t thrown a ton yet but that wasn’t really a huge concern for me. I just wanted to get out there and show an increase in athleticism and be a little looser than I’ve been in the past.”
Defensively during the Super 60, Diodati had a catcher velocity of 80 mph and a pop-time in the low 2.00’s. While he’s made improvements to his defensive game and gotten much stronger over the past year, he says the mental side of his game is where he’s developed the most.
“I think the mental side of it has been huge for me, not letting my emotions control how I play the next day if I have a bad game. I don’t let the highs get too high or the lows get too low, I just kind of stay even keel and just play my game,” he explained.
A tough mental side of the game is important for teenagers who are already travelling across America throughout the summer and even internationally. Diodati travelled to Florida, the Dominican Republic and Panama with the Canadian JNT last year, winning a bronze at the COPABE U18 Pan Am Championships. This also allowed him to learn alongside Cleveland’s 29th overall pick in 2018, fellow catcher Bo (Noah) Naylor.
In that same calendar year, Diodati participated in the East Coast Pro showcase tournament for the Red Sox Scout Team, as well as the T12 in Toronto and WWBA World Championships in Jupiter, Florida.
Diodati says all of this baseball may have him a little fatigued when a season comes to a close but there’s nothing else he’d rather be doing.
“Baseball is fun and I’m always looking for new ways to challenge myself, whether that be with Team Canada or at these big events. It’s always a challenge for me to stack up against these players that are the best in the country or pro ball players,” said Diodati.
“I would say physically I get worn down because it’s a lot of baseball to play but it never crosses my mind that I would rather be doing something else. I love doing all the things I’ve been able to do and I’m lucky to have that opportunity.”
And as another one of those opportunities presented itself this weekend in Chicago for Diodati, his stay in the Windy City came to a close in somewhat similar fashion to those around the world.
Watching the Super Bowl in a hotel alongside one of his biggest fans, his father Ryan Diodati, as they crushed a Chicago deep dish pizza together.
Despite all the baseball in his life and all the scouts that were watching him just hours before kickoff, baseball takes a back seat to moments like these which are the ones he cherishes most.