Four players represent Europe at the Power Showcase in Florida last weekend. Matej Sucha (picture, CZE), Robin Drache (GER), Paolino Ambrosino (ITA) and Mike Bazuin (NED) obviously couldn’t match the top High School prospects, but they held their ground and were right in the middle of the pack, according to Brian Domenico, who organized the event at the Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Their swings looked as good as anyone during practice. In the homerun derby itself the nerves of the European quartet denied better results in competition with their American counterparts.
The International Power Showcase High School Home Run Derby was held for the third time after 2006 and 2008. It featured this time the 60 best power hitting high school players from the United States plus ten international representatives. The event started on Friday with a special batting and defensive practice session at the spring training complex of the New York Yankees in Tampa. A welcome dinner and uniform presentation ceremony followed in the evening.
The Home Run Derby started on Saturday morning at 9am with the preliminary round, where each prospect had 25 outs (no homerun equals out) over two rounds, the first ten outs with wooden bats, the second 15 with metal bats. The top five hitters advanced into the championship round, were each representative received 15 more outs with free choice of wood or metal.
Baseball America’s Nathan Rode compared the 2009 Power Showcase with the 2008 All Star Home Run Derby at the Yankee Stadium last July, when Josh Hamilton dominated in the first round with a record-setting 28 homeruns, but finished second in the end behind Justin Morneau. Bryce Harper of Las Vegas High School in Nevada played the role of Hamilton in St. Petersburg. He smashed eleven homeruns in the preliminary round, including a 502’ long ball, which set a new tournament record. He received the Babe Ruth Award from Linda Ruth Tosetti (Babe’s Granddaughter) for the longest homerun in the competition.
However the catcher managed just one homerun in the championship round to finish in fifth place. Christian Walker (Kennedy-Kenrick Catholic, Norristown, Pa.) cleared the fence nine times in the final round to win the Power Showcase trophy with an overall number of 19 homeruns. Randal Grichuk (8 in final round/20 overall, Lamar Consolidated High, Rosenburg, Texas) hit the most homeruns in both rounds, but finished in third behind Ryan Gunhouse (8/17, Clear Creek High, League City, Texas) and in front of Dante Bichette (4/15, Orangewood Christian, Maitland, Florida), son of the former Major League slugger with the same name, who finished second in the NL MVP voting in 1995.
The four European participants couldn’t translate their practice swings into homeruns in the competition and had no chance to advance into the championship round. Robin Drache and Paolino Ambrosino had no luck in both preliminary rounds. Matej Sucha started with ten consecutive outs in the wood bat portion, but hit two over the wall with a metal bat, the longest traveling a decent 404 feet. Mike Bazuin also hit two homeruns, one each with a wood and a metal bat. Both were measured with 383 feet. But still, even to be there and to compete with some of the best prospects in Baseball should count for something and will inspire them to make strides in their development. In addition full scouting reports were filed from every contestant, which only can help in the future.
Domenico hopes to expand the event in the future. This year there were not only ten international participants, but the Home Run Derby also was broadcasted live in the internet with a high peak of 3500 visitors. A television broadcast would be the next step. He also wishes to extend the percentage of legit power hitters in the tournament. “Every year we make adjustments. This year we had 25 or so that were unreal. The goal for next year is to increase that to probably 80 percent of the guys there are truly the best power guys.” He also thinks about different venues, like the Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona and the Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas.
Power Showcase Official Website
Profile Matej Sucha
Profile Robin Drache
Profile Paolino Ambrosino
Profile Mike Bazuin
Baseball America: No Power Outage
Photo: © Jeff Horton, Horton Digital
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