Glenn Beyer won’t make a prediction about the regular season for one simple reason: The longtime John Adams baseball coach isn’t concerned about it. His only focus – the focus he’s always had in 18 years at the Ozone Park school – is on late May.
The playoffs are the real season; everything else is merely a warm-up. When it comes to the postseason, his goal is always the same.
“There’s only one hope I have every year: to win a championship,” he said. “That’s the only reason to go out and play. It’s not arrogant or cocky. Our goal is to win a championship because that’s all we know. Is it realistic? We have a puncher’s chance because of our talent and our two pitchers.”
Christina Santucci
John Adams and coach Glenn Beyer have high hopes this spring.
Beyer has high hopes because of how much he returns. It starts with power-hitting middle infielder Jeffrey Valera, who is hearing from a host of top junior colleges, a player he says compares favorably at this age to New York Mets farmhand Carlos Guzman.
“Jeffrey was a better player than Carlos at this age,” Beyer said of the 6-foot, 190-pound Valera, who hit four home runs, batted .474, drove in 36 runs and scored 21 times a year ago. “It’s very hard to get your number retired by me, but he’ll get his number retired at the end of the year. He’s one of my all-time players.”
Fellow infielder Jorge Barahona, who had 29 RBIs and hit .490 last season, returns and so is catcher Adonis Castillo. Beyer thinks he has a solid pitching half. Right-hander Braylin Abreu, the staff ace, is back after going 7-1 last season, and will be followed in the rotation by junior varsity call-up Anderson Deleon and Tames Varga .
Vargas can hardly break a pane of glass with his fastball, but the soft-tossing left-hander mixes up his pitches well and hits the corners. Deleon is hard to get a read on because he’s only 5-foot-5 and throws harder than many might expect.
“The ball comes on you quickly,” Beyer said. “He has tremendous command, a good changeup.”
Tom Lehman is thrilled star center fielder Josh Almonte has emerged as a pro prospect. The Long Island City coach always saw such potential in Almonte, but he’s pleased not just for Almonte, but the affect it’s having on his entire team.
“Sometimes we have Division II, Division III schools come down, but this is a first for our program,” Lehman said after three Major League scouts attended his team’s scrimmage against Grand Street Campus earlier in the week. “I always tell my guys you have to play like someone’s watching you. They see who’s watching and they’re like, ‘You’re right.’”
Next >
1
2
Glenn Beyer, John Adams, Jeffrey Valera, coach Glenn Beyer, Anderson Deleon, Ozone Park school
No comments:
Post a Comment