The Major League Baseball draft, today through Tuesday in Seattle, will be of particular interest across Puget Sound and just across the border, with Victoria Eagles star Sam Shaw among the top 300 prospects.
Shaw is coming off the MLB combine last month at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, which was the last chance to impress scouts as a multi-faceted player who can do it all.
“I like being the utility guy and to use all my skills like Mookie Betts,” he told the sa国际传媒.
“Versatility is the way the game is going.”
This guy has that in bunches and can play shortstop and outfield. He is also an offensive threat. Shaw is five-foot-10 and 180 pounds but can swing for the fences. He placed second to Team sa国际传媒 teammate Myles Naylor of Mississauga, Ont., in the final of the 2022 Under-18 World Cup home-run derby. Smith also hit .428 at the 2022 Wood Bat Association world championship last fall.
“You don’t need a big body to drive the ball because it’s mechanical — it’s how you hit it,” Shaw said.
Shaw grew up in Fairfield, but attended Lambrick Park Secondary because of its baseball academy and is committed to Xavier University of NCAA Division 1. Shaw plays for the Eagles of the sa国际传媒 Premier Baseball League and was in Orlando, Florida, over the spring playing at the TNXL Academy for two months of development.
Jeremy Pike of BVM Sports ranks Shaw as the No. 3 Canadian high-school-age player for 2023, behind top-ranked Naylor and No. 2 Eliot Cadieux-Lanoue, a sa国际传媒 U-18 pitcher with the Langley Blaze of the BCPBL.
Baseball has been described as a cerebral game and Shaw is aware about developing both mind and body in his approach to the sport and is reading several books about meditation this summer. “It’s about self-improvement,” he said.
Shaw was an all-rounder, playing rep hockey on the Island alongside Matthew Wood, taken 15th overall in the first round in the 2023 NHL draft by the Nashville Predators, and Owen Beckner, taken in the seventh round by the Ottawa Senators.
“I’ve known all those guys since I was five years old,” Shaw said. “It was a difficult decision to leave hockey. But the decision to choose baseball came naturally to me.”
The choice of main sport becomes almost instinctive for all-rounders at about 12 or 13. Shaw hopes to have his choice validated over the next three days.
The Pittsburgh Pirates will choose first today followed by the Washington Nationals and Detroit Tigers. The Toronto Blue Jays select 20th and Seattle Mariners 22nd. The top prospects include outfielders Wyatt Langford of the Florida Gators and Dylan Crews of the LSU Tigers and pitcher Paul Skenes of LSU.
The draft will go 20 rounds with 614 players to be selected.
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