Draft dodgers: Wichita State baseball players see winning as antidote to distractions

For a college pitcher, the radar gun watches every moment and passes judgment on your future in baseball with a digital hammer. Its evaluation, in the hands of the right professional scout, can be worth thousands of dollars, or more.

“You’re the only person, on every pitch, who sees radar guns pop up,” former Wichita State pitcher Anthony Capra said. “It’s pretty easy to see the scouts and look for a reaction. You’re only human.”

Wichita State opens the baseball season on Friday at Sam Houston State with a roster composition uniquely sensitive to radar guns and scouts. Coach Todd Butler, needing an immediate infusion of talent, brought in 24 newcomers, 10 from junior colleges. Add seven returning juniors and seniors and the roster is full of players with roughly four more months to invest in Wichita State before the draft starts on June 8.

Butler’s job is to keep his players from turning into draft prophets, his cautionary phrase for an athlete who daydreams about putting on a Dodgers hat, shaping the brim with his hands and signing that first pro contract with family and friends watching. The first priority is that yellow-and-black hat with the flying W. He warns about the dangers during the first team meeting.

“It’s talking about not predicting the future, not wanting to go out and buy a car before the draft,” he said. “I think the guys who can control that, not let the outside interference affect their play, those guys have success and end up possibly becoming higher draft picks, because they’re responsible and accountable.”

May 29, the opening day of NCAA regionals, is Butler’s big day. The Shockers, 31-28 last season, failed to make a regional in Butler’s debut as coach. They are picked third in the Missouri Valley Conference and Collegiate Baseball ranked his recruiting class No. 2 nationally, largely on the strength of six recruits drafted in June.

Butler needs their full attention on beating Evansville and Oklahoma State, not on signing bonuses and their first minor-league bus ride. While he expects most of his draft-eligible players to leave WSU in June, he spent the fall building a team that will make winning in college its priority. A sign over the entrance to the Eck Stadium locker room tells players who aren’t ready to help the team to turn around.

“Everybody is working toward the same goal pretty relentlessly,” sophomore pitcher Sam Tewes said. “Focus seems to be elevated every single day.”

Oakland picked Capra in the fourth round of the 2008 season after he earned third-team All-American honors. It is impossible, he said, to never think about the draft. It is impossible to miss the scouts. He even admits to putting extra juice on his fastball, in order to show scouts his best stuff, in a low-danger situation with two outs and two strikes.

Most of the time, however, Capra filled his mind with routines that helped him improve — playing catch, fielding bunts, throwing bullpens.

“Have fun and focus on the day to day,” he said. “You need to do something to get better and take your mind off the big picture.”

Wichita State junior outfielder Daniel Kihle and former Shocker Casey Gillaspie went to breakfast recently and talked for about 90 minutes. Over skillets filled with eggs and potatoes, Kihle heard the same message from a recent success story. Gillaspie, drafted in the first round in 2014 by Tampa Bay, excelled in his junior season despite high expectations and a posse of scouts at every game.

“He’s still kind of leading the team, even though he’s not on it anymore,” Kihle said. “He said just to play the game, it’s the same game you’ve always played. If I made sure my team won, my job would be complete that day.”

That message must get through to many of the Shockers, many of them who will play their first game in a WSU uniform on Friday at Sam Houston State.

Butler compares his team to Kentucky basketball with a load of one-and-dones. He counts on junior transfers such as Isaac Anderson, Willie Schwanke and Sam Hilliard to join Tewes in the starting rotation. Third baseman Chase Rader, catcher Ryan Tinkham and outfielder Zach Reding must power the offense. Schwanke and Hilliard will play first base when they are not pitching. There are two seniors — catcher Bob Arens and pitcher Ray Ashford — and three returning starters on the roster. Kihle, after a good summer in the Cape Cod League, will also attract attention from scouts.

This is very much a team that must blend and learn on the job. While the transfers are likely a few months from pro ball, they are also less than a year removed from junior college. For many, their first goal is to play at a school like Wichita State.

“Winning comes first,” Hilliard said. “I thought, if we all came here, we could make something special happen. Like those other guys, it’s always been a dream of mine to play Division I baseball.”

Rader, who played at Coffeyville Community College, attracted many scouts last season and Detroit picked him in the 16th round. Like five other drafted Shockers, he turned down pro ball for college and expects to improve his draft stock while in college. When the scouts show up again, Rader will be prepared.

“Last year, it was all new to me,” Rader said. “I was a juco kid and I never really talked to anyone out of high school. Seeing scouts all over, it bugged me a little bit because I would always watch for them. I got a little overwhelmed, a little antsy. This year, I’ve learned to play the game and just have fun. I came here to win a championship. I’m focused on that, and if we do that, the future will take care of itself.”

Winning a championship — that is the kind of prophecy Butler can live with.

This story was originally published February 12, 2015 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Draft dodgers: Wichita State baseball players see winning as antidote to distractions."