Freddy Avis: Suddenly a Sizzling MLB Draft Prospect

Freddy Avis’s summer has been a blur. And that’s how many an opposing batter would describe his mid-90’s fastball.

How much has changed for Avis since he completed his junior year at Menlo School? At the time of the MLB draft in early June, Avis would’ve gawked at the possibility of weighing a lucrative offer to play professional baseball in a year. That was about the furthest thing from his mind as he was narrowing his college choices and eying a full slate of travel-ball games with the California Smoke.

But now, with the signing deadline for the 2011 MLB draft picks passing on Monday, Avis is adjusting to the likelihood that next summer he will be wooed by a big league organization intent on getting him to forgo what is now a verbal commitment to Stanford.

“It’s a little overwhelming – I’ll admit that,” said Avis, whose pro potential began to skyrocket when he was invited to a tryout in Stockton in early July for the Oakland A’s team that would play in the Area Code Baseball Games.

“I never thought any of this would happen. I still don’t believe this is happening. It’s pretty surreal. It’s really exciting.”

So how did the right-hander’s ascent happen so quickly?

His visibility took a big leap at the Area Code tryout, and then once he made the team and headed south for the prestigious showcase in Long Beach it started to spin into another realm. That’s what having hundreds of professional scouts and college coaches watching you will do.

And following his history, Avis delivered a sparkling performance in the high-pressure situation to place his name among the top high school prospects around the country. In his lone Area Code outing, he threw two scoreless innings in an 8-0 win over the Washington Nationals on August 6. The 6-foot-2, 185-pounder struck out three, allowed only an infield hit and topped out at 94 mph in earning co-MVP honors for the game.

Despite observing a sea of radar guns behind the backstop, Avis, an anchor of Menlo’s Central Coast Section Division III championship teams the last two years, kept his composure in part because he knew he needed to “focus more.”

“Fortunately, I didn’t feel so nervous that I ended up walking a bunch of guys,” said Avis, who missed his other scheduled Area Code appearance after a bout with food poisoning. “I felt loose, with a little bit of butterflies. It all clicked at the right time. I was fortunate that outing landed on that day.”

In distinguishing himself among all the top prospects in Long Beach, Avis ensured a frenzy of scouting attention that he called “very surprising.”

The 17-year-old from Palo Alto quickly learned that pro scouts aren’t bound by the same restrictions as college coaches are in a player’s recruitment – “It’s way different than NCAA.” What began with Avis talking with a number of organizations and collecting a stack of handouts will continue with the scouts seeking an up-close look into Avis’s makeup – on and off the field.

At this point, it seems a foregone conclusion that Avis’s final high school season will be played under a microscope. Menlo coach Craig Schoof, who guided the Knights through the near-daily attention of pro scouts during Kenny Diekroeger’s senior year in 2009, knows why the pros are enamored with his program’s latest elite prospect.

“He’s got a real loose arm and real hop,” Schoof said of Avis, the player he tabbed as the starting pitcher in the CCS Division III title game the last two years. “There’s just a huge upside. As good as he is, I just don’t think he’s even close to how good he’s going to be in two years, five years or 10 years.”

Avis, who verbally committed to Stanford in July after also considering Princeton, Duke and Harvard, is staring at the strong possibility that he will need to make another big decision about his future next summer: the Cardinal or the pros? But for now, the unassuming Avis is just happy to take the process as it comes.

“That’s a year away from now. I’m not too worried about it. I’d feel very fortunate – I’ll tell you that,” Avis said of the potential college-or-pros decision.

“It’s very surprising to me and my family to kind of stumble on all of this,” he continued. “We don’t really know what happens with the draft. Right now, we’re just trying to absorb information about the draft and the teams.”

After what has been a dizzying couple of months, Avis was happy to finally have the chance to step back and take in what has been a remarkable rise.

“Now I can just enjoy it and get back to my normal routine,” he said while relaxing during a 10-day vacation in Massachusetts. “I’m ready to start school again, get the season back on and hopefully win another CCS championship.”