Freshman infielder Justin Wylie wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school.
One look at his statistics on MaxPreps can clue people in as to why, but also wonder why not?
His senior year he showed solid hitting, a .356 batting average with 15 RBI and one home run in 31 games for Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona. It wasn’t extraordinary.
His fielding also wasn’t too solid: 10 errors in those 31 games, averaging almost one error every three games, which doesn’t appease many concerns for a San Diego State baseball team that had 68 errors in 63 games a season ago.
Numbers of course never tell the whole story, and SDSU head coach Mark Martinez and his staff are very high on the 5-foot-10, 180-pound freshman.
“He basically came in and outworked everybody and did a great job,” Martinez said. “Justin should be our everyday second baseman right now.”
Martinez, and also Wylie, made it clear that this team doesn’t have just one freshman who deserves high praise. SDSU’s recruiting class is ranked 19th in the nation according to Baseball America. Two players were even picked in the MLB Draft: freshmen Denz’l Chapman (32nd round, New York Mets) and Brody Westmoreland (35th round, Colorado Rockies).
With those two, one look at the numbers is all it takes. Westmoreland hit .433 (.527 on-base percentage) with 106 RBIs, 20 home runs and 32 stolen bases in three varsity seasons at ThunderRidge High School in Colorado.
Chapman hit .375 (.491 on-base percentage) in four high school seasons and stole 122 bases.
Freshman outfielder Chase Calabuig also wasn’t heavily recruited, but said that the freshmen class has some of the best players he’ll play with in his life and he knew he had to up the ante on his work ethic coming into the year.
“When it comes to playing with these drafted players, I don’t feel way out of contention,” he said. “But I definitely feel like they’ve allowed me to step up my game, like I wanted to play at my best so I could play with these guys.”
Calabuig and Wylie knew coming in they had to earn their stripes — that they couldn’t come in thinking they were hot stuff and then going about a day’s work.
They’re both very complementary of their fellow freshmen, who all saw playing time in last weekend’s inter-squad scrimmage.
Calabuig saw time in the outfield and even on the pitcher’s mound, while Wylie played nearly the whole of Sunday’s scrimmage at second base.
The scrimmage served as a chance for the coaches to see who will fill the gaping holes in the Aztecs’ lineup this year. Center fielder Greg Allen, catcher Brad Haynal, second baseman Tim Zier, pitcher Michael Cederoth and shortstop Evan Potter have all departed, leaving a lot of playing time for these eager freshmen to work toward.
Both Wylie and Calabuig, along with Martinez, say this freshmen class is built to make an immediate impact, with the overall versatility of everyone a big bonus for the Aztecs.
“We have power guys, we have speed, we have guys that can be all over the field and that’s really important for a team to have,” Wylie said. “If one guy goes down, we know that another guy can come in.”
It’s also beneficial that SDSU has what Martinez calls a healthy program with a low turnover rate.
“The guys that have come in this year are benefiting from guys that have played in our program, that have two Mountain West Championships under their belt, two (NCAA) Regional appearances and they know what it takes to compete at a high level,” he said.
They don’t have much longer to wait.
Only eight more days until these freshmen get to really stake their claim for a spot in the lineup in the season opener at Tony Gwynn Stadium on Feb. 13.
First pitch is at 6 p.m. PST, but be sure to get there early to see what should be a wonderful tribute to the late Tony Gwynn.
