At 18, Konnor Griffin prepares for biggest day of his life: MLB Draft Day

Konnor Griffin, left, and his dad, Kevin Griffin, joined the Crooked Letter Sports Podcast for a Monday recording. Credit: Tyler Cleveland

Put yourself, just for the moment, in Konnor Griffin’ size 13 baseball spikes. Just imagine:

You don’t turn 19 until next April and you just graduated from Jackson Prep. You are the quintessential five-tool professional baseball prospect. That is, you can hit for average and you can hit for power. You can field really well at several positions. You can throw, both from the mound and in the field. And, brother, can you ever run.

Yes, and in four days, your future will change radically. Sunday is Major League Draft Day. You are listed as one of the top 10 professional baseball prospects in the U.S. and the No. 1 high school prospect, period.

You are a shade over 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weigh a streamlined 215 pounds. You have already signed a letter of intent to play college baseball at one of the nation’s top programs, LSU. But your name could be called early in Sunday evening’s draft, and, if so, you will be offered millions and millions of dollars to go somewhere and play the game you love.

The Cleveland Guardians, who have the No. 1 pick and sent a team of eight scouts to watch you back in March, are said to be mightily interested. Most, if not all, Major League teams are. After all, back in February, when Prep was preparing for its first game of the season, 52 professional scouts surrounded the batting cage to watch you hit. Fifty-two. There are only 30 Major League teams. Do the math.

So, tell me. Are you nervous? Are you sleeping well? Are you sleeping at all? I know I wouldn’t be.

Here’s what the real Konnor Griffin, one of the most mature and polite teens you can ever imagine, said earlier this week when asked that question: “I am sleeping just fine. This has been a lot of years in the making and represents a lot of hard work. It’s just a great opportunity I have ahead of me whether it’s to go to LSU or go somewhere and play pro ball. I have no clue, but I am ready to find out. I’m ready to go.”

PODCAST:

That interview was on Monday. On Tuesday, Konnor and his dad, Belhaven softball coach Kevin Griffin, flew to Los Angeles where he will appear on Thursday night’s Espys Awards program on ESPN as the national high school baseball player of the year. On Sunday, he, his family, friends and Jackson Prep teammates and coaches will gather at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Museum for an invitation-only viewing of the MLB Draft.

“It’s out of my hands now. I’ve done what I can do,” Konnor Griffin said. “We’ll see.”

We will. Trying to guess where Konnor Griffin or anyone else will be picked in the baseball draft is a fool’s errand. There are so many factors involved. Major League teams that need more immediate help would be more likely to pick a proven college player, three or four years older and probably more ready for the professional baseball grind. Indeed in recent years, a much higher percentage of early draft picks have been college players rather than kids fresh out of high school. Last year, five of the top seven draft picks and 11 of the top 15 were college players.

There’s the money factor, as well. Much behind-the-scenes negotiation has been — and is — taking place. Major League teams want to know what it will take to sign a player before they draft him. The Griffins are leaving the negotiating to Joey Devine of Excel Sports Management in North Carolina.

LSU’s Paul Skenes, a pitcher, was the first pick last year and signed for $9.2 million. He’s already 5-0 with a 2.12 earned run average for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The first high school player taken was Max Clark of Franklin, Ind. He was the third pick of the draft to the Detroit Tigers and signed for $7.7 million and currently plays for the Tigers Class A team in Lakeland, Fla.

Ask 10 professional scouts and you might get 10 different answers on where Griffin might go in the draft. Ask Mark DeRosa, a former Major League player, former Team USA manager and current MLB Network broadcaster, and you will get this: “The Cleveland Guardians are making a mistake if they don’t pick Konnor Griffin first.”

DeRosa, who has watched Griffin practice and play and spent some time off the field with him, believes Griffin not only as the physical skills, but also the mental make-up to succeed at the Major League level. Not every expert is as sky-high on Griffin as that. The one knock scouts seem to have is the level of competition Griffin has faced in Mississippi high school baseball. That’s a sore point with the Griffins.

“That touches me deep in my heart,” Konnor said. “Our Jackson Prep team could have played with any high school team in the country. We played against really good teams and really good players here. There’s good baseball in Mississippi. Plus, I’ve traveled around the world and played against some of the best players in international competition.”

Said Kevin Griffin, “It’s a tired act when people downplay the quality of baseball in Mississippi. Just look at the players who have come through here and what they’ve gone on to do.”

Let’s do. How about Southaven’s Austin Riley, the two-time All-star third baseman of the Atlanta Braves, who was drafted late in the first round of the 2015 draft? Riley, in 2015, might be the best comparison to Konnor Griffin now. Like Griffin, Riley was a rangy, slender prospect with a frame with plenty room for added muscle. He hit .271 with 20 home runs in his first full season of professional baseball at Class A Rome in 2016. He made his Major League debut three years later. He has hit 146 home runs for the Braves and fields at third base like a reincarnation of Brooks Robinson. He hit 37 home runs last year, 38 the year before. As potentially good as he was in 2015 and as great as he has become, Riley couldn’t run anywhere near like Griffin. It remains to be seen if Griffin will hit with the power Riley has.

“Just to be compared with someone like Austin Riley is like a dream to me,” Griffin said.

Those comparisons began early. Kevin Griffin says the first time it occurred to him his son had special baseball skills was when Konnor was 12. “He hit like 58 home runs that summer,” Kevin Griffin said. “He made plays that you just don’t see 12-year-olds make.”

Konnor’s 12th year on the planet was also the first time Jay Powell, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer and former Big League standout, saw him play. “We were in Oxford, and he was playing in a tournament with 12-year-olds,” Powell said. “They played on a high school field with a temporary fence and Konnor hit one not only over temporary fence but also the high school fence in centerfield. It traveled over 370 feet, minimum. That’s when I knew he was special.”

We haven’t even discussed his pitching. Griffin throws in the mid-to-high 90s with devastating slider. He was 10-0 with a 0.72 earned run average and 107 strikeouts in 67 innings.

“He would be a first rounder as a pitcher, even if he didn’t hit and field like he does,” Powell said.

Connor Griffin played shortstop at Prep, but many scouts believe he will play center field In the pros. Credit: Robert Smith/Jackson Prep

Powell was Major League teammates with such Baseball Hall of Famers as Alex Rodriguez, Chipper Jones and Todd Helton, and says, matter-of-factly, “Konnor Griffin is the best athlete I’ve ever been around.”

For Prep, Griffin hit .559 with nine home runs this spring. He stole 85 bases in 86 attempts. There is seemingly nothing on a baseball field he can’t do, but he says he would prefer to be an everyday player, probably shortstop or centerfielder, rather than pitching full-time.

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So we began this column asking readers to put your feet in Konnor Griffin’s shoes. Now then, try on Kevin Griffin’s sneakers.

Your son clearly has all the ability in the world. But he’s still just 18 years young. Next month, he could be on the other side of the continent playing minor league baseball in some small town you and he have never heard of. Are you ready for that? Do you think Konnor is?

“Konnor’s very mature for his age,” Kevin Griffin said. “He’s been a lot of places by himself. He’s had to fend for himself. I don’t have too much of a concern. Now my wife Kim would probably tell you something different. I don’t think she’s looking forward to the possibility of him being across the country, by himself, in some minor league town. But we’ve trusted the process. We feel like he’s mature enough to go out and spread his wings. We’re in a good place.”

The Griffins are just excited – and more a little nervous – to see what happens next. Put yourself in their shoes. Wouldn’t you be?

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