11 Jul 2007

Young Stock with a lucrative future

By George Kostinas
GateHouse News Service
Wed Jul 11, 2007, 03:01 PM EDT 

Cotuit - His first hit in the league was a 3-run homer.

Playing in the Cape Cod Baseball League can be a harrowing and, possibly, daunting experience for even the best players. But Robert Stock of the Cotuit Kettleers, the youngest player in the league, has embraced the challenge.

Being the youngest player in the league might not be such a big deal; somebody has to be the youngest, but Stock may be the youngest to have played in the Cape League — ever! 

“He was probably the youngest freshman playing college baseball in the whole country [last spring],” says Kettleers’ manager Mike Roberts.

Without question, at 17, he is the youngest player by far playing this summer.

“I looked it up. Even if I waited until next year,” says Stock, “I’d still be the youngest.”

Stock skipped his senior year in high school to enroll at the University of Southern California, where he played mostly at catcher but sometimes pitched.

“In my junior year in high school my team was very good. At different points in the year we were ranked number one in the country. We went to the championship series and we lost in the last game,” says Stock. “I felt I went as far as I could go, and I wanted to go farther, so I decided to go to college to play.”

Stock enrolled in a special program called the Resident Honors Program in which grades and SAT scores were heavily weighted and he was able to get into USC without graduating from high school.

So in September, he was a 16-year-old freshman at USC.

He still has a boy’s face, compared to the men who are his teammates, and may even look like one of those movie star teen idols.
“I shaved this morning,” he says rubbing his cheeks.

Stock brought several books with him to read this summer. One was “Freakonomics” — he plans to study finance and investing. Another was “A Short History of Nearly Everything.” And then there were two books in the Harry Potter series.

“I’m reading the sixth one. The seventh one is coming out and I’m getting ready for that,” he says.

But there is an impressive maturity and confidence when he’s playing baseball.

“I’m 6-1 and 190; that’s the size of most guys. And baseball is a game of skills and fine movements. If I’m not as big or as strong as a 22-year-old, I feel I can make up for it in skills and practice,” Stock says. “If I’m struggling, it’s because I am not skilled enough, but I can work on that and make improvements. I don’t feel I’m in over my head.”

Roberts already thinks he has made improvements.

“There is no one area where I need to tell him, ‘You have to work on this — NOW.’ He does a lot of things well. As a catcher, he has a great short throwing motion; there’s no wasted movement. And he has a real good swing. He just sits still and lets his hands do the work,” says Roberts.

But what really impresses Roberts is Stock’s knowledge of the game.

“He understands the game especially well for a young man his age. He is able to put together the mental part of the game with the physical. A lot of guys are not able to do that,” says Roberts.

Stock struggled last year at USC, but still batted .250 and hit four home runs. In addition, he pitched about 25 innings.
“Team-wise and personally, it was not a good year for me, but I look at it as a year of improvement,” says Stock.
That’s one of reason he wanted to play in the Cape League — to improve.

“I feel I’m getting better. When I was a freshman in high school, I had to work every year to improve. I’m hoping playing in this league and in the PAC 10 will do the same, so I can go back and have a strong season,” he says.

Every day Stock watches film of his games. His host family tapes the games for him and he studies them, looking to make adjustments.

Despite hitting a homer for his first hit in the Cape League, he struggled after being hit with a pitch in the calf in the first game and missed two games. Then while catching he took a ball off the thumb. Then he injured a tendon in his foot while running the bases, which caused him to miss a few more games, and slowed him down.

He has bounced back and is batting .267 and leads the team with 13 RBI after going 2-for-5 with a two-run single Tuesday. Roberts sees a great deal of potential.

“I’ll tell you right now: he’ll be playing in the big leagues soon, and I will enjoy watching him,” Roberts says.