He has shown that he can be rock solid consistent, fielding. Those tangible qualities are measurably elite, but he also has worked tirelessly to perfect those qualities.Īmaya’s physical skills have been enhanced by the hard work he has put into his preparation and it has payed off in several different ways. Amaya has an incredibly quick first step, great timing, and an “Ozzie Smith” type quick release. The hardest part of the evaluation process, however, is truly understanding the intangible qualities that a player possesses.ĭraft picks like Amaya all had wildly successful High School careers, so knowing how they will handle the failure that the professional game will present is, many times, a guessing game.Īs good as Amaya’s talent is on the field, his qualities of confidence, work ethic and perspective might be his best skill set. The statistics they put up and the physical skills they possess are all measurable and done so at length. When evaluating young players, the easiest thing for scouts to do is to measure a players tangible qualities. In his Junior and Senior years at South Hills High School Amaya shined hitting. Throughout the years the Huskies have produced 8 major Leaguers, 25 draft picks, and in the same year Amaya got drafted, Karlos Morales, South Hills teammate, got drafted as well. South Hills High School is well known for its baseball and producing draft picks. Having been recruited since he was just 14 years old, then playing in front of scouts his entire High School career, the “limelight” is something that Amaya has grown up with. So, the “limelight” is something he will have to be able to handle. We would always talk about Dodgers games and we’d always tune in the 7th inning when all the exciting stuff happens and we’d talk about baseball.”Īmaya has professional baseball in his bloodlines, was drafted by one of the most iconic organizations in all of sports, and plays the most visible position in the game. My grandpa passed away so he didn’t get the chance to be with me on that but he was a big influence. When asked about growing up a Dodger fan then getting drafted by them, Amaya said it was a dream come true. So playing baseball and loving the Dodgers were two things that were simply born into the young Amaya. Frank also became one of the most popular and successful coaches in the Los Angeles area and was known as being “old school” tough and changed the lives of an unknown amount of Southern California baseball players. Jacob’s grandpa, Frank, played in the Dodgers organization for the Great Falls Electrics in the 1950’s and eventually made it as far as AAA with Seattle in his career. Amaya grew up just 20 miles East of Dodger Stadium and had influences around him that bled Dodger Blue. When Jacob Amaya was taken in the 11th round of the 2017 draft, the Dodgers had acquired an elite fielding short stop and had also made a dream come true.
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