October 25, 2021

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Chris Kemlo has been coaching high schoolers for over 15 years. First with Rob and Rich Butler’s Ontario Prospects and then with the Toronto Mets.

Kemlo has scouted for PBR Canada for the past seven seasons, as well as the San Diego Padres for almost three years.

He has seen a few ground balls, some bad hop singles and prospects grow into pros.

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On deck ... the Canadian Baseball Network all-Canadian First Team, plus players named to our Honourable Mention list and voting breakdown.

In the hole ... Our stats package.

Already posted ... 22nd annual Canadian Baseball Network Player of the Year ... Hot Rod Black with the Player of the Year scoop ... Canadian Baseball Network all-Canadian Second Team. ... and the Canadian Baseball Network all-Canadian Third Team.

* * *

How many times has Kemlo seen a player, who received little or no interest from pro scouts, go off to school and come out three years later be drafted on Day 1 of the amateur draft?

That’s what happened to Tyler Black, the former Toronto Mets infielder, selected the 33rd best player in North America in July. Black matured into one of the best college hitters on the planet and is our 22nd annual Canadian Baseball Network college Player of the Year.

“Denzel Clarke had love (from pro scouts) out of high school,” Kemlo said. “Maybe Jeff Francis, Jake Sanford, maybe Matt Brash? The thing is nothing Tyler Black does will ever surprise me. We knew the kid could hit at nine years old, he could always hit and he had a strong work ethic.”

Francis (North Delta, B.C.) went undrafted as a high schooler pitching for the North Delta Blue Jays, went to the University of British Columbia and in 2002 was drafted ninth overall in North America.

Sanford (Cole Harbour, N.S.) was not selected from the Dartmouth Moosehead Dry or the Nova Scotia Selects, attended Western Kentucky and was a third-round selection of the New York Yankees in 2019.

Brash (Kingston, Ont. - Canada’s first capital) was undrafted from the Kingston Thunder, pitched for the Niagara Purple Eagles and was a fourth-round pick of the Seattle Mariners in 2019.

Francis, Sanford and Brash all earned Canadian Baseball Network all-Canadian college First Team honours. Of the three, only Francis was voted CBN college Player of the Year (back in 2001).

Black becomes the second Canadian Baseball Network college Player of the Year to be a unanimous selection. LHP Guillaume Blanchette (St-Constant, Que.), of the Lubbock Christian Chaparrals, went 51-for-51, to take home the honours in 2016, while Black was 56-for-56 taking first-place votes.

Blanchette was 2-9 with a 5.88 ERA and one save for the Trois-Rivieres Aigles in two seasons in the independent Can-Am league in 2016 and 2017. He appeared in 26 games -- making 14 starts -- walking 46 and striking out 61 in 90 1/3 innings.

Black hit .241 with four doubles, a homer and eight RBIs in 26 games with a .426 OBP and a .748 OPS with rookie-class Brewers Blue and class-A Carolina Mudcats.

This year the make up of our 56-person electorate was composed of 17 coaches, 16 scouts, 12 writers, seven executives, two broadcasters and two former players. Our voters came from eight different provinces and 14 different states south of the border.

* * *

The first time we heard that Tyler Black was on the radar of pro scouts was in the fall of 2020.

“I went to Wright State to see a Canadian infielder,” one veteran scout said.

How did he look?

“Well, he spent a lot of time sitting on a bucket, he couldn’t throw,” said the scout. “I still think he’ll go in the first 10 rounds.”

Black was recovering from shoulder surgery during fall ball, but his spring with Wright State made sure he was almost a first-rounder.

“I knew my freshman season that if I kept playing well, I’d have a good shot (in the draft),” said Black. “There were some scouts around, but basically I had an idea because of all the agents who contacted me.”

In 52 games -- 44 starts -- in his freshman season, he hit .353 with 41 RBIs and 23 extra-base hits for 102 total bases, a 1.069 OPS and 18 strikeouts in 170 at-bats in 2019.

“The [2021] draft could have gone a lot of different ways, but there were 20-to-30 scouts at our games, we won a lot and we had some guys drafted,” Black said.

In July, OF Quincy Hamilton went to the Houston Astros in the fifth round, Jake Schrand to the Miami Marlins in the ninth and Black, as noted earlier, was selected 33rd overall. C Konner Piotto (Abbotsford B.C.) signed as a free agent with the Texas Rangers.

OF Peyton Burdick, a third-rounder who went to the Marlins in 2019, introduced Black to his agent Jeff Gatch of PSI Sports Management, which represents among others Aaron Judge, Kole Calhoun, Tyler Matzek, Chad Wallach and Kolten Wong. Black describes Gatch as “honest, trustworthy and loyal.”

The Milwaukee Brewers signed Black for almost the assigned slot deal of $2.2 million US (slot was $2,202,200). That’s a long way from his grade 12 season with the Mets.

“Some guys were interested but that not much,” said Black of his college baseball options. “Schools that showed interest were Canisius, East Tennessee State, Radford, some mid-level tier Tier I schools, and some JUCOs.”

Enter Mets coach Rich Leitch, who called Wright State recruiting co-ordinator Nate Metzger, who was in need of an infielder, and invited him to see Black play a game in Indianapolis at Butler University.

“I don’t think I played great, I had a couple of hits but I didn’t do anything crazy good,” Black said. “Metzger talked to me for a good hour after the game and said he ‘liked my actions.’”

It’s said an experienced recruiter or pro scout can decide yes or no after a six-pitch bullpen ... and the same could be true for watching position players in pre-game infield. Black impressed there.

Black now has 26 games of pro ball on his resume. His ‘welcome to pro ball moment?’

He’s not sure he had one since “Wright State prepared me for pro ball. I don’t think its too different ... baseball is baseball.” He said he was “expanding his horizons,” learning different clubhouse cultures and learning Spanish.

“I don’t know any Spanish ... I learned from them, they learned from me, both on and off the field. I’m extending my horizon.”

There were a cadre of Brewers scouts involved in drafting Black. Pete Vuckovich Jr. goes down as the signing scout, while Taylor Green (Comox, B.C.), assistant director of scouting for international player development and Pete Orr (Newmarket, Ont.) were also involved.

Vuckovich’s father, also named Pete, pitched for the 1977 Toronto Blue Jays. The first-year Jays lost 107 games yet Vuckovich was a 7-7 with eight saves. Papa Pete worked for three years (1989–1991) as a TV announcer for the Brewers, making time to act as Yankees slugger Clu Haywood in the movie Major League. In 1992, he was hired by the Pittsburgh Pirates as a pitching instructor and he was pitching coach for the Bucs (1997–2000) seasons. He later served as a special assistant to the GM with the Pirates and then with the Mariners (2009–15). Vuckovich then worked as a pro scout with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The father registered the first shutout in Blue Jays’ franchise history, blanking the Baltimore Orioles and Jim Palmer. Black said he met Pete Jr. in Milwaukee when he signed his contract adding “he told me his father had pitched here and how much he loved it.”

About the same level as our voters loved Black and his seasons.

* * *

Kemlo coached Black with the Mets 17U and 18U. Why didn’t Black attract more attention from scouts in his pre-college days? Easy answer Kemlo explains.

“Tyler had a couple of ankle injuries and was never able to get on the field for a seven-month stretch,” said Kemlo. “He was at Bond Park and rolled his ankle at second base. Same thing a year later ... although not as bad.”

Black headed to Wright State and it was the right decision to play for coach Alex Sogard.

“He could always hit, when he was injured and wearing a boot he was hitting in the cage or hitting off a tee at home,” Kemlo said. “He was a guy who would usually go 3-for-4 with a bomb, or 2-for-3 with a double.”

Kemlo said he had four shortstops on his Mets team: Daniel Carinci (Ajax, Ont.), who was with the Junior National Team and has played at Alabama, Kansas State and is now at Marshall; Ben Jones (Toronto, Ont.) who was at Mineral Area and has committed to Dayton, Leo Markotic (Toronto, Ont.), who was at Jefferson Community College and now Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Black.

When everyone was healthy, Kemlo would play one shortstop at first, one at second, one at third and another at short. Then, he’d rotate the next game. And so on and so on.

Kemlo and his wife went to the middle game of the New York Yankees’ final visit to Rogers Centre with Nancy and Rod Black and Tyler. They also had a visit from Mets coach Honsing Leung.

Putting on his scout’s cap Kemlo sees Black’s future at second base, third base or left field ... “like a Matt Carpenter.” In 11 seasons, the member of the St. Louis Cardinals has made three all-star teams, leading the league in hits and doubles in 2013 and being No. 1 in doubles in 2015.

Carpenter’s career compares to the likes of Ben Zobrist, Hank Bauer, Jayson Werth, Jim Northrup, Casey Blake, Melvin Mora, Larry Hisle and Dave Henderson. He owns a .262 career average and an .816 OPS.

Both are a long ways from Black batting 1.000 among our voters.