SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO >> Every time JSerra plays baseball this spring, the scouts will return, stopwatches and radar guns in hand, as if they’d never left.
This is Draft Year. This is when the money comes down, when a dilapidated franchise seeks its cornerstone player. The scouts will be looking for something new.
They’ve watched Royce Lewis for years. Contrarians among them will search for the red flag, some imperfection that will justify the drafting of someone else.
Lewis, the two-time Trinity League Player of the Year, is planning to pre-empt that. Now, finally, he is the shortstop at JSerra. He moves out of the band and in front of the microphone.
He says the scouts should prepare to update their books.
“It’s a premium position,” Lewis said. “I can show my leadership skills, take control of the game. It’s what I love about it. I want to play the position Derek Jeter played. Except I want to be Royce Lewis.”
One draft site has Lewis going No. 6 in the first round, to Oakland. Another has him fourth, to Tampa Bay. Some say he won’t have to wait that long. Last summer he was on a Team USA squad that won the COPAE under-18 tournament in Mexico, beating Cuba 6-1. Later, he jerked a home run to left in Wrigley Field.
But the scouts might spend some thumb-twiddling afternoons, as pitchers avoid throwing baseballs anywhere near Lewis.
Seven position players from last year’s Lions are playing in college this year. One was Chase Strumpf, now at UCLA, the shortstop who kept Lewis at the hot corner.
Coach Brett Kay expects the Lions to be good, but he also expects Lewis to get intentionally walked, even as a leadoff man. And he expects a hailstorm of throw-overs to keep him from stealing.
“I guess I’ll have to be the next Barry Bonds then,” Lewis said, grinning. “But I’ve had pretty good plate discipline throughout.”
“His patience will be tested,” Kay said. “He’s so focused on every pitch. Somebody will hit a foul ball down the third base line and you can tell he’s upset because he wants it to be hit to him, wants to make every play.
“They don’t make charts that can measure his makeup and competitiveness. And he’ll have a bit of a chip on his shoulder this time. He knows people question whether he can play shortstop.”
Lewis, who has committed to UC Irvine, had to answer questions all along. His parents, William and Cindy, did not rush him through the looking glass of Travel Ball. He played for local teams, but mostly he focused on JSerra’s program.
“We wanted to make sure he got his rest,” William said. “And we knew we wanted him at JSerra. The Trinity League provides enough competition on its own. But the counterpoint to that was that Royce had to prove himself on every level.”
Kay estimates that 50 players on the six Trinity League rosters will be playing in college. If you get through that 15-game wringer and win the championship, as JSerra has done the past two years, that’s the biggest banner you can hang.
William played football at Fullerton College for Hal Sherbeck, and then at Chico State, and Cindy played softball at U.S. International and San Jose State. Baseball enchanted Royce from the start.
“His first word was ‘ball,’” William said, laughing. “I’d take him to a game when he was 2, and he’d sit in my lap and watch everything. Wouldn’t cry, wouldn’t want to go home. He was picking up what the players were doing.”
For two years Lewis has worked at the Treigning Lab in Laguna Hills, with baseball-specific workouts under the eye of Micah Gorman. “Rotational work,” he said, “with not much benching. Stuff that frees up the chest.”
He also has changed his approach at the plate, as “my own hitting coach,” now focusing on pitches he can drive instead of the basic see-it, hit it method. That power-speed salad evokes comparisons to Adam Jones and George Springer, young MLB outfield stars. But they aren’t shortstops.
“Most kids who think of themselves as shortstops would have transferred,” Kay said. “Royce’s family never complained once.”
Royce watched William rise in his business without shortcuts. William is the sommelier and managing partner of The Winery restaurants in Newport Beach and Tustin, with a La Jolla branch opening in the fall. Which means Royce won’t have to wonder where to hold the draft party.
“His priority is the Trinity League,” William said. “Draft Day (June 12) will take care of itself.”
The wine is nearing its time.
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