Botts out to prove everyone wrong

He goes about 6-foot-7, 250 pounds, with light tower power from both sides, sprinter's speed, and an idea at the plate. You might expect that a singular athlete like Jason Botts has forever been on an express path to the Major Leagues, on a timetable slowed only by a disciplined exercise of organizational patience.

You'd be wrong.

"First the scouts said I was not athletic enough," Botts jokes. "Then I lacked bat speed. Now it's that I'm a defensive liability. All I know is that, in the end, I'm going to prove them all wrong."

Botts has had to silence his baseball critics for years.

• Baltimore used its 28th-round pick on Botts in 1998 after his career at Paso Robles High School in California, but the Orioles made no real effort to sign him.

• He was offered just one four-year scholarship, by Cal Poly State, but instead enrolled at Glendale Community College to accelerate his eligibility to be redrafted.

Only one Glendale draftee (former Phillies reliever Wally Ritchie) has reached the Major Leagues.

• The Texas Rangers chose Botts in 1999 in the 46th round after his first year with the Vaqueros, and monitored him as a draft-and-follow through his second season before signing him -- luring him from an opportunity to transfer to USC.

• The Rangers promptly made Botts a switch-hitter, and though he hit a robust .319/.440/.503 in the Gulf Coast League in his rookie season, he followed with two solid Class A seasons in which he exhibited phenomenal plate discipline (especially for a player with as large a strike zone as his) but his potential to hit for plus power remained just that: potential.

• Botts stepped forward in 2003, splitting the season between high-A Stockton and Double-A Frisco and leading all Ranger Minor Leaguers with 88 RBIs and setting a career high with 13 homers, and yet despite the production and what everyone agreed was the promise to be even better in every phase, Texas chose not to put Botts on the 40-man roster, instead adding Adrian Gonzalez, Nick Regilio, Edwin Moreno, and Jason Bourgeois. Moreno and Bourgeois have since been dropped from the roster and lost to other organizations.

• Botts was passed over by every other team in that winter's Rule 5 Draft.

The 1,375th player taken in the 1999 draft, never doubting himself, erased any lingering doubts around baseball in 2004. Botts set career marks with 24 homers, 92 RBIs, 77 walks, and 85 runs, garnering midseason and postseason All-Star recognition. Earning an assignment to the Arizona Fall League, he fought off a mysterious illness that caused him to rapidly lose 15 pounds, hitting .355/.461/.570 with six home runs in 107 at-bats. Only four hitters in the prospect league went deep more often, and only two reached base at a greater clip.

And Botts played outfield in the AFL, something he hadn't done regularly since 2002. With 22-year-old Adrian Gonzalez entrenched as the Rangers' top first base prospect behind 24-year-old Mark Teixeira, the idea is to explore all ways in which the 24-year-old Botts can eventually impact the big club with his intriguing bat.

Texas added him to the 40-man roster in November, knowing they couldn't get away with leaving him exposed to another Rule 5 Draft. Said Rangers assistant general manager Jon Daniels, "Jason turned his raw power into game power this year. He became more aggressive without sacrificing plate discipline."

He's squarely on the map. Finally.

Botts will play left field for Oklahoma as the season begins. But whether it's as a corner outfielder or a first baseman or a designated hitter, it's not necessary right now to decide what exactly Jason Botts will be when his bat takes him to the big leagues. As he's always done, he'll create his own path, running right past his skeptics along the way.

Jamey Newberg (www.newbergreport.com) is a contributor to texasrangers.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


Source: http://newberg.mlblogs.com/