The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Whiteman has barely skipped a beat as a pro
About a month earlier, Simon Whiteman had completed his terrific career at Yale by going 34for34 in stolen base attempts as a senior. Perfection.
So imagine his surprise when, in his professional debut on June 15 with the SalemKeizer Volcanoes, Whiteman was gunned down in his very first attempt to steal a bag. Or four days later when the Trumbull product was caught stealing not once, not twice, but three times in the same game — picked off first, nailed on a perfect throw, then called out after oversliding the base.
“I think a lot of it, honestly, was just my nerves,” Whiteman said by phone last week. “I made a lot of really silly baserunning mistakes the first couple of weeks I was in Salem.”
Of course, Whiteman also went 4for4 at the plate in that latter game. And the night before, he had stolen three bases. In fact, Whiteman’s overall performance in a little over a month with the Volcanoes, Class A shortseason affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, earned him an inseason promotion to ClassA Augusta on July 23.
“I was pretty speechless,” Whiteman recalled. “This isn’t typical for our organization for a guy in his first year, so it was pretty cool to see. It was a little bit of a change, and getting back to doing things the way I like to do them. A little brief adjustment period, but it’s definitely cool to be here. My parents are happy I’m back on East Coast time.”
It doesn’t appear Whiteman has skipped a beat with the Greenjackets (yes, their home stadium is right next to Augusta National Golf Course. No, Whiteman doesn’t play golf ). After hitting .279 with a .401 onbase percentage in 33 games at SalemKeizer, Whiteman was hitting .280 in his first month with Augusta, until a 1for12 skid had him at .255 entered this weekend. His OBP remained a solid .352.
“It’s definitely an adjustment,” the former Fairfield Prep star noted, “first of all from college and then from Salem, it’s a little bit of a change. I’m gradually getting the ball rolling and trying to learn as much as I can along the way.”
The biggest adjustment, Whiteman added, was learning how to play every day. In the Ivy League, Whiteman typically played four or five games a week. At Augusta, it’s just about every day — often in 95degree, midsummer heat.
“Learning how to manage your energy and take care of your body to play every day, that was a big adjustment for me,” Whiteman said on a rare day off on Monday, before heading over to a nearby lake with some teammates for a barbecue.
Whiteman is also seeing 9495 MPH heat (and more) from pitchers every day, as opposed to every now and then in the Ivies. But it’s hard to envision Whiteman, who is splitting time between second base and shortstop, not succeeding at baseball.
In fact, it’s hard to envision Whiteman not succeeding at just about anything he does. A First Team Academic AllAmerican as a STEM major at Yale who was nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship, Whiteman decided to see how far baseball could take him and was selected in the ninth round of the MLB draft on June 4.
It was a hectic day. Heeding the advice that the worst thing to do was to sitting all day in front of his computer, following the draft and waiting for a phone call, he hit the beach with his younger brother, Teddy. When he got home, his father, Jamie, had the draft on TV while constantly refreshing his phone for updates.
Whiteman decided to go take a quick nap.
“And as soon as I laid down,” he reported, “I got the call.”
A little over a week later, Whiteman was out in Oregon with SalemKeizer, in one of the most revered organizations in the sport.
“I expect to be a guy that gets on base a lot,” he said, “work counts, try to have a pretty good onbase percentage so I can cause chaos, and that means getting on base any way I can, then taking off from there. I know in the past, the Giants haven’t had a ton of premium baserunners, so it’s pretty cool to be a guy in the organization that can bring something new to the table.”
And while he’s not perfect on the basepaths as a pro, he’s improving in that department: 10 stolen bases in 13 attempts at Augusta.
Whiteman has yet to record an extrabase hit for the Greenjackets, but he’s not too concerned. He had just five extrabase hits (all doubles) as a junior at Yale. This past season, he had 20. It’s something players tend to grow into.
“I see myself as somewhat of a dying breed in today’s baseball game,” Whiteman said. “The highlights are all strikeouts and home runs. But I think the power comes. I definitely have a couple of mechanical adjustments I want to make in the offseason that I think are gonna let me get to more pitches and drive the ball a little more. But, first year of pro ball, I’m really just looking to see the ball and make good contact.”
A CAREER-ENDING FIRST PITCH?
Seeing a position player pitch in a game is a novelty that’s often viewed as entertaining by fans, even opposing players and teammates. But it may have ended the career of Bristol’s Connor Fitzsimons.
The former Bristol Eastern star, a catcher/first baseman through his first four seasons as a pro, was asked to take the mound for ClassA Burlington in a game on Aug. 9 to help save the Bees’ bullpen.
Fitzsimons threw one pitch and was removed from the game. The former CCSU standout was placed on the sevenday injured list the following day, but on Monday, was placed on the voluntarily retired list.
That means he could return at some point. It also means his career could be over after one pitch.