Former
Kettleer Blair Called on First Day of MLB Draft
June 7, 2010 by Steve McCarthy
Last July 4, Arizona State University pitcher Seth
Blair went the distance in an evening game for the
Cape Cod Baseball League's Cotuit Kettleers, needing
just 102 pitches to retire the 27 Falmouth Commodores.
While his teammates quickly boarded the team bus in
hopes of catching a fireworks display, Blair patiently
went through his routine of arm exercises beside the
visitor's dugout.
Blair enrolled at a perennial college baseball
powerhouse and spent the past two summers in the Cape
League with a distinct goal: to pitch professionally.
On Monday, the junior right-hander from Rock Falls,
Illinois, was the 46th name called in the Major League
Baseball draft by the St. Louis Cardinals.
Blair passed on a 47th round (1,388th overall) offer
from the Oakland Athletics out of high school,
finished with an earned run average just south of
seven in 19 appearances as a Sun Devils freshman, and
was well aware of his command issues. He has since
developed into ASU's Friday starter and is unbeaten
thus far in the Sun Devils' quest to return to the
College World Series.
More than most, Cotuit pitching coach Scott Gurss
witnessed Blair's evolving potential. Blair was a Cape
League All-Star in 2008 and helped the Kettleers reach
the league championship series in consecutive seasons.
“He came in, honestly, like he needed to prove
something,” Gurss said Tuesday before a Cotuit
preseason practice. “No matter what his last outing
was, if he went nine innings and just shut down
everybody, he still felt like once he crossed that
line to go to the pitcher's mound, he had something to
prove.”
Blair arrived for a second summer in Cotuit last June
with a new alternate three-quarter arm angle delivery
and has since added a cutter to his repertoire of at
least three potential plus pitches which frustrated
his 98 strikeout victims this spring. He has issued
just 22 walks and maintains a 3.06 ERA. He amped up
his fastball velocity from the low 90's to
occasionally touch 97 miles per hour on the radar gun
early in the year and keeps hitters off balance with
an effective change-up and a pair of knee-buckling
breaking pitches.
“He was always looking to improve,” Gurss said.
Gurss said he gets chills every time an athlete he and
Cotuit manager Mike Roberts' staff spend a summer
working with is called early in the draft. In 2009,
former Cotuit and Stanford University closer Drew
Storen was selected 10th overall by the Washington
Nationals.
“The two years that I got to know Seth, you find out
very quick how big of a competitor he is, and how much
he loves the game of baseball, and how much he wants
to win,”Gurss said. “It's amazing that he did jump
that high (in the draft), but I'm not surprised.”
Florida Southern College catcher Zach Maggard was on
the receiving end of Blair offerings last summer and
said Tuesday he was not surprised by the news of
Blair's selection.
“I saw that coming,” Maggard said. “He's a very
good pitcher. He worked hard. He knew what he had to
do and he stuck to the game plan most of the time.”
The Cardinals have the second lowest team ERA in all
of Major League Baseball. Gurss and Maggard agreed
that Blair has a legitimate chance to reach the
pinnacle of that or any other big league organization.
“He's mature enough for the big leagues, and he's
going to compete day in and day out,” Gurss said.
Maggard had yet to hear his own name called in the
draft after catching an early afternoon bullpen
session in Cotuit, but was told Florida Southern
teammate and 2009 Kettleers closer Daniel Tillman went
in the second round to the Los Angeles Angels of
Anaheim.
“It's an exciting week,” Maggard said. “It's a
lot of fun seeing guys that you've played with go real
high.”
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