Notes From The Nat

This kid was a shortstop for a long time but converted to RHP a seasonago. Good fastball and curve, but MLB.com says he may be tough to sign,having committed to Dartmouth.

He was apparently not even on the radar last year, but his stock shotthrough the roof in the spring, and commentators are saying thatOakland must have had talks with the kid and received assurances hewould sign, in order to take him this high.

Cahill could well be a steal for the A’s, if other teams considered thekid unsignable… or he could be a disaster for the A’s if he decidesto go to an Ivy League school.

Scout.com says:

Cahill was ranked at the 15th best California prospect by Baseball America. Cahill doesn’t over-power anyone, but he tends to sit in the low-90s and can get up to 93 on occasion. He has a good curveball that reportedly has a dramatic drop to it, which he uses to get hitters to swing and miss."

SignOn San Diegosays:

A 6-foot-4, 185-pounder, Cahill pitched only 17 innings hisjunior season at Vista. Yet, because he is also a blue-chip studentwith a 4.2 grade-point average, Cahill secured an Ivy League academicscholarship to Dartmouth, where he plans to play baseball. ?I had agood summer, and started getting more attention,? Cahill said. That’swhen the radar guns began multiplying noticeably behind the backstop atPanthers games.

In the early stages of his senior season, Cahill unleashed a 94 mphfastball, a nifty knuckle curve and a snappy slider. His repertoire,enhanced by his velocity, caught the eyes of hungry area pro scouts. Itwasn’t long before national crosscheckers and upper management fromvarious big league clubs wanted to view what Cahill had to offer.

Soon after Cahill was projected as a solid first-round pick, he wasstricken with a case of strep throat. He lost 10 pounds during hisillness, which sapped his strength and cost him 6 mph to 7 mph invelocity. Since then, the number of clubs zeroed in on Cahill hasdwindled.

Nonetheless, plenty of interest remains. Whether that means his namewill be called in the first round is uncertain. That brings up thequestion of Cahill’s signability. ?I’d probably have to go in the first five rounds to even consider signing,? Cahill said. […] Cahill concluded the season with a 5-4 record, a 2.31 ERA and 109 strikeouts in 66 2/3 innings.

SignOn San Diegoagain:

Warming up in the bullpen before a game earlier this season,Vista High senior Trevor Cahill asked his coach if he could trysomething.

Cahill hadn’t thrown his knuckle curve in more than a year but wantedto give it a shot anyway. The warm-up toss made a beeline from theright-hander’s 6-foot-3 frame to its target, sinking like a rock at thelast second. Feeling pretty good about it, Cahill tried the pitch inthe game. Again, it worked. Since then, the lanky kid has focused onmastering the pitch. He said the knuckle curve is hard to controlsometimes, but batters are still fooled.

?Even when I throw it in the dirt, sometimes they swing at it,? Cahillsaid. ?When I can throw it good, it’s a pretty nasty pitch.? […]Vista coach Rick Lepire said Cahill’s new breaking ball has helped thepitcher evolve from a college-bound player to a featured attractionamong major league scouts. ?It goes from one eye level to the next eye level,? Lepire said, ?and seems to just disappear on the kids.?

Q&A with Trevor Cahill:
Favorite pitcher: ?Jake Peavy.?
Pregame meal: ?Pizza from Upper Crust.?
Do you have any superstitions? ?My first base coach has to flip me the ball to begin the inning.?
If you weren’t doing this interview right now, what would you be doing??Chilling out listening to music at my house or my teammate KyleVanderveen’s house.?
Favorite music: ?Classic rock.?
Favorite band: ?Led Zeppelin.?
Grand slam: ?I have four baseball cards signed by Alex Rodriguez.?
When was the last time you collected baseball cards? ?When I was 10.?

I’ll say it - this kid is TOTALLY Moneyball. A wicked neat pitch thatgets freaky movement, a smart kid who can teach himself pitches and hasa 4.6 GPA (I know, I know, but he took advanced courses, which bumpshim up over 4.0), a kid who suffered a temporary injury setback thatwill have no long lasting effects and scared every other club off -he’s so Moneyball it hurts.

Here’s what MLB.com’s Mychael Urban had to say:

Last spring, Trevor Cahill’s fastball couldn’t crack 84 mph, and hecouldn’t crack his high school team’s starting rotation. Little morethan a year later, he’s a second-round pick — Oakland’s first overall– in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft. That’s what an extra 10 tickson a radar gun does for a kid. Cahill, a 6-foot-3, 195-poundright-hander, saw his velocity inexplicably jump over the past 12months, and his draft status jumped along with it.

Primarily a shortstop as a junior, Cahill threw only 17 innings in2005. But something happened over the winter that even Cahill strugglesto explain. His 6-foot-3, 195-pound frame started generating 90-mphfastballs, and by the close of his senior year he was up to 94.
[…]
According to Baseball America, Cahill’s draft status skyrocketed with ahandful of late-season appearances against top-flight competition. "Cahill was clocked at 91 in the seventh inning of a 17-strikeout performanceagainst Oceanside High, an outing that was viewed by more than a dozenscouts and at least three crosscheckers," BA.com reports. "There weretwice as many scouts in attendance when Vista sent Cahill to the moundagainst Fallbrook High, which was ranked 19th in the BaseballAmerica/National High School Coaches Association Top 50 and features atleast four players who had signed to play in college next season. Cahill didn’t disappoint, striking out 13 with a dominant fastball, knuckle-curveball, changeup, slider and pinpoint control."

Oh MAN, I hope this kid makes it to Vancouver.