Trapper boss Van Schley says Mike Grace is the best-fielding third baseman in the Pioneer League. Statistics show he's consistently been one of the league's top hitters at any position, in the top three to five all season and at .358 on the last league release.
Grace is, says Schley, probably the most marketable figure on the Trappers, and chances are "about 90 percent," Schley says, that Grace's contract will be purchased by a major-league team, perhaps this week.Grace and the other Trappers will be on display at Derks Field against Idaho Falls Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Since Grace has shown he's equal to or better than Pioneer League players who were high draft choices in June, why was he one of the disappointed ones during the draft? Why did his phone never ring, even after the draft had entered its third day and 88th round?
It may have been, says Schley, because Grace isn't a muscleman, and big-league teams like their third basemen to be power hitters.
"I've got pop in my bat, which is going to result in power at times," retorts Grace, who has six home runs.
It may have been, too, because Grace played at Rice University in his hometown of Houston. Rice players just don't get drafted, says Schley, because the school's academic standards are high, and intellectuals aren't as interested in becoming minor leaguers.
Grace, in fact, got mostly As and Bs pursuing a double major in political science/sports management. He chose Rice because it was nearby and good academically. He has one semester left and plans to complete his degrees.
And it may also have been that Grace was overlooked on draft days because he's better now than he was in college last spring.
He has a history of self-improvement. Though he got along well with his older brother (He was the brat) and his parents (I had a good kidhood), Grace was once just an average student. "In high school, I woke up," he says, and his grades went to As and Bs.
It's been the same in baseball. "I have a good attitude about this game," says Grace, who in the past few years shed weight, went from .290 to .353 in college batting to .358 as a pro, improved his fielding and shaved tenths of seconds off his sprinting times, from 7.1 when he started at Rice to 6.9 last spring to 6.8 by June.
Grace was delighted to receive pro-style coaching when he got to Salt Lake. "This is what I've been waiting for," he said to himself soon after his arrival at Derks Field. "Instruction is something I've been lacking," he says, not wanting to knock the coaching at Rice but appreciative of a different style in the pros.
Manager Barry Moss, noted as a hitting instructor, taught him to step to the pitch with his front foot by using his toe rather than his heel to anchor the stride. That makes it possible for a hitter to do more things with the bat, says Grace, who tries to spray line drives into the middle part of the field.
Coach Dan Schwam worked with him on charging ground balls and barehanding throws. He made throwing errors at first, but now he's comfortable after hundreds of repetitions. "You do it until you're tired, but it helps," he says. At Rice, he'd been told to stay at the bag and block the ball. "I was getting instruction, but it wasn't how the organizations wanted it," he says.
"I'm starting to become a complete baseball player," says Grace, who could also make it as a pitcher. He had a 1.48 earned-run average at Rice and threw some relief for the Trappers recently.
He does think he surprised people, including Trapper management, which batted him seventh much of the first month and didn't expect him to hit much above .320. Of course, he didn't expect that, either. "My goal was to hit .320; now it's .380," he says.
If Schley is somehow wrong and a big-league team doesn't buy Grace's contract, Grace will have more options than most. He might try pro golf, since he shoots high-70s/low-80s in once-a-month games.
But more likely, he'd finish up his degrees and try to find something in sports management in Houston and marry Holly Matthews on Nov. 18, then support her as she earns a Rice degree in psychology this fall and continues postgraduate work. "She's one of the main reasons I had such a good year," says Grace, who talks as excitedly about Holly and their 6 1/2-year relationship as he does about baseball.
"She keeps me enthusiastic - just go, go, go; she never stops. She made a world of difference to me by just picking up my spirits," Grace says.
"It's going to work out," he says. "I'm enthusiastic."