Frontier League holds annual open tryout at Wild Things Park
The just-give-me-one-chance guys showed up Monday morning at Wild Things Park with bats, gloves and plenty of hope.
They came in all sizes. Some were tall, some short, some fast, some not-so fast.
They came from 34 different states and six countries – a total of 324 players, 119 of them pitchers. Some had previous professional experience, the majority were former college players and others were former high school hotshots who were looking to get back in the swing of baseball. One was even a military veteran.
They all came for the Frontier League’s annual open tryout and player draft, hoping that their future will include being paid to play baseball in Washington or any of the league’s 16 cities.
Most came to prove something, if not to the league’s managers and coaches, then to themselves. One of those players was former Point Park and Brentwood High School pitcher Easton Klein. A righthander, Klein had a stellar three-year career, with a 21-8 record, at Point Park after transferring from CCAC South.
As a junior in 2022, Klein went 9-3, had a sterling 2.44 ERA and averaged more than one strikeout per inning. He hoped for even better numbers in 2023 because his numbers on the radar gun – he says his fastball sits at 89-91 mph – is not what the major league scouts covet in a right-handed starting pitcher. Klein performed well enough last spring – a 9-5 record with a 3.24 ERA and one strikeout per innings pitched – but they fell short of his own projections.
“My senior year, the numbers didn’t live up to my expectations,” Klein said. “When you play at an NAIA school, you don’t get the respect you do at a Division I or Division II school. That’s because the talent level at NAIA fluctuates so much.
“I had talked to some independent teams after the draft last year, but it was the middle of the season and every team had their roster set. So I’ve been helping coach at Point Park this year and preparing for this day.”
With such a large turnout, Klein found the roughest part of the day is the waiting. Klein arrived for the scheduled 9 a.m. start but he didn’t get on the mound until the afternoon.
Another player who had something to prove was first baseman Ben Newbert, a Pennsylvania native who played on two PSAC championship teams at Bloomsburg. Newbert is a guy who can hit and has the numbers to prove as much. He batted more than .300 in each of his final three years at Bloomsburg and for a pair of college summer league teams.
However, a shoulder derailed any hopes Newbert had of being drafted following his senior season in 2022.
“I tore my labrum in a game early in the season. I played through it but had to DH the remainder of the year,” explained Newbert, who started out as an outfielder at Bloomsburg.
“That summer, I played in North Dakota and then in the second half of the year in the MLB Draft League.”
But the shoulder wasn’t getting better and Newbert knew he had to get the injury repaired. It caused him to miss all of 2023. He’s trying to start his pro career this year.
“I attended a tryout with Staten Island of the Atlantic League two weekends ago,” he said.
Unlike Klein and Newbert – two players who didn’t have to leave their home state to attend the tryout – outfielder Nafomi Matsuyama traveled halfway around the planet. A native of Yamanashi, Japan, the 23-year-old Matsuyama arrived Sunday in Pittsburgh following a 13-hour flight from his homeland with nothing more than some baseball equipment and high hopes that he would become the Frontier League’s version of Shohei Ohtani.
“I’m tired. It’s the middle of the night back home, and I tried to sleep to fight jet lag,” Matsuyama said while waiting for batting practice to start.
“I wanted to participate in a tryout, and on the Internet I found information on this league’s tryout. I only told my mom that I was going to take part. My other family and my friends don’t know.”
Matsuyama was hoping the hitting portion of the tryout would boost his chances of sticking around for today’s workouts. He wasn’t happy with his throwing from the outfield.
“It was not up to my expectations,” Matsuyama said. “Only threw 91-92 mph from the outfield. Hitting is my strength.”
The 324 players were cut to a group of 181, who will return Tuesday morning for more workouts. Then, in the afternoon, the league will conduct a draft with each team required to select at least two players. Klein and Newbert were chosen. Matsuyama was not.