Baseball Beginnings

By John Klima
February 19, 2010

Derek Dietrich turned down the Houston Astros in the third round of the 2007 draft out of St. Ignatius HS in Parma, Ohio. He took his old school chip on his shoulder, one he inherited from his grandfather, who spent decades in the game, to college baseball. Dietrich had a great freshman year in 2008 for Georgia Tech and then followed it up with a solid 2009 season.

Dietrich enters the 2010 season as one of the few offensive oriented college shortstops available. Dietrich will give you two tools right now. One is the ability to spray the gaps. Two is the arm strength to play you shortstop or third base. Dietrich believes his power ability will fill in as he ages, and for that, as well as his old school baseball acumen, he thanks his grandfather.

Steve Demeter played from 1953-1972, from one end of the continent to the other, and against more guys who played in the big leagues than he can probably count. He hit 272 career minor league home runs, and did time in, among other places, Birmingham, where he raked at Rickwood Field for two years while trying to claw his way to the Detroit Tigers.

Demeter never played in the big leagues, which should give you an idea of how difficult and competitive the game was in the pre-draft, pre-expansion era. Dietrich said Demeter has been a major influence on him, in terms of learning and respecting the game, and how to stand out as a pro.

Dietrich will get the chance to shape his own career starting this year. It’s a long road, but he feels like someone has been there before he has.

Baseball Beginnings: Self-evaluate yourself at this stage of your career.
Dietrich: I’m a very hard-nosed guy. I have a very old school sense of the game from my grandfather, who played professionally. Steve Demeter was in professional baseball for 50 years, so I have a real sense of what is old school and how to respect the game. I’ve always been a shortstop, but hitting is my thing. I love to hit. I think I’m a good power guy.

Baseball Beginnings: For a guy who wants to play pro ball, why didn’t you turn pro out of high school?
Dietrich: I knew that at Georgia Tech, I’d be able to mature and improve myself and raise my status coming out in 2010. I think a lot of it is just the little things and the nuances of the game that the old timers tell you is important to them. There’s a respect for the game that has to occur. (Demeter) told me to always hustle everyday. He said that if I want to be the player I want to be that I had to work at it and play hard. He’d tell me stories about playing with bumps and bruises and tell me that you just have to get through it. You have to have the mental toughness to be able to play through the aches and pains, because you’re going to have to do it as a pro. Always try to do things right. Don’t run if you have a big lead. Little things that people might not notice.

Baseball Beginnings: It sounds he taught you that you can have all the talent, but you still have to have an awareness of the game itself, from situation to situation.
Dietrich: You have to develop other things that make you stand out next to the guy with similar tools.

Baseball Beginnings: Let’s talk hitting.
Dietrich: I love hitting. I know in high school, some teams thought about drafting me as a pitcher, but I didn’t want to because I wanted to hit and I believed I could. Plus, I liked playing shortstop and being a leader of the defense. I liked being the guy who wanted to have the ball hit to him.

Baseball Beginnings: Do you think you will be able to stay at shortstop as a pro?
Dietrich: I hope so. I think that the Astros were going to try to keep me there for as long as I could and I hope that I get the same chance when the next team drafts me. I’d like to get the opportunity to play my way off it, because I think I could stick at short.

Baseball Beginnings: What do you think is the main question the team that signs you will have about your ability?
Dietrich: I wonder if it will be to move me to third base. A guy I look at is Gordon Beckham, who I played against, and is a guy I’d like to emulate. He played shortstop in college and in the minors and they only moved him over to third when he got to the White Sox. I know he has no problem playing third base in the big leagues. If that happened to me, I would be fine with that. I want to play everyday in the big leagues.

Baseball Beginnings: Do you feel like you’re not that far away from being able to hit enough to play everyday in the big leagues?
Dietrich: Absolutely. I feel like I have the skills and everything that goes along with it. I think as long as I develop and maintain the consistency that it should be alright.

Baseball Beginnings: Where did the passion for hitting come from?
Dietrich: My grandfather. He was one of the best hitters in the minor leagues when he played. I think it’s a lot of repetition and work with him and my dad while growing up.

Baseball Beginnings: I don’t really care what your stats look like in college, between 2008 and 2009. Tell me where you think you are as a player in relation to where you want to go.
Dietrich: One of the biggest things is the education in college. But also, I think I got the same feeling that baseball is a job in college that I would have gotten by signing out of high school. Everything I do revolves around baseball. Now it’s the everyday thing and you really have to focus. It’s not high school anymore. Now you’re in it for the long haul and you’re in it to play every day.

Categories: '10 Meet the Player
Tags: Derek Dietrich, Georgia Tech