Mariners pick Mayberry in first round

By Kirby Arnold

Herald Writer

SEATTLE – Many years ago, an old baseball scout gave Roger Jongewaard some sage advice on how to sign a young player.

“He told me, ‘Sell the mother and you’ve got the deal,’ “said Jongewaard, the Seattle Mariners’ vice president of scouting and player development. “The father wants to live his fantasy, and the son wants to play. But moms can be tough.”

John Mayberry Jr.’s reluctant mother can expect a call from the Mariners any time now.

The Mariners selected her son, a star high school outfielder in Kansas City, Mo., with the 28th pick in the first round of major league baseball’s amateur draft on Tuesday.

Mayberry, the son of former major leaguer John Mayberry, is an All-American academically as well as athletically, and he already has an academic scholarship offer from Stanford.

Jongewaard says mom wants him to attend college and wait on pro ball; the Mariners hope to convince her that he can do at both by offering him a baseball contract and paying for his Stanford schooling.

Mayberry is the latest example of the Mariners’ “high-risk, high-return” draft strategy, which they followed through much of the 22 rounds that were completed on Tuesday.

The Mariners’ first five picks – including seven of the first nine – are high school players whose emotional potential is sometimes more difficult to evaluate than their on-field skills.

Their seventh-round pick, Evel Bastida-Martinez, is a 23-year-old left-handed-hitting second baseman from Cuba who left that country after playing several seasons in the top league there.

He worked out the past year for a few major league teams, and the Mariners had hoped to sign him as a free agent before major league baseball ruled that he must enter the draft. Bastida-Martinez was still available deep in the draft Tuesday and the Mariners grabbed him.

He may start the summer with the Everett AquaSox, said Jongewaard, who expects him to rise to the Class AA level quickly.

“He is very advanced,” said Miami-based scout Pedro Grifol.

“Left-handed-hitting infielders are hard to find,” Jongewaard said. “I think he can move up rapidly.”

The Mariners wanted to add position players in this draft, and they accomplished that with their first three selections. Mayberry, a 6-foot-5, 200 pounder who patterns himself after Dave Winfield, was a gem they didn’t expect to be around when they picked near the end of the first round.

Mayberry played first base in high school but the Mariners, impressed with his athleticism, will try him initially at third base and then the outfield. Some experts had rated Mayberry, the state high school player of the year in Missouri, as one of the eight best going into in the draft.

“He’s one of those guys we never thought would get to us,” Jongewaard said. “I think the idea of him going to Stanford just scared some teams off. For many clubs, it’s not worth the gamble or the long summer of negotiations.”

It took connections for the Mariners to get this far with Mayberry.

The family had told scouts not to bother coming to their home to talk contract, but that didn’t deter Mariners general manager Pat Gillick from making a phone call to an old friend. Gillick, who began his front-office career with the Astros in the 1960s, signed John Mayberry Sr. to his first pro contract.

“They haven’t let scouts in the home, and that’s probably how he got to us,” Jongewaard said. “They (scouts) just figure if they don’t want you in the house, they probably don’t want to sign. Because of (Gillick’s) conversation, we believed differently.

“Pat called the dad and asked what the boy wanted to do. Naturally, the boy and the dad want to play, but the mom is a little leery of him going out. We just have to sell the mother.”

If Mayberry Jr. gets his wish, he’ll be in a Mariners uniform soon and combine baseball with his pursuit of a business degree.

“I’m going to try to incorporate professional baseball with Stanford,” he said. “That’s the goal right now. I had been told that I’d go pretty high (in the draft), but as to which team I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t particular. I was just looking for an opportunity to play in a good organization, and Seattle is a great organization.”

Now, if Mom can be convinced of that.

The draft should finish today with rounds 23-50. Other selections by the Mariners on Tuesday were:

Second round: Joshua Womack, an athletic center fielder from San Diego’s Crawford High School. He’s a sought-after football player who told the Mariners he wants to play baseball.

Third round: Eduardo Martinez-Esteve, an outfielder from Miami Westminster Christian, where Alex Rodriguez played as a high schooler.

Fourth round: Randall Frye, a right-handed pitcher from Lake Orion (Mich.) High.

Fifth round: Kendall Bergdall, a left-handed pitcher from Cimarron High in Lahoma, Okla.

Sixth round: Troy Cate, a left-handed pitcher from Ricks College in Idaho.

Eighth round: Brandon Perry, a left-handed pitcher from Graham (N.C.) High.

Ninth round: Terry Forbes, a right-handed pitcher from Auburn Drive High in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada.

10th round: Brian Stitt, a right-handed pitcher from Indian River Community College in Florida.

11th round: Jared Thomas, a left-handed pitcher from Oakland University in Michigan.

12th round: Matthew Hagen, a third baseman from Liberty University in Colorado.

13th round: Thomas Fulmer, a right-handed pitcher from The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.

14th round: Theiborh Almanzar, a catcher from Bronx CC in New York.

?15th round: Gabriel Sanchez, a third baseman from Brito Miami Private School in Florida.