READY AND WAITING
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Considering all of the unknowns in his professional life, Colton Hock sure has a lot of reasons to stay positive.
In fact, seemingly the only negative he has is the result from his recent COVID-19 test he had to take when one of his teammates fell ill.
That’s because the Bloomsburg High School graduate is in a role he says he “thrives” in with the Jupiter Hammerheads, the Advanced Class A team of the Miami Marlins.
“I love starting, but I thrive in a closing environment,” he said. “It gave me an opportunity to go in there and do what I do best — attack guys quickly.”
His numbers tell the same story.
Hock has lowered his earned run average every year since being drafted out of Stanford in 2017. Coming out of the bullpen last season, he had five saves in six opportunities, holding opponents to a.253 batting average. He also struck out 47 batters in 51 1/3 innings.
The role is one of comfort as he did the same thing for the Cardinal. However, getting to this point was a much different story.
“I think from the time I was drafted to last year, I learned how to pitch,” Hock said. “At Stanford, it was about being the strongest guy by overpowering hitters.
“With the Marlins, it’s been different. Guys see a lot more pitches and understand counts a lot more. ... Now it’s about attacking guys and getting ahead early and then put them away with the good curveball.”
Staying in shape
Hock isn’t one to live in the past. He’s out to build off the strong campaign for the Hammerheads, even though he doesn’t know if he’ll play baseball competitively this calendar year.
After MLB delayed the start of the season March 17, Hock remained in the region, staying with his girlfriend’s family in Tennessee. He and nearly a dozen of his teammates all went looking for ways to stay fresh by training at a local high school and parks, only to be turned away due to fears of spreading the virus.
But as the state began lifting restrictions, he and some of his teammates began lifting weights as a facility offered its services so long as players abided by the sanitation policies in place. Even then, he still liked working at home with bands, light weights, weighted balls and a sweatsuit he purchased at Walmart when the pandemic rattled the sports world.
Good thing, too, as Hock awaits to see if he’ll be invited to spring training 2.0 with the Marlins or continue doing his own thing at home.
“You have to stay fresh. I’m going to continue training until they give me a call,” Hock said. “Even with a 60-man roster, there will be illness and injuries, and you just have to be ready.”
The optimistic side to Hock thinks players not on the Marlins’ regular-season 40-man roster can begin training at Marlins facilities again in August — if there is no second wave of the coronavirus.
Stopping through
Another positive Hock sees from the work stoppage is it bought him two weeks to come home to see family and train with another professional baseball player in May.
Hock met up with Millville graduate Jared Soloman, a pitcher in the Cincinnati Reds organization, in May to play both catch and catch-up.
“We had a good time and good throwing sessions together while everything was shut down,” Hock said. “We had a good opportunity to see where we were at.
“We pitched against each other in high school and it was really neat to have a guy from Bloomsburg and a guy from Millville talk about where we were at with everything in professional baseball.”
Hock, in talking about two small-town kids pursuing a path to the big leagues, even had time to share some advice for Berwick graduate Jordan DiValerio who signed as an undrafted free agent with the Boston Red Sox earlier this month.
“First, that is awesome to hear and congratulations,” Hock said. “Even to sign as a free agent with everything that is happening this year is a great thing. It’s been a weird year and everybody knows it.
“Teams are dropping players to save money, but he’s clearly a priority and they really like him. That’s a great thing. It’s going to be tough to get to the facility, but just keep working hard through all of this, enjoy this and stay ready for when they do call him down to Florida.”
Though there remains a great deal of unknown, one thing is certain: Hock wants to ensure he and his peers are ready for whatever is thrown their way.
Link to story: pressenterpriseonline.com/daily/062820/page/15/story/ready-and-waiting
