CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The intensity was evident on Connor Kimple’s face from the moment he placed the ball on the hitting tee inside the Cedar Rapids Kernels’ indoor batting cage located deep in the bowels of Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Kimple, a serious young man who calls Whitefish Bay, Wis., home and is a junior at prestigious Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, had just finished an impressive batting practice session at the Perfect Game Spring Top Prospect Showcase and was now hitting off a tee in a drill that measured the velocity when the bat met the ball, and he turned in one of the best efforts at 94 mph.
Whack after whack, the resounding crack of a wood bat meeting a leather ball echoed through the stadium’s basement. With each swing, Kimple seemed to grit his teeth even harder in an almost exaggerated effort to tear the cover off the ball.
And this occurred minutes after a 10-pitch BP session in which he had drove three balls far over the left field fence at Perfect Game Field and a couple more that bounced off the wall.
“I’ve had some pretty rough (BPs) before, so that felt good,” Kimple said once he was finished hitting off the tee. “I really worked on my swing this offseason, trying to get my hands out and get my hips involved, so I’d say it went pretty well.”
Whatever it was specifically that Kimple worked on over the winter paid dividends in the form of that must-see BP session, one that had many of the showcases’ other participants muttering under their breath (Kimple also smoked a double during a showcase game on a different field Saturday morning).
Among the duly impressed was PG Vice President for Player Personnel David Rawnsley. In the limited white space that surrounded Kimple’s name in the event’s official program, Rawnsley had scribbled, “… strong swing, limited-to-no-shift, loads his hips very well.”
When asked to expand on those brief notes, Rawnsley was quite flattering, saying, “It’s very similar to an Albert Pujols swing approach, and he’s strong enough to get away with it because he is very strong. He basically just overpowers the ball, and usually I look at that approach on a (high school) junior and they’re not strong enough to do that Pujols approach. I don’t know if he’s patterned himself that way, but it’s a Pujols approach and he executes it really, really well.”
Comparison’s to three-time National League Most Valuable Player (and four-time MVP runner-up) Pujols’ swing aren’t floated around often, and understandably so. But for one day at least, Kimple showed the scouts in attendance an intensity level that stood above the others in attendance.
This is the eighth Perfect Game event Kimple has participated in but only the second showcase – he was at last year’s Perfect Game Underclass All-American Games in San Diego. He wanted to be here this weekend simply to get out on the field at a beautiful minor league ballpark and surround himself with other talented players.
“Talent respects talent and you want to play the best and you know you can find the best at events like this,” he said. “It’s fun to get out there and showcase yourself in front of your peers and kind of see where you stack up; it’s just a lot of fun.”
Kimple’s hitting wasn’t the only thing that stood out during Saturday’s workout session. He threw 88 mph from the outfield, which tied for the third best effort at the event (Drew Denkinger from Johnston, Iowa, tied the event record with an outfield throw of 94 mph) and his 6.66-second clocking in the 60-yard dash was the second best effort.
It’s seems certain that anyone who watched Kimple’s BP session Saturday afternoon wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the aspect of baseball he enjoys the most is hitting. It does run deeper than that, of course, as any kid who plays baseball knows. Kimple talks sincerely about the camaraderie the game offers, the pure joy of playing alongside his teammates, or his “brothers” as he calls him.
“It’s just a blast playing and winning,” he said. “Nothing beats that.”
Kimple is an athletic-looking young man, and his 6-foot-3, 210-pound frame does nothing to betray that. He played football – and by all reports played it well – through his sophomore season at Marquette University High, but gave it up to concentrate on baseball.
“Baseball is my first love,” he said, “and especially with the whole concussion issues and injuries in football, it’s a lot less risky and for me it’s a lot more fun. I put off deciding on one sport for as long as I could but I decided the time was right for me to focus in on baseball.”
He has played in three 2014 PG Super25 tournaments with the PoundTown Wreckers, and also played with that group at the 2014 PG WWBA Central Labor Day Classic – where he was named to the all-tournament team – and at the 2014 PG WWBA Kernels Foundation Championship.
The PoundTown Baseball organization was founded by former Wisconsin high school and Dominican College (New York) standout Cody Smith in 2013, and offers an indoor training facility in Waukesha, Wis. Kimple was in on the ground floor with PoundTown and feels like the relationship he enjoys with Smith has been a beneficial one.
“He’s kind of coached me up the last couple of years. He’s a great coach and an even better person, and he’s one of my best adult friends,” Kimple said. “He just pushes us to be our best and utilize our talent, and right now we’re really excited to get outside and play to win.”
Kimple was also named all-tournament at the 2014 PG WWBA Underclass World Championship in Fort Myers, Fla., while playing with the South Florida Bandits. He lives for any opportunity to get out of the Upper Midwest and travel to coastal cities like San Diego and Fort Myers.
“Nothing’s better than getting on a plane and going to play baseball in a warmer place,” he said. “I like playing against the best kids and I probably hit better against quicker pitching, and those weekends and those events I circle and star (on the calendar). I really focus in on those and train and get ready and I trust my training once I get down there, and it’s worked out for me pretty well so far.”
Marquette University High School is an all-male Jesuit school in Milwaukee that is steeped in history and tradition. The baseball team plays a summer schedule, like many others do in Wisconsin, and is coached by 1988 graduate Sal Bando Jr., the son of former Kansas City/Oakland Athletics and Milwaukee Brewers great Sal Bando Sr.
Kimple was joined at the PG Spring Top this weekend by a couple of his Marquette University HS teammates, senior corner-infielder Dane Lamont and sophomore third baseman/shortstop Patrick Sisk.
“We have a really good relationship and they’re brothers in both the baseball sense and the classmate sense,” Kimple said. “With the (all-male, Jesuit) environment at Marquette, it’s that much more like a sense of brotherhood. It’s just a blast being able to play the sport you love with people that are really close to you. That’s what I enjoy most about baseball is just the friend aspect and meeting people.”
With his high school team’s season running from late May through late July, Kimple doesn’t get the benefit of the exposure playing for a national summer travel ball team provides, but he hasn’t been totally lost in the crowd. He came into this event ranked No. 464 nationally in the class of 2016, and No. 11 in Wisconsin.
That Wisconsin ranking should not be considered as insulting to Kimple. The 11 top Wisconsin prospects in the 2016 class are all ranked in the top-500 nationally, including middle-infielder Gavin Lux from Kenosha (No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 23 nationally, uncommitted to a college); catcher/outfielder Ben Rortvedt from New Glarus (No. 2, No. 84, Arkansas) and third baseman/shortstop Justin Larey from Kenosha (No. 3, No. 175, Louisville).
Yet it still seems as if the guys from the northern states are always in search of recognition, and they use that perceived lack of attention as motivation to work that much harder. They are fully aware there are guys down in the sunshine states that have the opportunity to play the year-around and they might have to put in a little more effort – and play with a little more intensity – to level the playing field.
“I’m just playing with a chip on my shoulder – and I know a lot of other guys do, too – and just trying to get out to events like this or even farther south and try to show them how to play baseball,” Kimple said.
PG’s Rawnsley has always been intrigued with that dynamic. In Kimple, he saw a kid come to the plate with a polished approach and concluded that it was something Kimple was somehow able to develop up in Wisconsin through watching people, working hard and learning the right things at places like PoundTown Baseball.
“He’s obviously developed the strength, although that looks like natural strength,” Rawnsley said. “But whenever somebody comes out of that non-traditional environment, whether it’s small-town Iowa or Whitefish Bay or Montana or what have you, it impresses you all the more because you’re thinking there’s a lot more to come once he gets repetitions and starts seeing more things.”
Kimple has not committed to a college yet but on his PG Prospect Profile Page he lists Arizona State, Auburn, Florida Gulf Coast, Jacksonville, North Carolina State and Notre Dame as schools he’s interested in. With continued performances like the one he enjoyed this weekend – he also carries a 3.3 GPA and scored a 30 on his ACT – it’s certain he’ll have plenty of schools to choose from when the time comes for him to make a decision.
“I’ve pushed myself and it’s paid off,” Kimple said. “I don’t want there to be somebody out there who’s working harder than me ever. I just train and practice with that mindset, knowing that there are people that might be working harder than you if you don’t give it your best every day, day-in and day-out – in the weight room, on the ball field, on the classroom – in every aspect.”
When Kimple made that final statement, the intensity was evident on his face.