By Rob Rains
Rich Hill is confident in making at least one prediction about the future professional career of outfielder Matthew Miura, drafted by the Cardinals in the sixth round on Monday.
Hill, who has coached Miura at the University of Hawaii the last three years, is positive that Miura will play longer in the Cardinals organization than he did.
Hill signed as an undrafted free agent with the Cardinals after college at California Lutheran and played 29 games for the Class A Savannah Cardinals in 1985. A second baseman, Hill hit .207.
“I didn’t make it through the entire year,” Hill said in a telephone conversation. “They told me it would be a better idea if I got into coaching right away. They were right. I got my first head coaching job at 25 and almost 40 years later here we are.”
Hill spent most of that time coaching at San Diego, but when he took the job at Hawaii, he started going to some summer high school games in Honolulu. That was the first time he saw Miura.
“I was like, ‘Who is that guy?’” Hill said. “He never played a lot of baseball and never played travel ball because he was always playing football. Nobody knew about him. He was very raw but you could see the bat-to-ball skills and I know that’s probably the number one thing that will stand out to the scouting department in St. Louis. It’s really elite, there really is no swing-and-miss.
“Matt was the guy who stood out to me, probably because of the Cardinals inside of me. He could steal bases and create havoc and put pressure on the defense. That’s my style and always has been.”
Miura, who played center field for Hawaii, decided he would rather play baseball than football, knowing there really wasn’t much of a chance he would play football in college.
“I played football and baseball growing up my whole life since I was five, but my senior year (in high school) I had no college offers for baseball and decided not to play football so I could try to get an offer,” Miura said in a telephone conversation.
“What drew me to baseball is I just have a lot of fun playing. I love coming to the yard every day and enjoy being around baseball. I love the grind of it and just playing baseball. It’s the only time I really feel alive.”
Miura still did not receive any scholarship offers out of high school so he walked on to Hill’s team.
“He fell in love with baseball and went from being a walk-on to being a sixth-round pick,” Hill said. “It’s a great story.”
Said Muira, “It’s something I can only thank God for.”
Miura woke up about 5 a.m. on Monday to start watching the draft at his home in Hawaii and had to only wait about 90 minutes before he was selected by the Cardinals.
“I expected Matt would get drafted at some point today but the Cardinals are near and dear to my heart,” Hill said. “It’s a perfect fit. He’s an on-base machine, an elite defender in center field with occasional power. He’s a throwback Cardinal. You guys are going to love him.”
The 21-year-old Miura hit .338 in 55 games this season and had more than twice as many walks as strikeouts, 46 to 20. He also posted good numbers with a wood bat in summer ball, last year in the Northwoods League and this year playing in the Cape Cod League.
Miura said he was looking forward to taking advantage of the training and advanced technology available in professional baseball to help him take the next steps in his career.
“My dad throws me these like golf size whiffle balls and I use a piece of PC pipe and just take BP,” he said. “I haven’t really had a structured hitting coach so I can’t wait to get out there and have all of the resources and technology to make me the best baseball player possible.”
Randy Flores, the Cardinals assistant general manager and director of scouting who was in charge of his 10th draft, said the scouts saw the same skill-set in Miura that Hill saw.
“A really good defender, a good runner, a good baseball player,” Flores said.
Former Cardinal Kolten Wong also came out of Hawaii and Hill said the two were “similar” players.
When Hill was talking about Miura, he actually brought up the name of Liam Doyle, the lefthanded pitcher from Tennessee who the Cardinals selected with the fifth overall pick in the draft on Sunday night.
“He’s a fiery competitor,” Hill said about Miura. “Him and Liam Doyle on the same team? Man, sparks are going to fly. The other team is in trouble. They are not going to outcompete the Cardinals if those two are on the same team. They want to win.
“He is just a Cardinal through and through … He is going to show up every day and play hard. He’s going to play his butt off because he loves to play baseball and compete.”
Having Miura drafted by the Cardinals allowed Hill a chance to think back to his time in the organization 40 years ago.
“What a special time; I think about it all the time how lucky I was to be around all of those baseball minds and the fans of St. Louis,” Hill said. “To have that experience in spring training was amazing … It was the time of my life.”
Miura was one of 17 players selected by the Cardinals on Monday, the second and final day of the draft. All were college players, leaving only one high school selection, outfielder Ryan Mitchell, their second-round choice, out of their 21 picks in this year’s draft.
Some of the highlights from their day two selections:
*Ten of the 17 picks were pitchers, one lefthander and nine righthanders. The Cardinals also drafted two outfielders, three shortstops, one third baseman and one catcher.
*For the second year in a row the Cardinals drafted a pitcher who is recovering from Tommy John surgery. Payton Graham, a righthander from Gonzaga, only pitched five innings in one game this spring before the surgery in April. He was their seventh-round pick.
*They drafted more pitchers with big strikeout numbers, including lefthander Cade Crossland from Oklahoma (fourth round); righthander Ethan Young from East Carolina (fifth round); righthander Tyler Van Dyke from Stetson (10th round); righthander Kaden Echeman from Northern Kentucky (12th round) and righthander Jake Shelagowski from Saginaw Valley (Mich.) (13th round).
“What we wanted to do was be open to all types of pitchers,” Flores said. “When you have a multi-inning reliever with a couple of weapons I think working together we look for those opportunities rather than going in a direction that is more typical for us. We wanted to go a little bit bigger and have the range of outcomes be a little bit wider but with that being something pretty special.”
*The three shortstops all came from major schools – Ryan Weingartner from Penn State (eighth round); Jalen Flores from Texas (11th round), and Trevor Haskins from Stanford (15th round).
*The final pick, in the 20th round, was their only local selection, Chase Heath, a catcher from O’Fallon, Mo. He played four years at Central Missouri with a .349 career average. As a senior he hit .368 and only struck out 12 times in 187 plate appearances.
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Photo of Matthew Miura courtesy of Hawaii athletics
