Jeff Green may be the most famous member of the class of ’08 to forego his senior season and `go pro,’ but att Bouchard’s decision to join a New York Mets’ A-level affiliate, the Brooklyn Cyclones, has been everything the GU star hoped for.
“This has just been amazing,” Bouchard says with a smile hours before his Cyclones are scheduled to take on the Hudson Valley Renegades. “I had to take the opportunity. I knew I was going to be put into a good situation with this team.”
In his first season with the Cyclones, the 5-foot-11 shortstop is hitting .240 over 52 games and went 2-for-4 in the New York-Penn League all-star game last Wednesday. In June, Bouchard became the first Hoya selected in the MLB draft since 1993 when he was taken in the 11th round. After extended spring training, Bouchard joined the Cyclones where he has earned the starting shortstop’s job.
While his college teammates were playing in college summer leagues and thinking about move-in dates, Bouchard has been starting in games from Lowell, Mass., to Batavia, N.Y., during the short summer season.
“It was definitely a good decision,” Bouchard says of leaving before his senior year. “It was something I’ve been working for my whole life. It was a goal of mine going into college and to have that opportunity my junior year, wow.”
The transition from college student-athlete to minor league baseball player can be daunting. Long road trips and few days off, as well as the prospect of being replaced by the next young prospect, can frustrate first-year players, especially those as green as the 20-year-old Bouchard.
“To me, I think he’s doing great making that transition to being a professional baseball player,” Manager Edgar Alfonzo said. “Now he’s that kind of leader you never notice that much. He plays hard everyday, he talks to guys who make an error, strike out . He’s young but he’s mature for his age.”
According to second baseman and two-year Cyclone veteran Micah Schilling, Bouchard was shy his first few weeks with the team. “It was weird at our first lunch because I was the only one talking and he was answering my questions with one or two word answers,” Schilling said of his roommate. “I thought he really doesn’t like me or he’s really shy.”
Over time, though, Bouchard’s quiet front gave way – a bit more than his teammates expected. “I think we’ve loosened him up too much,” Schilling continues. “Every time I walk into a room all I hear is him yapping now.”
But to Alfonzo, that humility was the right approach. “That’s a smart thing to do. You can’t come into the team and be loud. You need to be conservative and try to know everybody. That took him about a week to start talking with me, my coaches, the players.”
Jake Eigsti lost the starting shortstop job to Bouchard at the beginning of the season and has since moved to third base but appreciates what the Georgetown standout is doing for the Cyclones.
“He’s been great for us. Last night he made a play for us that was sick. I thought it was the greatest play I’ve seen all year,” Eigsti says of a diving stop and pinpoint throw to nail a Renegade runner in Tuesday’s game. “He’s been a good teammate. One thing he does a good job at is not letting his at bats follow him into the field.”
Despite coming from a lower-tier baseball school, Bouchard has found a way to do all the right things.
Alfonzo, who bumped Bouchard to the starting lineup at the beginning of the summer, did not know what Georgetown was when asked about Bouchard’s background.
“I don’t know what school he came from, all I know is he’s been doing great,” Alfonzo said. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because he’s talented but somebody at that school had to teach him that, somebody had do something right because he’s been doing good for us.”
While in college, Bouchard said there was a difference between big and small programs.
“Those bigger programs you get more looks from scouts just by virtue of the powerhouse conferences,” he says. “You get more opportunities to be looked at, but the Big East is a good conference and I got enough publicity out there to be drafted.”
With 1,400 players drafted each year and international players arriving from Latin America and the Caribbean, the prestige of being a high draft selection fades quickly once the games begin. Being a first round draft choice is no guarantee of success: For every Joe Mauer that rises through the minor leagues to stardom at the major league level there are a dozen Bryan Bullingtons that, for whatever reason, never make the cut.
“When I was in college I thought [big name schools] were important, but up here your rounds, what school you went to, you’re all at the same level,” Bouchard says. “Do well, excel and move up.”
Bouchard has done well thus far, shining in the field and the clubhouse, though he and Alfonzo agree that his hitting needs to improve in order to make an impact at the higher levels of minor league ball.
Neither Bouchard nor Alfonzo could predict where he will end up after winter training – a second season in Brooklyn, a different A-level affiliate or a AA team – but Bouchard is sure he will eventually find himself back on the Hilltop.
“I definitely want to finish school. I don’t care what age I am, I put a lot of effort into it. My parents always said, `you’ve got to get your education,’ and I’m a firm believer in that . As soon as my career is over you’ll see me back at Georgetown taking classes.”
