BY JIMMY GILLIGAN | The Statesman Do you know “Wojo”?
He’s the baseball team’s star senior, who not only towers over his peers (he’s six-foot-five) on the field, but also in the stats column. If none of this rings a bell, his name is Alex Wojciechowski--and you should get to know him.
The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Preseason Player of the Year and starting first baseman for the Bulldogs, Wojciechowski couldn’t have had a better start to the 2016 campaign. In his first four games he’s driven in 12 runs on five home runs and 17 hits.
It’s his last year at UMD, but Wojo doesn’t want it to be his last year in baseball.
The next level for Wojo could become a reality on June 9, when the 2016 Major League Baseball First-Year Player draft begins.
Wojciechowski said he has received a few letters from MLB franchises. He’s also had conversations with his head coach, Bob Rients, about getting to the next level.
But Rients knows firsthand how difficult it is to get picked up by a pro team--in 16 years with the Bulldogs, he’s seen one player get drafted: Tim Battaglia in 2004. He was the No. 1,476 pick of draft in the no-longer-existent 50th round.
“It’s a challenge, the percentages aren’t in anyone’s favor at any level of baseball,” Rients said.
Reints said he thinks Wojciechowski has a chance at getting drafted. He did note, however, that the needs of each organization are a key factor in choosing players.
The majority of players taken in the forty-round draft come from the college ranks, but in the past few years only around 70 or 80 of these players came from Division II programs.
But to say that Wojo is among the top 80 players at the D-II level wouldn’t be an outlandish argument to make. Last year, he had the 31st best batting average in the nation (.417) among D-II players.
Generally, his offensive statistics hovered around the top 25 to top 50 in the nation.
But statistics don’t hold much weight in terms of draftability--even as impressive as Wojciechowski’s 2014 numbers were.
“(Statistics aren’t a factor) as much as we would like, or as we would think, it’s really overall skillset,” Rients said.
At this point, Wojo deflects questions about becoming a professional baseball player. He’s focused on making the most of his last season at UMD.
“I hope that I get a chance to play at the next level but right now I’m just focusing on getting as far as we can,” Wojciechowski said.
This comes as no surprise for Wojo, who Rients calls a “team-first player.”
He’s focused on making his team better and reaching his goal of winning a national championship. But his goal of helping his team could also help his draft stock. The more success the Bulldogs have, the more exposure he, and the other seniors receive.
“I think that if we have success as a team that other things are going to take care of themselves, me and coach have talked and he explained that it’s kind of out of my hands,” Wojciechowski said. “If people like me they’ll take a chance on me, so I’m just focusing on winning games.”
Wojo’s baseball future is out his hands to an extent, because it comes down to what each individual pro team wants.
“There’s some programs that want to have some of their low level minor league teams at the front end maybe win at higher rate so they may be looking for guys that have more experience,” Rients said. “So versus your 16-17 year old Central American kid, they may be looking for college kids.”
It’s also about how a player’s game would translate to the next level, and Rients thinks this a strength for Wojciechowski.
“He’s got some bat speed power he’s shown that he can make adjustments and hit for average,” Rients said.”He’s got a short swing, and that helps in the transition to higher velocity and breaking pitches that are sharper.”
On the mental side, Wojo said he’s developed a lot since he joined the program in 2012.
“That’s been the biggest thing to my success: just forgetting about mistakes, forgetting about errors and bad at bats,” Wojciechowski said. So to answer the question that spurred this column, Wojciechowski is certainly talented enough to be selected in the upcoming MLB draft. It’s just a matter of where and how the big man can fit in.