One of the nice things about having a blog is that I can write about my own interests. You know we are experts in office space and commercial real estate, and we also try to keep our readers informed on issues that affect business in Boca Raton.  But if you follow our blog, you’ll quickly realize that Jamie Danburg is very involved with his dogs and I’m pretty big on baseball. We hope it helps you to know us better and that we can provide a little something for everyone.

One of the topics I wanted to address was the 2012 Major League Baseball draft which started last night, June 4 and runs through the 6th. Over 1,200 players will be selected over 40 rounds  Last year, as the P.A. announcer for the State Champion West Boca High School Bulls, I had the privilege of watching Michael Kelly and Tyler Greene. Kelly a pitcher with a fastball in the mid 90s was selected as sandwich pick by the San Diego Padres (between the first and second rounds) and was the 48th player chosen. Greene, a speedy and hard hitting shortstop was selected in the 11th round by the Philadelphia Phillies. In the West Boca press box, we were constantly joined by a gathering of scouts with radar guns. Both Greene and Kelly are now playing professionally.

This was considered a down year for local teams and players. I didn’t expect much to have much interest in the 2012 draft, until my son, now a student at the University of Florida e-mailed me a link to the top 50 prospect list from mlb.com.  There, listed as the #39 prospect of all high school and college players in the country, was Lewis Brinson of Coral Springs High. “LB” was an outfielder on the Margate Vipers Travel team that I helped coach back in 2005 and 2006.

 As assistant coach, team photographer and Webmaster for the Vipers I was able to find some great old pictures. Back then, LB was a tall lanky kid with speed, power and a ton of raw talent. Funny, that’s about the same thing that you’ll see on the MLB scouting report. Then last night, Brinson was selected in the first round as the #29 pick by the Texas Rangers.

I hit LB a lot of fly balls and threw him a lot of batting practice, but I’ll take zero credit for his emergence into a major league prospect. I do think there are some points to pass along to those of you that coach or have kids that play ball. The Vipers were an average travel team. We had our moments, but never quite got over the hump.

But our head coach, Coach Al and our group of coaches all loved the game and tried to pass that passion, teamwork and work ethic along to the kids. I’d like to believe we did it the right way. The team eventually split up and we went our separate ways. But my son now has a State Championship ring and Coach Al is now better known as Sheriff Al, Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti.  And our raw but talented right fielder is now the top baseball prospects in the area.  LB is reportedly leaning toward turning down a scholarship at the University of Florida to turn pro.  With the staggering bonuses (see last year’s) available to first round talent, I can’t blame him. He certainly can’t make a bad decision and I’ll support him in whatever he does. Hopefully, we helped to make all of these kids into better men.

There are no guarantees in the business of professional baseball. There are top draft picks that don’t pan out and unknowns who become stars. I’ll be watching with great interest and hope someday to see Michael Kelly face Lewis Brinson in a major league uniform. Best of luck to all of our local kids as they move on to the next level.

Other local players to watch over the coming days according to the Sun Sentinel (and draft projections) are R.J. Alvarez (Royal Palm Cardinal Newman 2nd round) Bryan De La Rosa (Bucky Dent Academy, Delray 3rd Round)  Brandon Welch (Palm Beach Gardens Round 4-20) and Dylan Silva (American Heritage Delray Round 30-40)