Blue Jays' draft pick Diedrick proving his worth

Baseball Betting Lines

08/09/2010 - Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - About the only thing bigger than Philip Diedrick's heart is his smile.

Diedrick's infectious grin and mild-mannered approach to life are attributes that serve him well in life and on the diamond.

If only pitchers saw the softer side of him.

The Philip Diedrick that pitchers see is much more relentless, a menacing left-handed power hitter with an imposing presence at the plate whose preference is to make pitchers pay on his terms.

Never was that more apparent than last month at the 2010 International Baseball Federation World Junior Baseball Championship in Thunder Bay, Ont., when Diedrick's first-inning heroics held up as the difference for Canada against reigning and two-time defending champion South Korea.

A day after losing to Cuba in a heart-breaking 3-0 loss in front of a sellout crowd, Diedrick picked his team up in the biggest way.

South Korea, desperate not to get in a hole early to a team it was supposed to beat, brought in a left-handed pitcher just two batters into the game with left-handed hitters waiting on deck.

As Diedrick described it, "They were trying to work the percentages against us."

Good thing Diedrick's a better baseball player than he is a mathematician.

Down 2-1 in the count with the bases loaded and two outs, Canada's designated hitter watched a fastball settle into the middle of the plate for a strike as if to grant it immunity for flying over restricted air space. His odds just got worse.

But Diedrick wasn't so kind to the next pitch or the law of percentages, drilling it the other way over the left field fence to give Canada a 4-0 lead they would ultimately hold onto in a 5-4 edging of the gold-medal favorite Koreans.

"It was the biggest game of my career so far," he said of the grand slam. "It felt amazing."

While most players, especially ones his age, would have buckled under the pressure of playing for their home country in front of a sellout crowd with family cheering them on from their seats behind home plate, Diedrick relished the opportunity.

"It was one of the best moments of my life knowing that I got the chance to represent my country," said Diedrick, recalling the day he learned he was selected to the national team. "One day I can be in the same sentence as Sidney Crosby or Justin Morneau, and all those other guys who get to represent their country. Not just at the senior level, but at the junior level."

As for being in the same sentence as Morneau, he concedes it's a tall order. Despite being selected in the 45th round by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2010 MLB Draft, the 6-1, 202-pound outfielder has yet to be offered a contract by the big league club.

In the meantime, he knows it's all about that hard work and preparation his mother preached to him as a child.

"I always just tried to do my best to make my mom proud. And my grandma, the value she instilled in my mom, and the values that my mom instills in me, helps me to be who I am."

These days being him, isn't so bad.

When asked if he recalls the day he found out he was drafted by a Major League Baseball team, Diedrick flashed his trademark smile.

"I was actually staying at home following it on the Internet and then when they called my name, I was in shock," he said. "My coach called me, and then I was like, 'Okay, it really happened.' It was amazing."

If Diedrick isn't signed by the mid-August deadline, he'll attend Bossier Parish College in Louisiana this fall, where he'll get a chance to show scouts and evaluators south of the border the type of raw power and plate presence he turned heads with at the Worlds.

"He's going to be a good hitter going forward," said Greg Hamilton, head coach and director of Baseball Canada's national teams. "He's a big strong kid and he's not a one-dimensional kind of guy. He will go the other way a little bit for you as well."

"I thought he had a real nice tournament."

Nice to Canada, brutally unforgiving to opposing teams.

Diedrick finished the tournament 14-for-31 (.452) with a team-leading 10 RBI in eight games, garnering a nod as IBAF first-team designated hitter all-star for his accomplishments.

But the Ajax, Ont. native's rise to success on the diamond is relatively new to him.

He said it wasn't until a breakout performance at last year's Canada Cup - a collection of the country's best seventeen and eighteen-year-olds under one national tournament - that he caught the attention of Hamilton, who was in the process of assembling the juniors' summer tour roster.

"Since then, we went to Disney [Team Canada's spring training facility] two times. I went to Dominican Republic, and I was just getting better and better and kept getting the call back from Greg saying, 'Come on other trips.'

A few home runs later and Diedrick was joining the junior national team and playing against the best 18-and-under baseball players in the world.

"It lets you know where you compare on a world stage," said Diedrick. "In Canada, you know you're one of the top 20 players and then when you go and play against the U.S. or other countries, you can see where you stack up."

For someone who's been playing for "five or six years now," Diedrick stacks up pretty good against a plethora of talent destined for the major leagues.

He smiles when asked what the response has been from his friends since his dissension through the ranks of amateur baseball.

"They always just ask me when are the season tickets coming," he said with a laugh. "I just tell them 'In time, I will get there.'"

His mother told him to "always finish what you start." Now that he has the directions to get there, it's all about executing.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.