The scouts saw the pop on his fastball, checked out his frame and liked that he was a lefty. And they penciled him down as a high draft pick, possibly slipping into the first round. As Brett Cecil’s high school season at DeMatha progressed — and his velocity fluctuated like a teenager’s emotions — they took out their erasers, scratching him from that lofty position.
It changed Cecil’s career.
For the better.
“I took too much for granted,” said Cecil, who eventually was projected to go around the seventh round but went undrafted when teams learned he wouldn’t sign. “I still worked hard … but I relied too much on talent. I’m glad it happened because I wanted to make sure I didn’t do it again.”
So now he’s back on the scouts’ radar screen, not to mention their radar guns: Cecil should be the first area player selected in Thursday’s First-Year Player Draft, with some reports projecting him going between picks 15 to 25.
The genesis of his resurrection began during his senior season. Cecil’s velocity wavered between 85 miles per hour and 93, too much of a variance to earn him a first-round ticket. Scouts told him he’d likely go in rounds 7-10. But the money offered, around $100,000, was not enough for him to bypass playing at Maryland.
Instead, what Cecil decided was to change his habits.
“He knew at that point what he wanted to do in life and he started working harder,” said his dad, Duane, an ex-Marine who helped instill discipline into his son’s life. “He started focusing on getting his endurance.”
Though he already lifted weights at home, he added to his workouts, starting to do more running. And, at Maryland, pitching coach Jim Farr, introduced him to his regimen.
They ran long-distance sprints, starting at 220 yards and working up to 440 and then 880 before topping it with a mile that had to be run in under six minutes.
“There were a lot of times when we’d be like, ‘When is this gonna be over?’” said Cecil, who lost 30 pounds after his freshman season when doctors told him he would need to lose weight or have surgery after suffering a herniated disc. “We were dying on the field.”
By the end of his season, he was still hitting 94 on the radar guns. Cecil also uses a mid-80s slider to get hitters out, making him an elite college closer.
“This is mind-boggling to me,” he said. “Sometimes I look back where I came from to where I am now, physically and mentally. If I had gone pro out of high school, I would not have been ready.”
Save situation
» Cecil set a school record with 13 saves as a sophomore. He recorded 23 saves for his career, including eight this season. As a junior this past season, Cecil was 5-6 with a 3.32 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 62 1/3 innings.
» Cecil did not pitch for the DeMatha varsity until he was a junior. In two years with the Stags, he went 15-1. He blossomed at the Cape Cod League (1-0, 2.17 ERA, 11 saves) after his sophomore season at Maryland, raising his draft profile.
» He writes the words “Pap Pap” on the bill of his cap as a tribute to his late grandfather, Joseph Cecil, who died in September 2001.
