Owner of perhaps the most torrid Shorebird bat and riding a 14-game hitting streak, Mike Yastrzemski is trying to make his own path to the big leagues – comparisons to his Hall-of-Fame grandfather Carl are too obvious to make. That connection and the inherent pressure may have been why Mike passed up an opportunity to play in the Boston system out of high school in favor of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee – far enough away from his Massachusetts home to let Mike blaze his own trail.
Indeed, Mike has been drafted three times – Boston drafted him in the 36th round as a high school senior in 2009, Seattle tried three years later in the 30th round, and finally Baltimore grabbed Yastrzemski in the 14th round last year and sent him to Aberdeen, where he hit .273/3/25/.781 OPS in 57 games. These were nowhere near the numbers the elder Yaz put up in a mercurial two-season minor league career before making his MLB debut in 1961 and becoming a fixture in Beantown for the next 23 seasons, but they were good enough to merit the promotion to Delmarva and the 23-year-old is raking thus far.
Through last night, Mike was batting .299/3/18/.867 OPS and leading the team in several offensive categories, perhaps just a tick better than the season he had in 2013 with the IronBirds. While he mainly played center field with Aberdeen, though, Mike has moved over to right field for the Shorebirds and as such has picked up five outfield assists.
While he’s a slight bit older than league average because he played four seasons in college, Mike is still doing well enough that he could make the SAL All-Star team and, more importantly, move up to Frederick by season’s end. (Three former Shorebirds – Glynn Davis, Lucas Herbst, and Brenden Webb – are tearing up the Carolina League at the moment, though.) So far the younger Yaz has proven himself a solid player for the Shorebirds, and those skills can surely translate up the ladder.