Baseball is America’s National Pastime for a reason and Orioles top prospect Grayson Rodriguez knows that.
Baltimore’s young ace has worked his way up through the minor leagues and made his major-league debut earlier this season.
Rodriguez joined WEEI’s Rob Bradford on the Audacy Original Podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring” and talked about the pressure being put on younger players and why it’s important to block out the noise.
“I think before I was drafted I listened to too many people,” Rodriguez said (9:50 in player above). “You control your own destiny, that’s something that I’ve always said. People that you don’t value as important or close in your circle, they have no effect on your career. Just blocking out the outside noise. You put in the time and the effort. They don’t.
“There are a lot of people that are going to tell you that you’re going to fail, and you might, but you have to keep trying. Baseball is a game of failure,” he said. “That’s something that I didn’t learn until I was actually in pro ball. If you’re getting drafted out of high school or college or whatever, you’ve never ran into problems. Baseball’s never been hard. So really just seeing that once I’ve gotten into pro ball that really you just got to stay the course and block out the outside noise.”
Rodriguez was drafted by the Orioles in the first round out of high school in 2018. He led Central Heights to the 31 state title in Texas after going 14-1 with a 0.38 ERA during his junior year.
The top prospect always kept on the same path with a level head on his shoulders.
“I think people try to always have their own little twist on your story and you just have to go to what you know and that’s when you were in the backyard playing catch with your dad or in a high school game or whatever. What got you to this point is what you need to keep doing,” he said. “Obviously, if there’s something wrong and there’s a highly-touted coach or somebody that has really good experience like, yes, take what they have to say. But I think if one person tries to change the way you do things I think sometimes that can get a little off-path.”
Rodriguez was skilled enough to not have to deal with that, but he’s seen it in high school and his younger brother is currently a freshman.
“Fortunately for me, I never really had that happen but that’s something that I’ve seen happen,” he said. “There are a lot of people that think they have something smart to say when they don’t. I think it kind of, I guess, really hurts kids because let kids be kids. I remember when I was in high school my mechanics were terrible but I figured it out. Now I think there are a lot of people that are trying to make 12-year-olds pitch like they’re in the big leagues.”
Baseball is doing a better job of reaching the younger demographic and it’s showing with the rise in popularity. However, it could be a double-edged sword with how adults treat kids who are just playing the game that they love.
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