Colorado Springs
Matt Presley has played baseball for just about as long as he can remember, although passion for the game he would love exclusively developed in part 14 years ago as a result of a different endeavor.
Racquetball.
When he was 4 years old, Presley’s father bought him a membership at the local YMCA.
“I was on the court young and always had a knack for hand-eye coordination, and (racquetball) got me started off,” Presley said.
Like a rocket. First it was T-ball, then assorted youth leagues. Traveling teams. Fall ball. Too many hours in the batting cage to count. And now, within a loss of having his four-year career as a starter come to an end, Presley, a senior at Class 4A Cheyenne Mountain High School, still has no ceiling in sight.
He is widely recognized as Colorado’s top professional prospect – perhaps throughout the Four Corners states – for baseball’s amateur draft in June, and could be selected in the first three rounds.
In mere weeks, Presley’s options will be better than that of the old game show “Let’s Make a Deal.” Behind door No. 1 is taking the money to jumpstart his dream of playing in the major leagues; door No. 2 is staying on course for it by heading to the University of Arizona.
Matt (The Bat) plans on taking his usual sweet swing at the next pitch he sees, and not just as a ballplayer.
“I know baseball is a sport, but at the same time it teaches you really good lessons in life,” he said.
Presley, 6-feet-3, 210 pounds and the son of former Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Billy Presley, is one of the state’s few position players creating this much buzz – Cherry Creek’s Darnell McDonald, an outfielder, was the last Colorado schoolboy nonpitcher to be taken in the first round, in 1997 – and appears to be running through the bag held by in-state players who are regularly dismissed because of reasons involving altitude and climate among lesser play overall.
“He’s the best offensive player I’ve seen here in Colorado,” said Cheyenne Mountain coach Bernie Moncallo, formerly in the Milwaukee Brewers organization.
Overall, Moncallo added of the younger players he has coached, “There’s only one other (Presley) measures up to,” outfielder Pat Burrell of the Philadelphia Phillies. Moncallo also coached shorstop Jimmy Rollins, Burrell’s teammate.
“(Presley) has got some juice in his bat,” longtime Cherry Creek coach and scout Marc Johnson said.
As a junior, Presley batted a torrid .660, but turned into a much hotter commodity when playing for the Los Angeles Angels’ “scout team” last fall. He laced assorted shots throughout the series and said he felt good about at least temporarily dispelling the notion of Colorado hitters not measuring up nationally.
It attracted interest from 29 of 30 big-league clubs. Of course, the showcase was played in Peoria, Ariz., so the team his son has yet to hear from, Billy Presley said, “is the (Arizona) Diamondbacks.”
The pro-scout count at Cheyenne Mountain games has reached into the teens and didn’t waiver significantly when the younger Presley struggled early in the season.
“At first, it was pretty hard with them coming around, but I kind of got used to it and just started to play ball,” Presley said. “It wasn’t a huge concentration thing. That’s what is good about baseball (scouting). They don’t care about results; they want to see your tools.”
Presley, an aspiring chiropractor who has played shortstop and pitched for the Indians this season but is projected as a third baseman or corner outfielder, has picked it up the past half-dozen games and enters today’s play batting .560 with five home runs. He will pitch for Cheyenne Mountain against Fountain-Fort Carson in a game that will determine the 4A Colorado Springs Metro League’s final district playoff spot.
Plus, the sound of the ball coming off his bat, which has a different clang to it compared to other in-state players’ (more like that of a blacksmith), has returned.
“He’s coming off a good week,” Moncallo said. “He’ll make his mark.”
It’s simply a matter of where. Billy Presley, who threw back- to-back no-hitters for Widefield in the early 1970s before twice transferring from colleges in Arizona and landing at Adams State, is enjoying watching his son’s ride under much more of a microscope. It got to the point that he couldn’t carry a cellphone anymore, and there have been a series of meetings, personal workouts and evaluations, including psychological.
“To be honest, it has been fun for me to see how the process works,” he said. “It was nothing like this when I played. It was, ‘Hey, it’s pro ball. Here’s your check and you’re leaving tomorrow.”‘
The elder Presley signed for $10,000. It will take well into six figures to land his son.
“I’m very proud of him. (Matt is) so much better than I was,” he said.
For the younger Presley, “it’s whatever makes me better. It’s a dream, has been since I was a little kid. I’ve always wanted to play on a major-league team, so I might as well strive for it.”
Staff writer Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
About Matt Presley
High school: Cheyenne Mountain, 4A
Height: 6-feet-3
Weight: 210 pounds
College: Signed with the University of Arizona Wildcats
Major leagues: Contacted by 29 of 30 teams
