FORT MYERS, Fla. – Scouting reports from previous Perfect Game showcase appearances regarding top Florida 2019 catcher Jake Holland are filled with glowing references like “outstanding athletic build” and “very good hands driving the barrel” and “very good agility and quickness defensively.”
At 6-foot-3, 205-pounds, Holland certainly does cut a fine and impressive athletic figure, and his off-the charts skills have elevated him to No. 7 overall in PG’s national class of 2019 prospect rankings; he is also the No. 1-ranked catching prospect in his class.
Holland arrived at jetBlue Park Wednesday morning to take part in his second go-around at the PG Junior National Showcase (he was also here in 2016), and immediately put a few of his impressive skills on display during defensive workout and batting practice sessions. The kid is obviously a baseball prospect of the blue-chip variety.
But there seems to be more to this amiable and affable 16-year-old from Miramar, Fla. – one of the country’s top rising juniors who attends Calvary Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – than just the considerable talents he shows on the baseball field.
To get one quick take on the young man, PG asked Alan Kunkel – who has helped coach Holland for the past three years when the young man plays summer-ball for the Pembroke Pines, Fla.-based Elite Squad Baseball organization and is also the head coach at Calvary Christian Academy – for his opinion.
“To begin with, you’ve got to talk about his character. He’s a tremendous young man (and) he’s a really, really good teammate.” Kunkel said Wednesday morning after throwing two lengthy BP sessions at the Jr. National. “One of the things that’s really kind of inspiring about him as a teammate is that he roots for everybody. He’s always in a good mood, has a smile on his face every time he comes to the park and he loves playing the game. …
“As a teammate, one of the tremendous things he brings in terms of leadership is not only the passion, but the smile; it reduces everybody’s stress.”
It is difficult to find anything not to like about a young athlete who carries a 4.80 grade-point average at Calvary Christian Academy, and who earlier this year was named a 2017 PG Underclass First Team All-American. Holland appreciates being invited to the PG Jr. National for a second straight year, and the enthusiasm and enjoyment he showed during the workout sessions made that more than evident.
“It’s always good to come out here and see all the best talent in the country,” he said immediately after completing BP. “Everybody comes to these things and you get to see the good arms, good bats – everybody gets together and it’s a good time.”
This will be the fourth summer Holland has played for Kunkel and Elite Squad Baseball founder and 16u head coach Richie Palmer, and the relationship has been mutually beneficial. He was named to 10 PG all-tournament teams the last three summers and was part of PG WWBA tournament championship teams with the Elite Squad at the 2014 13u PG-East Cobb Invitational and the 2015 15u Florida State Championships.
“It’s a great organization, yes sir,” Holland said. “They make sure you’re taken care of … and they listen to you as an individual player, and make sure you feel good about everything; it’s just a great organization.”
Holland, who is attending his 24th PG event since April 2014, has also been named to elite Top Prospect Lists at three of Perfect Game’s most high-profile underclass showcases: the 2015 PG National Underclass Showcase-Main Event; last year’s PG Jr. National Showcase, both held here in Fort Myers, and at the 2016 PG All-American Underclass Games in San Diego.
He does take a little bit of a different approach to things at a two-day showcase than he does at a week-long tournament, simply because the schedule is so condensed. At a showcase, he points out, you get only get 10 batting practice swings and five “throw-downs” during the catcher’s defensive workout.
Many more opportunities will present themselves during the showcase’s games, of course, but there is a definite sense of immediacy to the proceedings. It requires focusing on the here and now, knowing you won’t get five or six more opportunities to show your stuff over the next four or five days.
“Here, you have to start-off strong and finish strong,” Holland said. “It’s part of the maturing process for when you get older and the draft’s coming up and everything; it’s just getting you ready for the whole thing.”
Holland transferred to Calvary Christian Academy from Archbishop McCarthy High School before the 2016-17 school year and ended up playing in 17 games for the Eagles after becoming eligible. He got 45 at-bats during those games and finished with a slash-line of .311/.377/.400 with a double, a home run, 11 RBI and 10 runs scored. The Eagles finished 23-8 after losing to Pensacola Catholic in the semifinal-round at the FHSAA Class 4A state tournament.
“He’s a tremendous competitor and, obviously, he’s a very talented player,” Kunkel said. “One of the things a lot of people don’t know about him is all the hours he puts in (working on his game) because of the type of competitor that he is; it’s just outstanding.”
Holland named his parents – dad Marcus and mom Cindy – has having the most influence on his burgeoning baseball career, simply because of the sacrifices they’ve made throughout his journey. Both parents are graduates of Troy University in Troy, Alabama, and Marcus Holland was a pitcher on the Troy U. baseball team from 1988-90.
“We go out all the time and hit; I’ve been hitting with my dad since I was 7 or 8 (years old),” Holland said. “We go out and hit and my mom comes along too – my mom knows my swing better than me – and we’ll go out to the field and they’re telling me everything that goes on. So, yeah, it’s a good time.”
But he also gives a lot of credit to Kunkel, with whom he has formed a strong player-coach bond.
“(Kunkel) is always positive. He’s a good coach and we always have a good time,” Holland said. “We can joke around in the weight room, we can have a good time in the clubhouse and always out on the field. He yells at us sometimes, but we have a good time doing it.”
By Holland’s own account, baseball started becoming a regular part of his life when he was 5 or 6 years old, which was about the same time he started bouncing a basketball around; his hoops career didn’t last long. He also played football for a couple of years before deciding to become baseball-only right around his 10th birthday.
“You want to keep on (developing) all the time, but I feel like I’ve progressed a lot since I was a young kid until now,” Holland said. “Hopefully I can just keep doing that right through when the draft comes in 2019.”
Holland hopped around field playing just about every position – including pitcher – as a youth player before settling-in behind the plate three years ago. As a 6-foot-3, 205-pound 16-year-old who is still growing, he might one day become too big to be effective at the position, but it’s his preference to stay there as a collegiate or a professional.
“I want to catch because I really enjoy it,” he said. “If (somebody thinks) I’m too big, that would be one thing, but I can always move around; I’ve done that before. Hopefully, I can stay with catching.”
Kunkel feels like that’s a realistic possibility, even if Holland keeps growing. He pointed out his 2017 Calvary Christian Academy pitching staff featured two SEC arms in 2017 left-hander Jake Eder (Vanderbilt) and 2018 right-hander Christian Scott (Florida), and they appreciated having Holland behind the plate.
“They loved throwing to a big target, a guy that’s going to block baseballs and keep balls in front of them and, obviously, minimize the running game,” he said. “You look at the mold of some of the catcher’s in the big leagues … and as long as his hips stay mobile and he stays flexible and he continues to work on his athleticism, he can catch (at the next level) because he’s tremendous defender. And I think pitchers really enjoy throwing to a big-bodied guy behind the plate.”
Holland carries that eye-popping 4.80 grade-point average with pride, and it’s obvious that academics are a very important part of his life, too: “You want to be well-rounded as a person,” he said. “So, if you have baseball and you have academics and you put those together, it’s a full package. If you can do both and you can do both well, you can’t go wrong.”
Kunkel, again, offered his take on the soaring GPA: “To me, that speaks volumes to how encouraging and how supportive his parents are. Kids don’t do what they do in the baseball world and have those types of grades without parental discipline. That speaks tremendously strong to the Holland family and being the type of people that they are by putting their priorities where they need to be placed.”
Holland has committed to the University of Miami – that seems to be a favorite academic/athletic destination for Elite Squad players – and it was an easy choice for him because the Hurricanes were the first to make an offer. The U would have been his first choice, anyhow, and that he has the utmost respect for the Canes’ catcher’s coach, Norberto Lopez.
This week’s PG Jr. National Showcase provides a great stage on which the top underclass prospects can perform before they dive into a full summer tournament season that will start to shape their careers.
It also gives the PG scouting department a head-start on who it will invite to the 2018 PG National Showcase, and ultimately to the 2018 PG All-American Classic, which will showcase 50 of the top prospects from the class of 2019. Holland hopes to be among the select few invited to both and based on what he’s accomplished so far, he has a decided leg-up on the competition.
Nine former PG Jr. National Showcase participants were selected in the first-round of Monday’s MLB June Amateur Draft, including prospects like Jo Adell, Austin Beck, Heliot Ramos and D.L. Hall, who were here as recently as 2015. That isn’t lost on a smart and promising young prospect like Jake Holland.
“This is probably where it begins for the (graduated) sophomores, here with the Junior National,” he said. “Perfect Game is always pretty accurate on the draft (prospects) so you can always count on them to do it right. You can pay attention to it and by the time the draft comes, you can kind of know where everything is going to be.”
And Jake Holland knows exactly where he wants to be in June 2019.