Post 64 hurler Jesse Watt to play in 2009 Mariners Cup

Last year, St. Mary’s-Colgan pitcher Jesse Watt found himself in the midst of some of the best prep baseball players in the Midwest when he was invited to try out for the Chicago White Sox Area Code team.
After making it to the second round of tryouts, Watt was just as excited about doing it the second time around this year.
“Last year, it was the first time that I had ever done anything like this and I was going for the experience and to get on the radar,” Watt said. “I know, being a younger player it would have been hard for me to make the team.
“For my baseball career, these tryouts are probably the best thing that I have ever done.”
Just, this time around, Watt found himself chosen as one of 30 players selected by the White Sox to play for one of two teams in the prestigious Mariners Cup in August.
“I was pretty excited when I got the phone call,” Watt said. “You really have no idea what to expect because there are so many good players from the Midwest and there were so many coaches down there watching.”
His tryouts started in Little Rock, Ark. earlier in the summer and took him to Owasso (Okla.) High School. He tried out in front of numerous coaches and White Sox staff and was picked out of a pool of 200 pitchers from the Midwest to travel to Seattle for the tournament, which begins Aug. 17.
The Mariners Cup is an exciting baseball tournament, where a select group of high school baseball players will compete at a high level of competition against the San Francisco Giants and Mariners USA Scout Teams.
“To get into something like this, it is very exciting,” Watt said.
One of the interesting things about Watt’s situation is that he will be playing on a team of 30 players of whom he will not know anyone.
“I have no idea about any of the kids that I am playing with,” Watt said. “The ones in the tryout can be from anywhere from Oklahoma to Indiana to Illinois and I have no idea about anyone else on my team.”
But, that is not much of a concern to Watt, who said he was just happy for the experience.
“You have to kind of have that team aspect but, you are going into it knowing that they were picked because they are good,” Watt said. “You are not going to end up with a bad player on your team so you know that going in.”
Current Major League players Grady Sizemore and Jeremy Bonderman had experiences playing in the Mariners Cup.
“You go down there and you get exposed to a lot of good players and I saw a lot of them that were really good and it gave me a picture of what I needed to do to get better. It really puts things in perspective to where you want to be and what you have to do to get there,” Watt said.

Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140. Follow Morning Sun sports at twitter.com/msports.