He took a flight to Florida a couple Tuesdays ago.<\/p>\n
But had Ryan Voelkel thought about it, he probably could\u2019ve skipped the flight and flown south using nothing but his two arms.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just how much of a high the former Kentlake High star was on.<\/p>\n
And who could blame him?<\/p>\n
The big fella, in a roundabout sort of way, had realized a lifelong dream less than a two days earlier and was busy packing his belongings \u2013 and dreams \u2013 in a suitcase and bracing for the next step in his baseball career.<\/p>\n
That next step for Voelkel, a 6-foot-6 230-pound first baseman is playing for the Atlanta Braves rookie league affiliate in the Gulf Coast League.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to play in the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex (in Florida),\u201d Voelkel said excitedly while packing his bags. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a kid, you always dream about playing in the majors. This is exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voelkel\u2019s unbridled enthusiasm is understandable.<\/p>\n
Just a few days earlier, the 2006 Kentlake High graduate and Green River Community College slugger anxiously anticipated being selected sometime during the 50 rounds of Major League Baseball\u2019s first-year player draft.<\/p>\n
The draft came and went.<\/p>\n
And like so many other high school and college prospects, Voelkel\u2019s name \u2013 along with his dreams \u2013 was left on the cutting-room table.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t forgotten.<\/p>\n
Less than 24 hours after the draft concluded, Voelkel got the call that, at that point, he figured wasn\u2019t on its way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe draft happened and I didn\u2019t get drafted,\u201d Voelkel said. \u201cI really thought I was going to. My name didn\u2019t get called and I was a little bummed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, out of the blue, the scout called me. It turned out it was my lucky day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good luck certainly played a role.<\/p>\n
Voelkel didn\u2019t get the call until another player Atlanta drafted chose not to sign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why 29 other teams didn\u2019t draft him,\u201d said scout Blaine Clemmens, who signed Voelkel. \u201cFor the Atlanta organization, one particular player reneged on his signing. That left a spot in the organization and Ryan filled those needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voelkel weighed his options. He had a full-ride scholarship to Division II Georgia State College and University in Milledgeville awaiting.<\/p>\n
But ultimately, he didn\u2019t need much convincing to sign a contract and turn pro.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight off the bat, I thought maybe they were trying to get me for cheaper since I wasn\u2019t drafted,\u201d he said. \u201cThen, I thought, \u2018You know what, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You never know what\u2019s around the next corner.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAtlanta is definitely invested in me to the point where I know it\u2019s not a one-and-done deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t too long ago, however, that Voelkel\u2019s body frame lacked what scouts desperately seek.<\/p>\n
Sure, he had the size \u2013 too much of it, in fact. Upon graduating from Kentlake, the 6-6 Voelkel tipped the scale at roughly 270 pounds. And it wasn\u2019t muscle mass, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came in here (and) was probably at 290,\u201d Green River coach Matt Acker recalled.<\/p>\n
Voelkel agrees, summing up the weight gain his final year at Kentlake as \u201csenior blues.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI ballooned up,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s one thing that\u2019s always been said to me. \u2018You can hit, you have some tools. But you have an inner-tube around you.\u2019 That\u2019s something I\u2019ve always been working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those pounds slowly started coming off in Voelkel\u2019s first season with the Gators. A season in which he showed plenty of potential, hitting .328 with 3 home runs, 27 RBIs and a solid a .467 slugging percentage.<\/p>\n
The trick?<\/p>\n
A traditional Green River baseball run that took players from the school to Kent Kangley Road and back, roughly seven miles round trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcker got me into shape,\u201d admitted Voelkel, who\u2019s now downright svelte. \u201cYou got to take care of your body and I think that\u2019s a lot of the reason I struggled. I wasn\u2019t physically ready yet. Those runs take a good chunk out of your day. It\u2019s a tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n
That tradition proved golden for Voelkel, who returned to Green River this past spring and promptly delivered the finest season of his life, launching a wood bat school-record 10 home runs to go along with a .319 batting average and 36 runs batted in.<\/p>\n
But going from a good high school player to an elite college standout and, ultimately, a solid pro prospect wasn\u2019t all about losing pounds for Voelkel.<\/p>\n
In fact, Voelkel\u2019s ascension is as much a credit to his losing the weight as was his decision to narrow down his athletic endeavors. A three-sport (football, basketball and baseball) standout in high school, Voelkel didn\u2019t focus solely on baseball until enrolling at Green River.<\/p>\n
Yet, he was initially viewed as nothing more than a basketball player.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one was talking to me about baseball,\u201d Voelkel acknowledged with a slight laugh. \u201cSo I went to the all-star basketball camp at Green River, and the basketball coach really liked me. I told him I really liked basketball, but I loved baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Acker called me a while later and said, \u2018I hear you don\u2019t have a school yet.\u2019 That was the first school I talked to, so that\u2019s where I went.\u201d<\/p>\n
From that point on, Voelkel devoted himself to the game, his body and, for the first time, reaching his full potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has just matured physically and mentally over the last couple years,\u201d Acker said. \u201cRyan was a phenomenal talent at Kentlake. He didn\u2019t have the body style. Thinned out a little bit (and) has become a lot tougher.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even after Voelkel\u2019s transformation, being in the right place at the right time proved to be the biggest turning point of all. Or, at least, being on the same field as teammate Christian Scholl, a right-handed pitcher who was selected by the Los Angeles Angels in the eighth round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to see Scholl … and I noticed the big first baseman and I really liked his size and swing,\u201d Atlanta scout Clemmens said. \u201cThe way he worked around the base. The way he talked the game. He was a bigger kid and has done hard work to change his body. He\u2019s a hard worker, hungry. I turned in a report and suggested we draft him. And, obviously, it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in the end, it all worked out.<\/p>\n
And Ryan Voelkel couldn\u2019t be happier about it.<\/p>\n
So much so that it just might take a while for him to come back down to earth in time for his first professional at-bat.<\/p>\n
RYAN VOELKEL BY THE NUMBERS AT GREEN RIVER<\/p>\n
2008<\/p>\n
Batting average: .319<\/p>\n
Home runs: 10*<\/p>\n
RBIs: 36<\/p>\n
Slugging percentage: .624<\/p>\n
* Wood bat school record.<\/p>\n
2007<\/p>\n
Batting average: .328<\/p>\n
Home runs: 3<\/p>\n
RBIs: 27<\/p>\n
Slugging percentage: .467<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He took a flight to Florida a couple Tuesdays ago.
\nBut had Ryan Voelkel thought about it, he probably could\u2019ve skipped the flight and flown south using nothing but his two arms.
\nThat\u2019s just how much of a high the former Kentlake High star was on.
\nAnd who could blame him?
\nThe big fella, in a roundabout sort of way, had realized a lifelong dream less than a two days earlier and was busy packing his belongings \u2013 and dreams \u2013 in a suitcase and bracing for the next step in his baseball career.
\nThat next step for Voelkel, a 6-foot-6 230-pound first baseman is playing for the Atlanta Braves rookie league affiliate in the Gulf Coast League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":4370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4369"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}