Tony's mind reeled at all the sudden information that was explained to him. At first he felt incredulity, but then a spark of excitement as if he'd found a buried treasure.
"I'll need to see more before I can make an accurate assessment." Tony stated, but his first impression of Ken was great.
"Hehe, of course."
In the process, they had completely forgotten about the other Junior, Steve. A catcher in High School who was able to consistently catch and lead the 100mph pitches was not someone to scoff at either.
Unfortunately, he lacked the same charisma as Ken.
While the teams were changing over, Tony reached into his bag and procured his laptop, navigating to the Perfect Game website.
"What's the guy's name?"
"Ken Takagi… But it's pretty useless going on there." Lorenzo warned.
Since his cousin didn't elaborate, Tony still typed in the details and saw a profile appear. There was no portrait, but his was the only name that came up.
Tony clicked it, only to raise his eyebrow in confusion.
"There's almost nothing here…" He said, getting a little annoyed.
"Mmm. You can probably look at his stats this tournament so far."
Tony turned his attention back to the laptop and located the tournament, clicking on it. Soon his expression turned dumbstruck, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"What in the Fantasy league hell is this!?" He exclaimed with complete and utter shock.
'An ERA of 0 in 5 games? So he pitched a shutout in every game?'
"Yeah, I thought they'd made a mistake at first. But it seems that this guy is just too good for High School play right now." Lorenzo said smiling wryly.
"But still… A strikeout percentage of 0.7? It's like he's a pro pitcher playing against kids…" Tony felt incredulous, not knowing what to say or do.
While this was a small sample size of 5 games, the numbers were still impressive. Particularly when one took into account that many of the games were played on the same day, back to back.
WHACK
While the two were chatting, the game had already resumed. The lead-off batter for the Gladiators sent a hit into the outfield, securing his spot on 2nd base with some fast running.
After looking up briefly, Tony turned his attention back to the laptop. He looked at each individual game, checking out Ken's pitching stats with a fine-toothed comb.
'Average pitching speed of 98mph… Max of 102… Is this kid even human?'
WHACK
The next batter made contact with the pitch, sending it past the short stop and into the left outfield. The Gladiators now had runners on 1st and 3rd base and where in position to score in the bottom of the 8th.
Tony didn't even react this time, his attention still on his laptop. He felt a nudge from beside him, but he made an annoyed groan in response, "I'm busy."
"Tony, you might want to watch this." Lorenzo quipped.
"Mmm?" He raised his gaze, only to see Ken standing in the batters box, ready to hit.
"What? He doesn't have a DH?" Tony exclaimed, feeling a little confused. He'd been looking at Ken's pitching stats, but didn't have a chance to see his batting stats just yet, assuming he wouldn't be batting at all.
He resisted the urge to look back at his laptop, focusing solely on the tall figure in the batters box.
PAH
"Ball."
The first pitch was on the outside by almost a foot, leading to an easy leave. Ken got back into position and twirled his bat slightly, as if to egg on the pitcher.
Tony's eyes narrowed, not knowing what to expect. He wasn't even sure what number the guy was batting at this point.
The pitcher wound up, sending a fastball to the inside of the strike zone. The ball seemed to be breaking inward slightly, making it a difficult one to hit without getting jammed.
"Hup!"
Ken's body was like a well oiled machine as he easily adjusted his swinging rotation to chase the inside ball. By the time the bat arrived into the strike zone, it had already reached max velocity.
WHOOOOSH
THWACKKK!
The crack of the leather ball bouncing off the wooden bat rang out over the field, echoing in everyone's ear. A cheer followed as the pitch was sent back with tremendous force into the left outfield.
It seemed to follow the foul line, as if it was on tracks. The opposing team watched on, praying silently that it would go foul before reaching the post.
DOOONG
The ball smacked the foul post, causing it to let out a sound like the banging of a gong. Just like that, the Trosky players lowered their heads, realizing that the 3-run home run likely signified the end of their run in the WWBA Tournament.
"Hot damn, another home run for Ken." Lorenzo exclaimed, though he didn't sound too surprised at all.
He turned to his cousin, only to see the bottom of the guy's jaw practically touching his chest. "Close your mouth you'll attract the fly's." Lorenzo said, letting out a laugh.
However, Tony ignored him, his eyes locked onto Ken's figure as he made his way around the bases. He noted the confidence and ease in which Ken held himself, making it seem like the guy wasn't a High Schooler at all.
'This guy is ridiculous…' Tony thought, forgetting that he was watching a High School tournament.
Though he could see a lot of room for improvement, that was only when he considered Ken as a 3rd year College player. Just the fact he was this polished in his Junior year, showed just how talented the guy was.
"Interesting…" He mumbled, bringing his hand up to scratch his chin.
"So he's caught your eye then?" Lorenzo asked with a knowing look.
"Mmm. I'm just not sure he's ready yet." Tony mused.
Lorenzo laughed, "If you're thinking about leaving him until he's finished a few years in College, you'll be competing against the whole damn league in the draft. The best thing us scouts can do is pick up a prospect early before anyone can get a chance to swoop in."
Tony's eyes widened, but he still wasn't fully convinced.