By Jamie Vaught
Special to NKyTribune
It wasn’t just too long ago when A.J. Reed was the face of college baseball.
A 6-4, 240-pounder from Terre Haute, Ind., Reed made the national headlines in 2014, powering the Kentucky Wildcats with his hitting and pitching prowess in becoming the consensus national player of the year. And now Reed has moved on to professional ranks from the SEC wars after being drafted by the Houston Astros last June as the No. 42 overall pick in the MLB Draft.
After batting .289 along with 12 home runs, 20 doubles and 54 RBI in 68 games with two Class A teams last summer, he is currently playing on the west coast, wearing the uniform of the Lancaster JetHawks of the Class A Advanced California League.
After a nice start in minor league action last year, Reed struggled to begin the 2015 campaign on the right track, but he has improved recently. Reed said the college-to-pro adjustment hasn’t been very hard.
“Becoming a pro hasn’t been difficult,” said Reed recently. “It’s a long season and I’ve started off slow lately but it’s starting to get better and I feel better at the plate so that’s a positive and starting to get some confidence back.”
Going into this week’s action, Reed was hitting .233 with three home runs and 10 RBI in 16 games for Lancaster, which is located about 70 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.
Reed likes playing for the JetHawks, an affiliate of the Houston Astros, and the lefthanded first baseman was asked how the California League is different from SEC.
“The conditions are very hitter friendly so you have to really stay focused and stick with a good approach,” said Reed. “The pitching is really good, just like SEC, and guys aren’t afraid to come inside.”
Last June, when Reed picked up the Dick Howser Trophy — one of the several national player of the year awards he captured — Kentucky coach Gary Henderson praised his two-way star for his personality and being humble.
“I’ll give you a little bit of an idea of who A.J. is,” Henderson said last year. “The numbers, everyone is aware of the numbers, they are spectacular. A.J. is a guy that is at the center of your club. He has a good time every day he is at the field. He likes to laugh, he has a good sense of humor. He can poke fun at himself. He is fun to be around, consistently, even when it didn’t go well and he had a rough weekend, you knew that A.J. was going to show up and bring energy and a smile. Those are all things that we look forward to on a daily basis with A.J. Let me take a step back and thank Debbie (A.J.’s mom).
“A.J. is the type of guy that five or 10 years from now and that phone rings and it is one of our team managers. A.J. is the type of guy that is going to call that kid back. He is going to be the same guy, five years from now, 10 years from now. He is going to do something silly on TV and I am going to call him and we are going to get it squared away. That is the type of guy that A.J. is. He is never going to be too big for anybody. He has just been a wonderful kid to coach.”
Even though he played two positions — pitcher and first baseman — at UK, Reed is now a full-time first baseman with a strong arm as he doesn’t have a lot of speed. He has excellent power and the Astros would like to use him every day.
Before coming to Kentucky, Reed — who was the 2011 Indiana High School Player of the Year — was drafted in the 25th round by the New York Mets, but did not sign with them.
Currently, Reed, who turns 22 on May 10, is ranked as Houston’s No. 12 overall prospect, according to the Astros’ official Web site.
While at Kentucky, Reed became the third unanimous national player of the year in SEC history last year, joining Detroit Tigers’ David Price (in 2007) and former MLB player Dave Magadan (1983). He also earned consensus first-team All-American honors and arguably had the second-best individual season in the history of college baseball, with only John Olerud’s final season at Washington State making a case for competition.
Reed led the NCAA in home runs (23), slugging (.735) and OPS (1.211).
As a Wildcat junior, Reed also pitched to a 12-2 mark with a 2.09 ERA in 2014.
Asked about his UK days, Reed said, “There isn’t one or two moments that were my favorite. I just loved being with those guys. We were a family and we wanted the best for each other. It was a special three years for meand I’ll always cherish those memories.”
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime columnist in Kentucky, is the author of four books about UK basketball and a contributor to KyForward. He is the editor of KySportsStyle360.com online magazine and a professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle. He can be reached via e-mail at KySportsStyle360@gmail.com.