Clovis youth hopes for national spot

CLOVIS — If you one day see Javier Jimenez pitching in the majors, you might remember you read about him here when he was 10.

Javier has a long, long way to go before he could even get a whiff of pro ball. But, he's on a good path, a path that future major-leaguers once dug their cleats into when they were just kids.

Javier is part of USA Baseball, which the Clovis resident and his family hope will lead him to the national youth team that will compete next year against teams from across the world. Next week Javier will visit Cary, North Carolina for Round 3 of evaluations and tournaments that will determine if he is worthy of representing his nation worldwide.

Javier has already passed Round 1 in Clovis, Round 2 in El Paso. This is the biggest test yet.

"Pretty excited," Javier said Monday night.

"Scary," he added, "because I have to fly. I've never flown."

He might be walking on air after next week because if he makes the cut he will have earned the right to play among the country's best young athletes.

"They say it's fairly difficult to make Round 3, extremely difficult to make that national team," Javier's father, Johnny Jimenez, said Monday night. "To put it in perspective - Mike Trout, he didn't make it past Round 3. That's how difficult it is to make the national team."

Javier, though, has long since been considered to at least have a chance to be in that elite group. When he was 7 and competing at a camp in Dallas, a scout for the Tampa Bay Rays observed him, noticed the raw ability.

"And he said that with the talent he's got we need to try to get him into USA Baseball," Johnny recalled.

And so it is that Javier, who last year was still competing at the USSSA (United States Specialty Sports Association) level, is climbing up the USA Baseball ladder this summer.

As Johnny explained the process of Round 3 - which runs Aug. 7-11 - the players are evaluated before playing a tournament-style slate of games, divided on teams that represent six regions in the U.S., two teams per region. Javier could have played for the Southwest Region, but will instead play for the South, which includes players from Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Kansas.

"The director called me and asked me if I had a problem (with Javier) playing for the South team," Johnny said, "because we're so close to Texas."

Officially, Javier will play for USA South NTIS (National Team Identification Series).

Players who sign up for the tryouts have to give a description of themselves, almost like a back-of-the-baseball-card scout's take of their own abilities.

Once at the tryouts they are timed in the 60-yard dash. They then do their thing, their specialty - pitch if you're a pitcher, play a fielding position if that's what you do. The players are supposed to have a secondary position, so they'll be rated on that, too.

"They check your fielding, whether you're an outfielder or an infielder," Johnny said. "And of course they check your hitting, how your hand-eye coordination is. They actually time all your stuff, your release; pitching, how accurate you are."

Javier's main position is pitcher, and when he tried out, his second position was outfielder. "But he can play any position fairly well, really well," Johnny says.

Javier is a righthanded pitcher, but a switch hitter at the plate.

Seems like Javier has all the tools, the potential to play for the national team. It comes down to next week.

"He hasn't made it yet," Johnny said, "but we have our fingers crossed for it."

"There are some pretty good kids," Javier said. "I think I just have to try my best and see how good I do."