Editor’s Note: Local teacher Ben Fawbush is sharing his adventures through the Reds organization via a Lilly grant with WZBD. Follow along with each post as he takes an inside look at professional baseball in America.
By BEN FAWBUSH
Special Report for WZBD
On my second day (Wednesday) down here I interviewed two other players, both of whom are pitchers. Jonathan Harmon and Easton Sikorski are not as high draft picks as Sal Stewart, but both had very different journeys in their road to professional baseball.
Jonathan Harmon is from Hornbeck, Louisiana – population 400! He agrees with Sal about playing multiple sports in high school. He tried playing football for a couple of years before quitting after his junior year because “the coach told me if I am about to get sacked I am gonna have to run out of pocket or I was gonna get hurt, so I said ‘yeah this ain’t for me’.” He said playing multiple sports will make you a better athlete overall and you will gain more relationships.
Jonathan said he was the best pitcher on his high school team, but they weren’t that good overall; he described himself as a “decent high school player”. In college, when he got drafted, he didn’t necessarily say he was the best pitcher on his team either, just that he “had the best season of any pitcher on my team that year.” His freshman year was 2020 – the dreaded Covid year. He pitched 4 games and was a freshman All-American from Northwestern State University in Louisiana. Agents then started calling him to represent him. He started getting noticed by more scouts after his sophomore year in college and then got drafted in the 13th round. He says the biggest difference going from high school play to college play was the degree of mistakes you can make as a pitcher.
“In high school if you make a mistake a lot of hitters won’t take advantage of it, whereas in college you can’t get away with that. They are bigger, stronger, smarter, and more disciplined.”
Going from college to pro ball was a similar experience along with ABS (automatic balls and strikes). He said he has pitched when there aren’t umpires and when there are. He said he can definitely tell the difference in the zone. He noted his splits on the road (stats) as compared to at home. He walked 4 more batters on the road per game with ABS than compared to with an umpire behind the plate making the calls. His goals are to finish healthy, gain some weight and work on pitch speed. He would love to be in Dayton next season, but realizes he can only do so much. This guy may be my favorite player in Daytona now. His strong southern accent, attitude, humor, and personality was just amazing; his politeness and demeanor was what I wish all people to model themselves after.
Easton Sikorski (Suh-core-ski) was in the training room for about 20 minutes before he came out to talk to me. He was pitching earlier in the year, got hurt, rehabbed, came back for ONE outing and then got injured again and is currently on the 7-day injured list. He was also the fist one out when they left the clubhouse after Day 3 – and I was the only one he signed an autograph for!
Easton’s dad had stints in the Majors and Japan. His father’s MLB debut was the year Easton was born. He said his father never once tried to entice him to play baseball, but “He definitely helped me get to where I am today.”
Sikorski grew up playing ball in Fraser, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit. He had to walk-on at Kalamazoo College as he wasn’t “good enough” to get a scholarship. Easton’s father and travel ball coach, who also played in the minor leagues, helped him get on the team in college. Like Harmon above, Sikorski didn’t really come around until Covid hit. He worked hard and joined a summer team (or pod as he called it) during college in the Northwoods League. He said that commitment and throwing really well against a strong USC team showed scouts, who were there watching other players, that he may be able to make it in the pros. He ended up getting drafted in the 17th round in 2022.
Like my other two interviewees have said, he wants high school athletes to not specialize in one sport; he is strongly against it. When asked his differences from high school to college and college to pro he had virtually the same answers as Harmon: the hitters are better and you can’t make mistakes. Easton said the grind of the 130 game season is definitely being felt as this is the longest he has ever played baseball continuously.
“Dayton would be awesome”, was the response I got when I asked what future goals are for the end of the season going into next year.
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