MILWAUKEE — As a tour group gathered within the press field at American Household Area on Monday, the stadium information seemed down on the diamond and tried to establish the hitter in a Dodger blue T-shirt taking thunderous swings in a day batting apply session.
“I’m not sure which player that is,” the tour information stated.
One educated Dodger fan within the group acknowledged it wasn’t a big-leaguer in any respect — not less than not but.
“That’s Dino Ebel’s son,” the fan stated. “He’s gonna be a top draft pick next week.”
Brady Ebel may not be a family identify but across the sport however in Dodger circles, the rise of the Corona Excessive infielder, and 17-year-old son of longtime third base coach Dino Ebel, has lengthy been a proud organizational story within the making.
Six years in the past, Brady and his youthful brother Trey (a 16-year-old junior on a loaded Corona staff final season), first began tagging alongside to Dodger Stadium with their dad after the Dodgers employed him away from the Angels at the beginning of the 2019 season.
Brady Ebel could possibly be one in every of three Corona Excessive baseball stars to be chosen within the first spherical of the MLB newbie draft subsequent week.
(Ric Tapia/Getty Pictures)
Again then, they have been like most of the different kids of gamers and workers that the family-friendly Dodgers would welcome across the ballpark. Not even youngsters but, Ebel’s sons can be taking floor balls and shagging within the outfield throughout batting apply earlier than the beginning of Dodger video games.
Now, they’re each standout prospects with main faculty commitments (Brady to Louisiana State, Trey to Texas A&M) and anticipated futures in professional ball.
On Sunday, Brady is predicted to be a Day 1, and really probably first spherical, choose within the MLB draft — an increase borne of his personal bodily items, but additionally aided by a childhood spent rising up within the presence of big-league gamers.
“I’m so blessed, me and my brother,” Brady stated this week, after accompanying his dad on the Dodgers’ current highway journey in Milwaukee. “It’s my favorite thing to do. Come to the stadium with my dad. Get better. And watch guys go about it. Because I know I’m gonna be here soon. This is what I’m gonna be doing.”
The bodily traits that make Brady a coveted prospect are apparent: His 6-foot-3, 190-pound body; his clean, compact left-handed swing; his defensive really feel and robust throwing arm from the left facet of the infield.
What units Brady aside from the everyday highschool prospects that populate draft boards this time of yr is his distinctive upbringing within the sport, having absorbed numerous classes on his journeys to work along with his dad.
“Watching those guys do it every day, just being able to be in the clubhouse and walk around and see how guys act, has helped me and my brother a lot,” Brady stated, shortly after peppering balls everywhere in the outfield stands on the Brewers’ dwelling ballpark. “I take pieces from everybody.”
Corona Excessive infielders (from left): second baseman Trey Ebel, shortstop Billy Carlson and third baseman Brady Ebel.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Occasions)
The Ebel sons first obtained an up-close have a look at main league life in Anaheim, marveling as younger boys at superstars resembling Mike Trout and Albert Pujols throughout Dino’s 12-year stint on the Angels’ teaching workers.
When their dad was employed by the Dodgers, their first-person schooling continued at Chavez Ravine, the place many Dodgers gamers and staffers have marveled at their very own evolution into coveted recruits and MLB draft prospects.
“As a dad, I love it, because I get to spend more time with them, and I get to watch them get better,” Dino stated. “The process of watching them work with major league players is something I’ll never forget.”
Many days in current summers, the pair have been a continuing presence on the ballpark.
There have been floor guidelines to comply with, as Dino famous: “Stay out of everybody’s way. When you shag, get in the warning track. When you go eat, if a player is behind you, you get in the back of the line.”
The elemental classes they’ve discovered, from watching gamers hit within the cage, to catching balls at first base throughout infield drills, to speaking to different members of the teaching workers throughout quiet stretches of the day, have been limitless. The fingerprints it has left on their sport have been profound.
“Process, approach, work habits, how to respect the game, how you go about your work every day,” Dino stated. “For them to see that, from guys at the top of the chain of elite superstars in the game … that’s what I’ve seen them take into their game. Trying something different. Listening to what the players are telling them in the cage, on the field.”
Brady, for instance, has turn into a eager observer of Freddie Freeman’s work within the batting cage throughout current years.
“There’s stuff he grew up doing that he still continues to do,” Brady stated of Freeman. “Different drills. Keeping your hands inside. Driving the ball up the middle. I’ve been doing that since I was 8. And he’s 30-whatever, still doing it. It’s the simple, little stuff.”
Because the Ebel boys have gotten older, Dino observed how they’d get dwelling from the stadium, go to a apply discipline the subsequent day, and replicate particular drills and methods they’d witnessed the evening earlier than.
“It’s pretty special for me, as a dad, to watch them go through this process,” Dino stated. “And then, as a coach, how they’re getting better each day they come out here.”
Such roots haven’t been misplaced on evaluators. Most scouting reviews of Brady word his superior strategy and self-discipline on the plate. MLB Pipeline’s write-up of him forward of the draft lauded his baseball IQ, and that “his experience working with big leaguers for a long time was clearly on display” as a prep participant.
In Baseball America’s newest mock draft, Brady is projected to go thirty third total to the Boston Pink Sox — the place he might be a part of Corona teammates Seth Hernandez and Billy Carlson because the highest-drafted trio of highschool teammates within the occasion’s historical past.
Looming seven picks after that, nevertheless, are the Dodgers, a staff that would wish no introduction to a participant that grew up earlier than their eyes.
“That would be really cool, just to be with my dad’s organization,” Brady stated of probably winding up with the membership. “We’ll see what happens on draft day. You never know.”
