The MLB Draft took place over the weekend, and if you play for Top Tier or follow the program’s social channels, you already know it was a big one: five Top Tier players selected on Day One alone, with more alums hearing their names called on Sunday.
Draft week is always a good time for young players to watch, listen, and soak up what the guys fortunate enough to hear their names called are saying as they reflect on their journeys.
This year, start with Jacob Lombard.
The Gulliver Prep shortstop went 14th overall to the Miami Marlins on Saturday, and the interview he gave might be the most productive five minutes any of our guys can spend today. The full video is at the bottom of this post, and I’m encouraging everyone to watch it. But first, I want to walk through a few quotes that should hit home for every player in this program.
Lombard spoke about the early days of his baseball journey, when he and his brother George Lombard Jr. (now a top prospect in the New York Yankees system) would take thousands of ground balls a day.
“1,000 ground balls a day, we could do that with a smile on our face, because it’s fun for us. Same thing with hitting, same thing with lifting; we really enjoy the process. I think once you create a real love for it, and you wake up every day really craving it …”
A thousand ground balls a day is a lot. But as Lombard explained, those feverish early workloads built the foundation for how he trains now — lighter, but far more intentional. He doesn’t need a thousand ground balls a day anymore, because those years gave him two things: a genuine love for the work, and an exact understanding of what he needs to feel in his work every single day.
“I want to catch the ball at the exact spot I want to catch it every single time; when I’m throwing it, I want to throw it into a little square; when I’m hitting, I want to hit it on the same inch of the bat, because I’m trying to be so intentional with my work.”
Here’s the truth about what we see as coaches. Players fall into three buckets.
There’s the small minority who train like that — real purpose and real intentionality behind every rep. There are the guys who put in effort, but without that level of purpose or intentionality, and in some cases without even a plan. And then — most common, unfortunately — there are the guys who do none of it.
If you’re in that third bucket, I’ll be blunt: you’re not going to be long for this game.
If you’re in the middle bucket, this part is for you.
We see guys “work.” We see and hear about the tee work, the flips, the front toss away from the team. But when the results don’t follow, the disconnect is immediately clear, and it almost always comes down to the intentionality of the work.
What are you trying to accomplish?
Are you working just to say you worked? Or do you have a specific plan and goal for the day — and do you even know what it’s supposed to look and feel like when it’s right?
Stacking bad reps is just as useless as never picking up a baseball — and sometimes worse, because now you’re grooving the wrong things. Too many guys do not understand the difference between good reps and empty reps.
If you feel like that’s you, get with your coaches and our player development staff and find the feels and a direction. Remember: this is your journey. Take control of it.
One more from Lombard — and this is the one every youth baseball player in the world needs to hear. Not just hear it. Absorb it, and make it one of the foundations of how you operate and navigate this game.
“Nothing punches you in the face like baseball does mentally; you can’t be perfect, you never will be, you have to be okay with getting 1 percent better.”
You can’t be perfect. You never will be. Be okay with getting 1 percent better — today, tomorrow, and every day after that.
Here’s the full video from Lombard’s father, George (another former pro ball player):
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