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Quick learner: Young Cantu off to hot start

NILES — For many young minor league baseball prospects making the transition straight from high school to the pros, things can be tough in those first few years.

In fact, some players take several years just to get past Class A ball and yet still can’t advance much further beyond that.

Others, like Mahoning Valley Scrappers first baseman Ulysses Cantu, find success very early. As of Tuesday, the first-year Scrapper is batting .424 with a home run, five doubles and a 1.108 OPS.

For Cantu, despite his current success, it took a little while to get going. Drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the sixth round (182nd overall) of the 2016 Major League Draft out of Boswell High School in Fort Worth, Texas, Cantu dealt with an arm injury as an Arizona League (Rookie ball) player in 2016, batting just .202 with 42 strikeouts in 109 at-bats.

“At first, it was really tough. Going from high school pitching to this, it’s just unreal to transition from the first year,” Cantu said. “Just a lot of focus and hard work is what it took, just to kinda get to where I’m at now.”

Cantu said the arm injury, which he suffered during his senior year, got into his head. He had to balance the injury with improving his hitting, all as a first-year professional baseball player.

Not to mention, Cantu also moved from third base to first base along the way. Cantu learned to love the position, however, and he’s thrived in the everyday first base role for the Scrappers.

In 72 innings, he has yet to commit an error, as opposed to 2016, when Scrappers first baseman Emmanuel Tapia led the New York-Penn League in errors at the position.

However, it’s what he does at the plate that has people excited. Cantu has worked with Scrappers hitting coach Pete Lauritson since the spring, and Lauritson has been singing his praises ever since.

“In spring training and extended (spring training), (Cantu) really stood out,” Lauritson said. “The thing with him, if you look swing-wise and swing pattern-wise, he may have one of the top swings of all our young prospects.

“He’s got a really good swing — when you match it up to a lot of high-level Major Leaguers, his swing matches up with that. The fact that he’s carrying it over in performing on the field is not really that big of a surprise.”

Cantu started playing baseball at 3 years old and always dreamed of one day playing in the big leagues. However, it wasn’t until he committed to Texas Tech as a high school sophomore — and then was subsequently scouted by Major League teams as a junior — that he realized his dream could soon become a reality.

The 5-foot-11, 220 pound Texas 5A standout won the 5-5A District Offensive Player of the Year award as a senior — despite the arm injury. Cantu hit .374 with six home runs and 29 RBIs in 30 games and was rated a top-300 prospect by many major publications, including Baseball America, Perfect Game and MLB.com.

The Texas 5A competition, coupled with travel ball, got him plenty of notice, as the Indians worked him out at a local high school in both his junior and senior years. Despite not hearing much from the Indians thereafter, they still managed to draft Cantu in the sixth round, and thus far, it looks like the right decision.

Now, before he inevitably moves up the ladder, Cantu will try to help the Scrappers get back to the postseason for the first time since 2009.

“It’s been real fun, it’s great,” Cantu said of playing for the Scrappers. “It’s a lot different than where we were at last year with the Arizona League. The AZL was a grind there. It’s a grind here as well, but just having a crowd and being able to come out here and being able to just play relaxed, just makes time go by pretty fast. It just lets you enjoy the game.”

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