Major League eyes focus on Stryker Trahan

As one of America's great high school catchers, Stryker Trahan is playing the remainder of his final prep season with a bounty on his head.

In his case, however, it's his baseball talents that are wanted.

Trahan's above-average power from the left side of the plate, and his blazing foot speed, have the University of Mississippi hoping the Acadiana (Lafayette, La.) star will honor the National Letter of Intent that he signed with the Rebels.

But tugging from another direction may be one of Major League Baseball's 30 organizations trying to get a jump on molding MaxPreps' No. 13 overall player and its top catcher for 2012 into the backstop they want him to be. Either way, Trahan will soon have a tough decision to make. His number will come up shortly following June's Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.

"We have scouts at practice pretty much every day," Acadiana head baseball coach Scott McCullough said. "They really like his power, his speed and his incredible athletic ability."

Any and all of Trahan's distractions can be linked to his many abilities on the diamond. Still, the two-time first team Class 5A All-State catcher has been able to stay the course and remain focused.

"It's tough for kids," McCullough added. "He has to stay mentally focused in order to play well. I have a lot of respect for him because of what he's going through and the way he's handling it. He's quiet – not loud. He stays focused and he plays hard."

Although he has put in countless hours in the bullpen and in the batting cage working on receiving, framing, his swing and the rest of his game, Trahan is cautiously optimistic about his position in the draft.

"It feels too good to be true," Trahan said. "I try to ignore the talk. The draft is so unpredictable. I don't want to get my hopes up too high and then be disappointed. I try to push that kind of talk away as well as any thought of signing for millions of dollars.

"It is cool to think about it at times. I try to ignore it, but at the same time it does put a smile on my face."

At a very young age, Trahan's talent was front and center – beginning the talk of his future in professional baseball. Walking tall and carrying a big bat, Trahan has turned many heads along the way.

But it wasn't until he was approached by a complete stranger that he first realized just how talented he was at the plate, offensively and defensively.

"People have always said I'd play professionally," Trahan said. "But those were people that I knew. When I was 12 or 13, we were playing at an Elite 24 event in Orlando and this guy came up and asked me to sign a baseball. While I was signing it, he said, ‘We can't wait to see you play on TV.'

"I was on cloud nine. I had signed stuff before, but for a complete stranger to say that – that hadn't happened before. That was my biggest compliment for being so young."

As a freshman, Trahan wowed McCullough with his ability to come through in the clutch. With the Rams down 3-0 late in a game against Sulphur, Trahan stepped up and tied the game with one swing of the bat.

"He hit it some 300 feet as a 14-year-old with the game's outcome on he line," McCullough said. "I was in awe. But then he's always come through in the clutch."

McCullough said his catcher generally leads by example and his emotions remain on an even keel. The Rams' skipper boasted of Trahan's bat speed, and the power he is able to generate with it, as being a main reason the fourth-year Ram starter has become such a hot commodity.

"There are a lot of good defensive catchers out there," McCullough said. "But they can't swing it like Stryker does. He's got all of the tools. There are few high school guys like him. He has the opportunity to be a great player.

"He's a hard worker and he was the starting quarterback for our football team. He's a once in a lifetime guy. You're not going to find a better athlete at catcher. He has all of the tools."

After backing up Ryan Bergeron as a junior, Trahan guided Acadiana to an 8-3 record and a 75-21 first round win over Zachary in the Louisiana Class 5A State Football Playoffs as the starting signal caller in 2011. Archbishop Rummel ended Acadiana's postseason run with a 24-21 regional win, but Trahan said he learned a lot from his one season as a starting quarterback and he hopes that experience translates into even more success on the diamond.

After a 1-4 start this spring, Trahan and the Rams have surged out to an 18-13 mark following Saturday's 13-5 loss to Barbe (Lake Charles, La.).

"We started off a bit slow, but then we started winning," Trahan said. "There is always room for improvement in baseball. It took one of the parents to say something before we realized that we weren't having fun. Now the mood is completely different."

A season ago, Acadiana's pitching allowed the Rams to win on nights when the offense wasn't clicking. McCullough lost most of those arms to graduation, so Trahan's speed on the base pads as well as his ability to hit from the left side have become vital cornerstones to any success the Rams may have in 2012.

Through the first 26 games, Trahan was hitting .452 with seven home runs and 36 runs batted in. Trahan belted 12 homers in each of his previous two seasons and knocked in 90 runs collectively.

The Rams made the playoffs a season ago before falling to Zachary 8-4 in the 5A quarterfinals. For Trahan, the rain-delayed game was somewhat of a blur.

"We got up by a few runs and they slowly came back," Trahan recalled. "I guess if I took anything from that game, it was that it's important to stay on top of your game and to never underestimate anybody."

While winning a state championship is the ultimate goal of most high school baseball players, including Trahan, it's not a necessity for the 6-foot-1, 220-pound senior to consider the season a success. He said playing and having fun often eases the burden of the expectations to win.

"I wouldn't be where I am today if the game wasn't fun," Trahan said. "You have to have fun in order to be good at it. The speed of the game gets faster and faster as you advance further and further into your development. So it is important to relax and to have fun."

Life did get pretty hectic for Trahan during the recruiting process. After taking a few visits and receiving oodles of letters and phone calls, Trahan and his parents went right to work hand-picking the school that was best suited for him and his family.

Ultimately Trahan loved the idea of playing for Rebel head coach Mike Bianco, who has developed a reputation for developing catchers. That was a big deal to Trahan.

"But I also loved the campus and the people," he said. "They are so nice and welcoming. It felt like home even though I was in a different state."

Now that he has secured a school that will allow him four years to develop his game, Trahan will spend the next few weeks determining if he'd be better suited to enter professional baseball right out of high school.

He has already been invited to work out in front of some of the game's top scouts and executives in many of baseball's great stadiums.

"I'm not really sure which teams I've been invited to work out for," Trahan said. "I don't worry too much about that. My dad (Chad) keeps me informed on that. He's always telling me, ‘You've been invited to this workout, or you've been invited to that workout.' I'm just excited for the opportunity to have fun playing this game – and for getting to play it at such a high level."