Wednesday, June 6, 2007 1:11 AM CDT
After injury-filled year, Huber still hopeful in draft
BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
CHARLESTON — If Jim Schmitz’s what-ifs had simmered yet, they are probably rekindled this week.
Eastern Illinois’ baseball coach could not help wondering how much better his 23-28 season with an Ohio Valley Conference tournament berth might have been with two-time league batting champion Erik Huber healthy all spring.
Now he is pondering how much higher his senior first baseman might have gone in Thursday’s amateur draft had he not missed 11 starts and been limping through others with a hamstring injury.
That injury probably is not going to end the 6-foot-6 first baseman’s baseball career no matter what happens Thursday when pro baseball franchises pick college and high school players.
“I’ve gone through the workouts and run for them,” Huber said. “I think it’s back 100 percent.
“I’m pretty sure I’m going to be in the minors. Even if for some reason no one takes me in the draft, me and my agent are pretty sure we’d sign a free agent contract. We’re pretty positive that it could work out either way. We’d have free agency and could sign pretty quickly.“
That doesn’t keep Schmitz from “what-iffing” about Huber, who had seven home runs in Eastern’s first 20 games before being sidelined for a while by the hamstring and getting just two more homers in the Panthers’ last 31 games.
“The two home runs he hit against The Citadel and College of Charleston are probably still going,” Schmitz said. “Then he hit two home runs his (OVC) first weekend against (Tennessee) Tech. Scouts called and then he was hurt. The only weekend we were home and he was able to really play was Eastern Kentucky. I still think he wasn’t at full strength until Morehead (State in EIU’s season-ending series). That’s me making excuses. But I just feel bad for him.“
Huber still had a season most would envy.
He led the OVC with a .409 batting average, .473 on-base percentage and .679 slugging percentage on his way to all-league honors.
He was also the OVC batting champion as a junior when hitting .404 making him the second EIU player, following American League All-Star Kevin Seitzer, to bat over .400 in back-to-back seasons. Seitzer actually did it three straight years.
The difference from one batting title season to the next for Huber was he only had two home runs in 55 games as a junior, one as a sophomore and none as a freshman but then adjusted his stroke to become more of a power hitter this year.
“If he’d have gotten up to 18 or 19 home runs, his stock would even be higher,” Schmitz said. “It’s just very unfortunate that he was hurt.“
Still, maybe some have taken notice that Huber’s nine homers ranked third in the OVC and he tied for first with .20 homers per game.
“I think it’s helped a ton,” Huber said of his senior year power surge. “A lot of scouts have talked about my strength as one of the main things when they go in and try to sell me to their bosses.“
Schmitz said the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals have expressed the most interest in Huber, who last week attended a workout at St. Louis and has had Pirates and Detroit Tigers scouts come to Eastern for a workout.
On Tuesday Huber went to Chicago to work out for the Houston Astros.
“I felt pretty good coming out of the workouts,” he said. “They don’t say too much but what I got out of them was pretty good.
“Really, I’m just going to sit around hoping someone is going to take me, not worrying too much about who it is going to be or what round. Being a senior, you can’t hope for anything higher. Just, hopefully, someone gives me a chance.“
As Schmitz said, “It doesn’t matter a year from now if you go eighth round or 18th round if you put up the numbers.“
So Thursday or soon after, Huber is likely to learn for which franchise he gets to try and put up good minor-league numbers.
An Academic All-American with only an internship to complete for his degree, Huber can likely land a job out of baseball but wants to try baseball first.
The Belleville Althoff High School graduate grew up a Cardinals fan and has tickets to watch tonight’s game in St. Louis but come draft day he would welcome a call from any major league club.
“Wherever I go I’m going to have that phone attached to my hip,” Huber said. “But I’m going to try not and worry too much about it.“
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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