Round 3 | Connor Barron | SS | Sumrall HS (Mis) | NOT SIGNING

[emkayseven]

SUMRALL – Two years ago, Connor Barron was just another player for Sumrall High.

He was a gangly sophomore infielder on arguably the greatest high school baseball team ever in the Pine Belt, the Bobcats’ undefeated 2009 squad.

Now?

Now, Barron is a hot commodity, a Division I signee with Southern Miss and a player good enough to be drafted in the third round of the recent Major League amateur player draft.

“I have to give a lot of credit to Jackson Posey, who was batting ahead of me (in his junior season),” Barron said. “He wasn’t getting very many pitches to hit, so I worked hard with Coach (Steve) Cooley, our hitting coach, so that if they weren’t going to pitch to him, we’d make it hurt when they pitched to me.”

Barron made it hurt, all right. As a junior, he batted .514, with 6 home runs and 60 RBIs. This year, he hit .490, with 8 homers and 37 RBIs and led Sumrall to its fourth consecutive Class 3A state championship.

For his performance this season, Barron has been named as the 2011 Hattiesburg American All-Area Player of the Year.

He is the third consecutive Bobcat senior to earn the honor.

“Connor spent a lot of time swinging the bat in the offseason,” said Sumrall head coach Larry Knight. “He’s always had a great swing, and he’s a very hard worker. He put in the hours in the offseason.”

Barron stepped into the starting lineup for the Bobcats at second base in 2009, and had a solid season, batting .349, with 5 home runs and 36 RBIs.

But his big season last year brought him to the attention of scouts – both pro and college – and there was little drop-off this year.

“We’ve been blessed with a great group of coaches,” Barron said. “They’re big on doing the small things right. They make us keep the fundamentals down, and that’s what makes sound ball players.

“I was very lucky to play for Coach Knight and this coaching staff.”

It was Knight and the Bobcat coaches who got Sumrall – and Barron – on track after a slow start to the 2011 season.

The Bobcats opened the season by losing to Forrest County AHS 5-2 at the Sumrall Classic. The next day, Sumrall trailed Petal 6-3 going into the bottom of the seventh inning before rallying to win 7-6.

“I’m still trying to figure out what happened (against FCAHS),” Barron said. “I guess it was just some first-game jitters, and nothing went our way that night.

“But it definitely woke us up and made us realize that we could be beaten. Coach Knight told us that night that if we don’t come ready to play (against Petal), we could easily start off 0-2.”

It took Barron a few games to really get into the groove, but a few adjustments got his swing back to where he needed it to be.

“At first, I was swinging at some bad pitches,” Barron said. “I opened up my (strike) zone a little too much, and I was trying too hard. I just had to stay focused and realize I have a zone, and I like it. I told myself that I couldn’t make the pitchers look good by swinging at stuff out of my zone.”

As one of a strong class of seniors, Barron said going out a winner was paramount.
“Being a senior, the previous three seasons we’d gone on to win the state championship,” Barron said. “We told ourselves that we were not going to be the ones to let down. We were going to play hard and win another one.”

Now that his high school career is over, Barron faces the biggest decision of his life, one that will decide the direction of his future.

He can either go pro and accept a signing offer from the Florida Marlins, who took him in the third round of last week’s draft, or he can turn down the Marlins and play at USM for the next three seasons.

“It’s going to be a tough decision,” Barron said. “But it’s a win-win. If I sign, it’s been my dream to play pro ball, or I can play at Southern Miss, and that’s also been a dream of mine.

“I’m just going to put it in God’s hands. That’s been a big part of my life. It’s like our coaches have always told us. You play for God first, and everything else second. And God has blessed my team with great talent and good coaching.”

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/a...ORTS/110611011

[LocoMarlinFan]

The 2011 Mississippi prep class was already shaping up nicely this spring, when it suddenly received a significant shot in the arm when previously-unknown Sumrall High shortstop Connor Barron flew up draft boards and quickly laid claim to becoming the state’s best potential draft in June.

Barron’s overnight emergence stemmed directly from his getting bigger and stronger over the course of the last year, and his obvious strength gains translated positively to every aspect of his game. Not only did Barron swing the bat this spring with much more authority, but his running speed and arm strength benefitted as well.

If scouts believe Barron can continue to play shortstop on an everyday basis at the professional level, he could edge his way into the back end of the first round by Draft Day. Barron gained notoriety a year ago as he was a key member of the Sumrall High team that ran off 67 wins in a row, until losing late in the season. The team fell eight wins short of the national record.

PROSPECT ON THE RISE: Connor Barron, ss, Sumrall HS. Mississippi’s once-in-a-generation high-school crop was already well established, but Barron added icing to the cake by bursting on the scene midway through the spring. His combination of advanced hitting skills, pure speed, superior arm strength and easy defensive actions could vault him right over everyone in the state and into the first round.

1. CONNOR BARRON, ss, Sumrall HS, Hattiesburg
Big growth spurt in last year, now 6-3/190; Reid Brignac comparisons; ++ LH bat (.484-7-34), 80 runner.

BEST TOOLS
Best Hitter:Connor Barron, ss, Sumrall HS, Hattiesburg.

http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/...x?article=5653

[LocoMarlinFan]

Like kid in candy shop, Barron must make choice

Connor Barron of Sumrall has speed, power and a big decision to make. / Ryan Moore/Hattiesburg American

SUMRALL — Other than being taller than most, Sumrall's Connor Barron looks like pretty much your average 18-year-old. He's shaving, although he doesn't necessarily need to every day. He still wears braces and a baseball buzz cut. He could pass for younger.

Barron is polite as can be: "Yes sir, no sir, thank you and you're welcome."

He smiles often.

To look at him and speak to him, you never guess all that is going through his mind these days. A third-round draft choice of the Florida Marlins, he must decide, in the next five weeks, whether to sign a professional baseball contract or play college baseball at Southern Miss. Usually, for a guy drafted so early, the choice is a fairly easy one. Not so with Barron.

"Some days I wake up and I know I want to play at USM; that's always been my goal," Barron says. "I grew up going to games there. But other days, I'm not so sure. It's the biggest decision of my life, a life-changing decision. It's on my mind pretty constantly. Right now, I just don't know."

As Connor Barron talks, his father, Billy Barron, nods his head.

So, the two Barrons are asked, for whom is this more stressful: father or son?

"Him," Connor Barron says, smiling and pointing at his dad. "It put him in the hospital."

Shortly after the Major League draft last month when 26 Major League teams were calling the Barron home almost constantly, Billy Barron was hospitalized and had a stent put in his heart.

"They've made a heart patient out of me," Billy Barron says. "It was really stressful there. I'd have one Major League team on the phone, another on hold, and the phone clicking with another one trying to call. Everyone of them wanted to know what it was going to take to sign him. Every team was asking the same questions different ways."

Five-tool talent
This is what happens when you are 6 feet, 3 inches tall, weigh 180 well-proportioned pounds, can run like a sprinter, and the baseball jumps off your bat like a Super Ball. For state championship teams, Barron hit .514 as a junior when Sumrall won the mythical national championship, and .496 as a senior. He hit for power, too. A middle infielder, he excels defensively as well.

Still, all the professional scouts' attention surprised Barron. It started, he said, in December between his junior and senior seasons when he had a particularly good day in a showcase camp, hitting several far-out-of-the-ballpark shots with a wooden bat. Shortly thereafter, his name showed up on a list of top 100 professional prospects in the USA. That's when the phone started ringing. By the spring, he'd take batting practice with 10 or 12 scouts playing close attention.

"It got crazy," Connor Barron says.

Scouts began visiting the Barrons' home on an almost daily basis.

"What's it going to take?" they all wanted to know.

Finally, the Barrons threw out a number - a "high number" - which they don't divulge.

The visits from the Marlins continue. Earlier this week, both the director of scouting and the area scout visited the Barrons.

"They basically are trying to get us to come off our number," Billy Barron says. "So far, we're still far, far apart."

Common sense tells you the Marlins must think they can sign Connor Barron. Otherwise, they wouldn't have used a third-round choice to gain the rights to bargain with him.

So much about what happens in the Major League draft is what the pro scouts refer to as "signability."

A win-win situation
For instance, George County's Mason Robbins, the Mr. Baseball in Mississippi, wasn't drafted until the 20th round by the New York Mets. But he had a call from the Philadelphia Phillies in the supplemental round (between the first and second) asking if he would sign for a certain number. Robbins said, basically, "No, not even close."

Robbins continued to receive calls in the second and third rounds with more offers. His answer was the same.

Robbins is also a USM signee. The only way he won't play for the Golden Eagles is if the Mets fail to sign nearly all their early picks and offer Robbins the bank vault. It's possible, but not likely.

Connor Barron, who has become good friends with Robbins, says part of the draw of USM comes from the familiarity with the program and with so many players he has played with in the past.

Former Sumrall teammate Jackson Posey will be a sophomore at USM; Luke Lowery, Barron's teammate for the past four years, will be a freshman at USM this season. The three of them traveled to watch USM play in the 2009 College World Series.

"There's a big part of me that wants to be part of another College World Series team," Barron said. "With this signing class, we would have the potential."

Billy Barron, sounding much like Archie Manning years ago, says the decision is totally Connor's to make. "It's his life, not mine; I just want him to be happy," the father says.

"The question is whether or not the Marlins are willing to offer enough money to make it worth it for him to miss out on the college baseball experience, which is what Connor has always looked forward to," Billy Barron says, as his son nods his head affirmatively.

Connor Barron, a 3.8 student at Sumrall, will get his degree either way, he says, whether the Marlins or USM pay for it.

He has until Aug. 15 to make up his mind, or for the Marlins to make up his mind for him. Think about it: 18 years old.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article...|text|Sports|p

[LocoMarlinFan]

johnmanuelba John Manuel
Connor Barron will go to #SouthernMiss; Marlins will not sign their 3rd-round pick, who should be impact freshman for Golden Eagles.

Unless Marlins sign couple of late rd picks this is looking like another poor draft.

[MiamiHomer]

Crap, I was hoping this one got done.

[DropkickAlex]

This is the one I really wanted...This fucking sucks.

[Bucklin12]

C'mon.

[Omar]

Booooo

[dim]

Wow. Since when have the Marlins drafted players early who they weren't sure they could sign?

[tjfla]

This is the one I really wanted...This fucking sucks.

On the brightside,we get a 3rd Rd pick next year.

So 1 of 3 things will happen-

1 Loria realizes we have 2 #3 picks and tells Mike Hill to draft 2 5th Year Seniors,so he can sign 2 guys cheap

2 We find a 1st Rd talent that fell and draft him(O wait we do that this year)

3 Loria tells MLB that it is cool,they can keep the pick however as soon as the stadium makes a profit he wants it back

[Mainge]

Enough already.

[MiamiHomer]

On the brightside,we get a 3rd Rd pick next year.

I'd prefer your post went like that instead.