“People are looking at him as a first baseman, as a hitter,” Walsh says. “His switch-hitting ability and power from both sides is something everybody’s interested in. And he swings the wood bat real well. There’s some interest there, and he’s got to keep proving it on the field, but his name’s well known.

In Baseball America’s annual summer prospect rankings—in which Hendricks was named the No. 7 prospect in the NECBL—college baseball guru John Manuel described Hendricks as “a big (6-foot-3, 215) power plant from both sides of the plate.” Playing with prospects from top baseball programs like Clemson and Arizona State, Hendricks was as productive as he was in the Ivy League, and the scouts noticed.

“A half a dozen or so teams have contacted me,” Hendricks says. “I’m not really sure what they are thinking right now. I think they know about my summer at Keene. Some of them have told me that they saw me there.”

Hendricks is entering the most important year in amateur baseball. Once a player enters college, he cannot be drafted until the conclusion of his junior season. And it is only that summer—when an athlete can threaten to return to college—that players have any leverage in post-draft contract negotations. Since minor leaguers receive a set salary—sometimes as low as $700 a month—the initial negotiation for a signing bonus is critical.

So with Hendricks currently projected to go between the 10th and 20th rounds, it is hard not to ask “What if?”

What if Hendricks could practice outside everyday without ever worrying about snow? What if he were playing against the best competition in the country? What if Hendricks were playing for Rice?

Hendricks insists he never thinks about it. Not when he goes home over Christmas break and takes batting practice with high school buddies now playing for the Owls. Not even last year, when his season began and ended on the infield of Rice’s Reckling Park, did he ever pause and wonder what it would be like 100 feet away in the other dugout.

The truth is, it may have helped his draft status.

In each of the past three years, a handful of “northern” (meaning everything above the Carolinas) college pitchers were selected in the draft’s first round. Over that same stretch, exactly one northern college position player—former Ohio State first baseman Nick Swisher (No. 16 overall in 2002)—was a first rounder.

Players are drafted based on tools, and it’s harder for hitters to demonstrate tools when playing shorter seasons and against weaker competition than it is for pitchers. That is why summer ball, when players from all around the country come together, is so important.

“Decisions are being made about kids not on how they pitch against Yale in April, not how they hit against Boston College or whoever, it’s what you do in the summers now,” Walsh says.

Following his freshman season, Hendricks played in the Alaska Baseball League. This summer he is slated to play for the Brewster Whitecaps in the Cape Cod League. Toss in his stint with the NECBL, and Hendricks will have played in the three most prestigious summer leagues in America by graduation—if he’s not playing minor league ball this summer instead.

“There’s always a chance of being drafted after your junior year,” Walsh says. “But I go back to that [article in] Collegiate Baseball. He’s got his plans pretty mapped out. He really wants to get a degree here and he’s on track for that. I’d be really surprised if that was to happen.” Hendricks doesn’t know what will happen, because he’s not thinking about it yet.

“I just want to win another Ivy League championship,” he says. “We’ll just deal with that when and if the time comes.”

Diamonds in the Rough