Kenny Mendoza about to take the mound in spring training, Arizona
Kenny Mendoza, former Clearview Regional High School pitcher, was drafted in the 24th round of the 2016 Major League Baseball draft by the Texas Rangers.
Mendoza spent part of the 2016 and the entirety of the 2017 season with the Arizona League Rangers, a rookie-level minor league baseball team in the Texas Rangers system.
In his career so far, Mendoza has pitched 30.1 innings with an earned run average of 3.86 — he’s also tallied 32 strikeouts.
In 2016, he was confident and nervous — now, with minor league spring training in Arizona around the corner, he’s just confident.
“I’m feeling great about this year. I’m feeling confident, healthy and ready for whatever this season holds,” Mendoza said.
Of course, his ultimate goal is to crack the Major League roster, but Mendoza is taking a methodical approach to enhancing his professional career. His short-term ambition is to climb the ladder and throw for the Spokane Indians, the short-season A squad, another Rangers’ affiliate team.
With a look back to Mendoza’s high school career, it is evident he is no stranger to successfully working his way up the ranks.
“Kenny was a four-year Clearview baseball player. He was a kid who blossomed late in his career. He was a player who went through the system of playing freshman baseball then played junior varsity his sophomore year. During his junior year, he broke into the varsity roster where he went through a lot of ups and downs but battled through to show signs of becoming something special,” said Rolando Gautier, Clearview’s current head coach who was an assistant to Rocco Cornachio during Mendoza’s high school days.
According to Gautier, Mendoza did all the little things anyone would expect from a young, serious baseball player: throw before, during and after practice, and put in extra hours at the gym.
But what Gautier suggests helped put Mendoza ahead of the rest of promising young athletes is his mental game.
“Kenny will carry himself well whether he has a bad appearance or good one. His senior year, that was the biggest improvement he made, the fact that he did not let anything rattle him.”
Also, being able to throw the ball in the mid-90s consistently helps.
However, a fast pitch is not the only trick Mendoza developed in his late high school days.
“His focus was not only to throw in the low- to mid-90s but to have secondary pitches that he could go to. He always seemed to want that so he would be able to impress pro scouts. Every start he wanted to show improvement in his secondary pitches to complement his overpowering fastball,” he said.
Whatever jersey Mendoza walks to the mound in this year, Gautier says Mendoza’s success has impacted the Clearview community in a big way.
“Young players that I get to talk to and work with always mention him.The year he was drafted, the community showed so much excitement in the game of baseball. … Funny thing is that even parents in the community are excited, I recently spoke to a parent who told me that he coached Kenny when he was in the Little League program at Harrison Township,” he said.
Gautier also urges his current players to watch Mendoza as a way of studying, to see how an elite pitcher performs during the season and in the off-season.
And all the while, Mendoza remains humble.
“My coaches always believed in me and had confidence in me my senior year, and it transferred to the mound,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza is in Arizona awaiting March 18, the start of spring training.
