I got the chance to speak to outfielder Nick Santomauro, the Mets' 10th round draft pick in 2009, recently. He is a focused, well-mannered guy. And someone that has the chance to develop into a real solid prospect. He's got a strong lower half that helps him generate good power.
Right now, Santomauro is on campus at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., and is two semesters away from attaining his Ivy League degree.
Below, I've posted some of his comments from our conversation.
On his transition from the Ivy League to the New York-Penn League:
"It was definitely tough at first. Coming from the Ivy League, the pitching is nowhere as good as it was in the New York-Penn League. But it was a transition.
I started off kind of rough, but if you take away my first, I think it was, 43 at bats, I think my last 100 at bats, [my batting average] was like .280, so I think I did pretty well in the end. I can’t complain."
On his daily routine:
"I’m at Dartmouth going to classes right now, trying to finish off of my degree. I have two terms left, and I’m working on the first of those two right now. Every day I wake up and go to class. I usually hang out for about an hour after class every day. Then I start my workouts. I do my hitting for about an hour every day. And then I go into the Mets workout program. I do my conditioning, and I do my lifting. I usually get done around 6ish. Then I eat dinner, and finish up the night with some homework, that’s pretty much every day."
On his approach at the plate:
"I knew I would have to make an adjustment to the faster pitching and the better stuff in general. I figured I would go up there every [plate] appearance with a goal in mind, trying to get a hit like I always do, not really a change in that aspect but I definitely wanted to be more patient and wait for a better pitch to hit because I had heard that with professional pitching you really don’t see too many mistakes, and professional hitting is really just about hitting said mistakes."
On getting to meet and be around David Wright for batting practice before two games this season, while Wright recovered from a concussion:
"When David came down, that was awesome. The buzz during BP was just awesome. He brought a new atmosphere to the ballpark, and that was great. I tried, in the clubhouse, to absorb as much information from him as possible, talking about which stadiums he liked to hit in the most, and which ones were “homer-domes” and which ones were graveyards. It was just cool learning little facts like that. We didn’t talk about hitting too much, but just getting little insights was cool."
On whether he was disappointed about how the Cyclones’ season finished after their hot start:
"You know, it really was [disappointing]. The season showed so much promise starting off the way we did, and we just basically played .500 after the start of the season, and it wasn’t enough to win us any of the playoff games, but it was enough to get us in [to the playoffs] so you’ve got to consider the season a success. Really what it comes down to is, we got off to an unbelievable start and for some reason we cooled down."
On the Cyclone pitcher that impressed him the most:
"It would probably be Brandon Moore. He would really mix up his pitches really well and spot his fastball, and he was probably the best talent wise to me. Jim Fuller, Mark Cohoon, and [Collin] McHugh are all up there, too, there are great pitchers, as well, but if I had to choose the most talented, I would choose Brandon."
On the Cyclone position player that impressed him the most:
"[Richard] Lucas had a ton of talent. You could see his projectability, you could see the strong arm he has, and the strong fielder he is, and he’s got a hell of a bat, too."
To check out the article I wrote on Nick, click here.
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