Baseball: Ex-MP standout Sferra inks pro baseball contract

Professional baseball scouts are usually looking for prospects they feel can throw, catch and hit in the big leagues.
Washington Nationals scout Mitch Sokol was looking for something else while he kept his eye on Mountain Pointe graduate J.J. Sferra.

Standing just shy of 5-feet-11, Sferra isn't the biggest player among 1,509 selected in this year's Major League First-Year Player Draft, but Sokol likes the way the outfielder plays the game.

"I'll take nine street fighters to nine knife fighters," Sokol said after he signed Sferra, 23, to a professional baseball contract Sunday afternoon.

"I had a gut feeling about J.J.," Sokol added. "He plays the game hard and I like competitors. I don't send out soft guys."

After playing four years at Mountain Pointe, another two at Arizona State University where he was on the 2005 World Series team as a freshman and another two seasons at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Sferra was the first pick of the National in the 31st round of the draft.

Less than 24 hours after he signed his professional baseball contract on his family's dining room table, Sferra was on his way to Vermont where he will start his professional career with the Rookie League Lake Monsters in Burlington.

Sokol didn't need a thick scouting book on Sferra. He had seen him play at Mountain Pointe, ASU and UNLV.

He probably also saw him in a local restaurant too because Sokol lives in the Ahwatukee Foothills, about five miles from the Sferra home. Sokol's oldest son, Cody, plays baseball at Desert Vista where he will be a senior this fall and is expected to be the starting quarterback for the Thunder football.

"It was the shortest trip I've ever made to sign a player," Sokol added with a grin. 

Sokol was familiar with the family. He and Sferra's father, Jay, had a professional relationship during the years the elder Sferra was a baseball coach at ASU. 

"There have been some kids who were drafted as a favor," Sokol said, "But there were no favors here. We just happen to live in the same community." 

A professional baseball scout for the past 18 years Sokol wouldn't risk that. 

"My reputation is on the line by the guys I send out," Sokol said. "When I pick a player I have to feel like he has a chance to make it to the big leagues. I picked J.J. because I thought he would make our organization better." 

Sferra earned a spot on the All-Mountain West baseball Conference first team after batting .364 including nine doubles and six triples. He also had a 28-game hitting streak, third longest in UNLV history. 

But Sokol hadn't seen Sferra play in the last few games of the season at UNLV and called him early in the morning on the second day of the draft to make sure he was still healthy. 

"I didn't want to lose him and told him I'd be calling him back a little later in the morning," Sokol recalled. 

Sferra's call phone rang an hour later. 

"I guess I felt some pressure after the first day of the draft," Sferra admitted. "I had the phone right beside me and after (Sokol) called I logged on to the draft and found I was drafted at 8:28 that morning." 

His mother, Gerrie was eating breakfast when he made the announcement. 

"He calming walked into the room and calmly said, ‘I just got drafted.' I was so excited I started crying," Gerrie said. 

Sferra will be playing in the same New York-Penn league his father played in for a season in 1978 when he was about his son's age. 

"The league is geared toward college players, so he'll know a lot of players," Sokol said. "It's a rookie league but I consider it more of a low ‘A' league where he'll have a chance to get his feet on the ground and start running from there." 

The league has a short season that runs though early September. 

"I'm so excited for J.J. because he's worked his tail off from Little League through college ball," his father said. 

"He earned his college degree in May and was drafted in June," Jay added. "That's pretty neat."