Path well worn

Hundreds of wide-eyed rookies find their way into minor league baseball every year, brimming with exuberance and filled with dreams of making that leap into the Big Leagues.

A lucky few get their tickets to the Bigs quickly. But for most minor leaguers, reality more closely resembles, well, “a roller coaster.”

So says Ian Gac, the Spokane Indians’ first baseman who was drafted out of high school by the Texas Rangers in the 26th round of the 2003 amateur entry draft.

Gac spent his first two seasons in the rookie leagues in Arizona, then bypassed the short-season single-A rung of the ladder, to play low-A ball with the Clinton Lumberkings. He even made it to high-A, playing half of last season with the Bakersfield Blaze.

But then Gac fell into a slump. He had a rough 2006 season, and this year, he was moved down to short-season single-A ball with the Indians.

“Yeah I was definitely hoping to be at double-A by this point in my career,” said Gac, who has 11 RBIs and 26 hits in 30 games this season. “It’s my fourth year, fifth season, and I’m back at short-season ball. If you think about it, it’s a little humbling, but at the same time, I don’t really mind it because I get to play every day and have a real opportunity to show what I can do.”

That’s the kind of mentality Indians manager Tim Hulett encourages his players to cultivate as they deal with the start-stop nature of the minor league farm system.

“It depends on how you choose to look at it,” Hulett said. “Yeah you’re going down a level, but it’s not like you’re getting paid thousands of dollars less. You’re not making any money anyhow. It’s an opportunity to advance your skills by getting the at-bats you need to get better.”

Those at-bats help build consistency, which is the key ingredient to making it to the top level.

Billy Killian, one of three catchers on the Indians’ roster, was the San Diego Padres’ third round pick in 2004. Killian played two seasons in the rookie leagues, then played triple-A ball with the Portland Beavers for a few weeks because the team was short of catchers. He helped the Beavers through the playoffs, but thereafter went back and forth between the short season single-A Eugene Emeralds and the rookie leagues until he was traded to the Rangers in January, 2006, in a six-player deal.

Apart from a brief stint with the Clinton Lumberkings, Killian has spent most of the last two seasons in Spokane.

His veteran experience has kept him grounded and accounts for the laid-back nature with which he’s learned to approach the game.

“You never really know what’s gonna happen,” Killian said. “The longer you’re in it, the more you have to kinda just roll with whatever happens and realize that the only thing you can control is your effort and how hard you work out there every day.

“Because at the end of the day, everything falls where it’s gonna fall. And it’s just one of those things you have to kinda let go.”

But that’s not a mindset that Killian took into the minors as a rookie fresh out of high school. His years of hopping up and down within the minor league farm system have, in his words, made him more “temperate.”

“In high school ball, it’s kind of a sprint: The season’s a sprint, everything you do is a sprint,” said Killian, whose .250 batting average is a distinct improvement from the .189 he was hitting in Eugene two seasons ago. “In pro ball, it’s more of a distance race. You can’t go real real fast one day and real real slow another.

“Your best bet is to go even every day. And that’s the tough thing about pro ball: being consistent everyday.”

That’s exactly how Travis Metcalf made his way from short-season ball with the Indians all the way into the Texas Rangers’ clubhouse in just three seasons.

In Spokane in 2004, Metcalf put together impressive numbers, finishing the season first in the league in extra base hits, second in RBIs and home runs, and batted .500.

He found similar success the following year in Bakersfield. The former Kansas Jayhawk led the Blaze in home runs and RBIs and recorded 36 multi-hit games.

Metcalf had some growing pains with the double-A Frisco Roughriders the following season, but he eventually found his rhythm. He started out well there this year, and finally got his call-up to the majors in May.

“It’s something I wanted but I didn’t necessarily expect it to happen this quickly because of all the guys in front of me,” Metcalf, who made his major league debut May 19 against the Houston Astros, said. “There’s just all these steps you have to take. And you’ve gotta play good for a long time and just hope that they’ll recognize you have some talent and call you up.”

Metcalf and teammates Wes Littleton and Ian Kinsler are the only former Indians who’ve made it to the Rangers’ roster since Texas restructured its player development agreement with the Indians in 2003.

Kinsler’s route to the majors was a mixture of both consistency and luck.

“Coming out of the draft, I definitely thought I could play in the big leagues and that I had the drive to get there fast,” said Kinsler, the Rangers’ 17th round draft pick in 2003, “but so many things have to happen and fall into place to get to the Bigs.”

In Kinsler’s case, he was playing with Clinton in 2004 when the shortstop at Double-A Frisco got injured and the Roughriders came looking for a replacement. Kinsler was the beneficiary of that search.

“That was my big boost,” Kinsler said. “I skipped a level and ended up having a great season at Double-A, which set me up for Triple-A.”

Kinsler attracted the Rangers’ eye, and they invited him to big league camp the following year. He has since become the Rangers’ starting second baseman.

Hulett says he constantly reminds his team that a myriad of different factors go into determining how quickly a player advances through the system, and that they should just try to play their own game and not worry too much about out-doing their teammates or impressing the scouts.

“Don’t worry about the guy on the left or the right,” Hulett said. “Do your job so that when the opportunity does come for you, they’ll say ‘oh this guy’s getting the job done, we’ll take him.’ ”

Managers at all minor league levels send detailed player reports up to their superiors every night. These reports include information that goes beyond the basic batting/fielding stats that the fans get to see.

“It’s not just a stats thing. We keep track of hard-hit balls and quality at-bats, which doesn’t show up on a regular stat sheet,” Hulett said. “A guy might only be hitting .250, and he might be putting in great at-bats. Those things are taken into consideration as well as maturity, age, and the pressure of the next level. Because every time you move up, the pressure’s different.”

For guys like Killian who spend years in the minors biding their time until they get that big break, understanding the way the system works is the key to surviving its tumultuous nature.

“You come to realize that there’s just so much more going on than just you. And that helps,” Killian said. “You’ve got to be patient with yourself, and be patient with your progress. Everybody says it’s about the process, not the result. Which I had trouble with when I was younger. But it’s the truth.

“Every day I try to get better at something, and if I get better at something that day, then I’ve had a good day. This is what I’ve wanted to do my whole life. As long as someone’s giving me a uniform, I’ll be out there catching.”