Local baseball player heads to Astros spring training — with locally made bats

By Mick Garry, for Pigeon605

The pandemic could have come at a better time for Jake Adams and his career in professional baseball.

This former Brandon Valley High School multisport athlete, who went from the Lynx to Des Moines Area Community College to stardom as a Big 10 slugger for the Iowa Hawkeyes, was a sixth-round draft choice for the Houston Astros in 2017.

He is looking forward to wearing a uniform again after spending last summer — like all other minor league pro players with major league affiliations — trying to continue to develop skills without playing in actual games.

“You have to look at the positives and go from there,” said Adams, who worked out a lot and helped as a coach last summer in Brandon. “I tried to make the best out of it. I had to look at it as an extended offseason. I worked hard trying to get stronger while working on my speed and mobility.”

This 6-2, 250-pound first baseman and third baseman — he added playing third to his skill set during the 2019 season — is also looking forward to hitting some home runs. It is an unquestioned specialty to this point in his pro career.

He’s going to hit them with a bat made in Sioux Falls by his friend Ben Reznicek, who has his own baseball bat company. But more on that later.

In 2019, Adams hit a total of 22 home runs with 87 RBIs in 118 games playing at the high-A and Double-A levels in the Houston organization.

Hearteningly, when he moved from high-A to what was supposed to be a significant jump to Class AA, his productivity followed him along. He added seven home runs in 98 Double-A at-bats and was looking to continue that progression in 2020 while also proving to the organization he could play third base as well as first.

Then, he had to take a year off. So did his teammates. There was almost nothing good about it on the surface. As a 24-year-old, he was in the middle of what is normally a pivotal stage in a baseball career. It’s that juncture where minor league players typically convince the big league club they’re worth keeping in the organization.

Nobody knows that better than a 25-year-old who had to sit out the previous season.

It would be easy to get bogged down by the details under those circumstances. It would be easy to add a time clock and a made-up deadline to what is already an incredible challenge.

Adams, however, wisely has decided to avoid complicating what he’s up against. Baseball itself doesn’t use a clock. It makes sense, then, that he doesn’t use one either in gauging how much time he has to make positive impressions to the Houston Astros.

“I’m 25 years old — that’s young in the real world, but in the baseball world, it’s getting up there a little bit,” he said. “But I’m making a positive out of that. I’m just going to keep busting my butt and getting in great shape and keep showing up at spring training ready to play. I’ve talked to a couple of my buddies about this — we’re all in the same situation. We’re Double-A players, and we’re one call away from the majors. We just have to keep grinding, keep staying healthy and be ready if the call ever comes.”

How could anyone doubt him when he’s going to the plate with a bat built by Reznicek, an O’Gorman High School graduate who played Division I baseball at Creighton University?

“I’ve known Jake since high school,” Reznicek said. “He was definitely not the guy who you wanted to see coming to the plate back then.”

It was back then that Reznicek and his father began making their own wood bats. The products they were buying from established bat companies at the time were expensive and broke too often, they thought. So they started making their own. Eventually, father and son got pretty good at it. Rezbats now has a patent pending on a process for making bats that increases their durability. Plus, these maple bats hit the ball a long ways. At least when Adams has one in his hands.

“I’ve been swinging them for the last two months now,” Adams said. “I love the way that they feel. It’s great having input. With Ben, I can go right into the shop and change them if I want to. He’s already making a name for himself with his bats. I think it’s really going to take off.”

It goes without saying that if Adams has a big year, it will prove that Reznicek’s bats are also ready for the big leagues.

He sent this set to the New York Yankees for their spring training.

Now that they’re cleared the MLB certification process, it’s just a matter of getting the word out.

The same goes for Adams, who began spring training with the Astros’ minor leaguers April 5.

He has stayed as sharp as possible with help from Kris Regas, a left-hander who lives in the area and pitched pro baseball for 15 years, and Luke Chevalier, a former Northern State pitcher who now plays in the Colorado Rockies organization.

Those first few live fastballs will still look pretty quick up close, but spring is the time of year for this kind of thing in baseball. Hopes and dreams. And hitting 96-mile-an-hour heaters with your new bats.

“I really have enjoyed being in the Astros organization — the coaches have done a lot to transform me into the player I am now,” Adams said. “I wouldn’t trade my time here for anything. Hopefully this year I can show them what I got and prove I can play for them in the big leagues.”