Baseball never changes for Motter

PRINCETON — The minor leagues exist to develop young baseball players into the best in the game.

The basics haven’t changed, and they never really change from youth league to the majors. No one knows that better than Princeton Rays’ shortstop Taylor Motter.

“I have played it my whole life so I feel like nothing has changed, just the speed of the game, but you have just got to slow it down,” Motter said. “After you play it 18 or 19 years, you know exactly where to be at the right time and you know exactly what to do.

“It is not mechanical, but you can almost say it is mechanical because you are doing the same thing every time...Playing it for a long time, you know exactly where you need to be and when you have got to be there.”

Motter, a 17th round draft choice by Tampa Bay in last month’s draft, played for three seasons at Coastal Carolina, but felt ready “to take the next step in my life” after his junior campaign with the Chanticleers.

“I had put my three years in in college and I got as much as I thought I possibly could have out of it and now it is time to get as much as I can possibly get out of this,” Motter said. “With college you show up almost every day of the year for a year straight and you are doing the same stuff, and I think it was time for me to move on. I really couldn’t imagine going to practice every day like I did for another full year.”

While Motter still shows up every day, practice and playing at the professional level has a different feel to it.

“Here it is just a different attitude. In college, it is like, ‘Oh man, we have to be here, we have to go out and do this’, but here you show up and everybody has a good time’,” said Motter, who had a 3.2 GPA in three years at Coastal Carolina. “I hate to say it, you are getting paid to play.

“In college you are spending so much money to do college. (Here) you just show up on the field and you know there are going to be fans in the stands and you know you are going to go one pitch at a time and have fun with everybody out here.”

He’s had plenty of fun so far. Prior to Wednesday’s game with Burlington, Motter was second on the team, batting .333 (21-63), with three doubles, a home run, four runs batted and 11 stolen bases in 13 attempts. He had also walked 13 times, scored 17 runs and committed just five errors at shortstop.

With a roster that lists four shortstops — including first round pick Jake Hager — Motter has to perform to stay on the field. He’s done just fine.

“I have been getting a lot of time, but I am playing good and hopefully I can just keep playing good,” said Motter, who turns 22 on Sept. 18. “We’ve got a couple of other guys who are behind me who are good too and I wouldn’t be afraid to put them out there any day of the week.

“I know they are going to get the job done, much as I would.”

A native of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Motter was turned down by a pair of Florida schools and also took a visit to Tennessee, but the Chanticleers came in late and convinced him to play collegiately in sunny Myrtle Beach.

The 6-foot-1, 190 pound Motter was part of an ultra-successful program that made three straight NCAA regional appearances as Big South champions, including two years ago when the Chanticleers lost to eventual national champion South Carolina in the super regionals.

Motter was a big reason for that success. He led the Chanticleers to a 42-20 record this season, batting .288 with 30 RBIs and 21 stolen bases. In the past, he had also been on the Brooks Wallace Watch List as the nation’s best at his position, and earned freshman All-American honors.

Yet, any chances of playing his senior season ended when his dream came true.

“It’s always a dream, being a little kid growing up and playing in the park, you always want to be drafted,” Motter said. “You want to have a good time playing ball and I am glad it came true for me.”

Life has been a whirlwind for Motter since that early June day. He quickly packed his belongings and put them in storage, kissed his girlfriend good-bye as she left for New York, and he arrived for a few days of extended spring training in Port Charlotte, Fla.

“It just happened in a flash, after the draft you feel like you have got four or five days to sit back and relax and you really don’t,” Motter said. “You’ve got to pack, you have got to get ready to leave, you have got to try and work out, hit, throw if you can, do all that kind of stuff, but it happens real quick.”

What he has found in Princeton has been surprising to him.

“It is a lot better than I expected, to be honest with you,” Motter said. “You hear a couple of guys say there is not very much in town, but you get a pretty good crowd every night. These ball parks are nice to play in and I’m having a good time playing ball.”

It shows. Motter likes the ‘pop’ that is provided by the wood bats in professional baseball, and he has his own philosophy on dealing with the rise in competition at the professional level.

“Just slow the game down, when kids step up to every next level they feel like the game is going to be speed, speed, speed, but it’s not,” Motter said. “The game is going to get faster, but you are also getting faster with the game.

“You are throwing harder, you are hitting harder and you are fielding better, nothing else is changing. It’s just that guys are getting older and guys are getting bigger and that is it.”

He has liked what he has seen so far in the Appalachian League. No wonder, he’s playing baseball every day of the week.

“I think it is fun, we are having a blast, playing every day, there is nothing better than that,” Motter said. “In college you have to play three (days), sit two or three days, play a game, sit two or three more days and play three.

“You can show up every day here, you can forget about what happened yesterday, show up and get to play it all over again.”

Motter knows the climb ahead will be steep in a talent-laden Tampa Bay system, but he’s ready to put in the time to progress one step at a time.

“I have heard you move level by level here in the Rays organization, but I haven’t really thought it,” Motter said. “I am not really in a struggle for money, my family is not really struggling for money.

“I’ve got money to go back to school if I need it and I can always go back and get my career if this doesn’t work out. I think I am going to ride this out as long as possible, the day I stop waking up with a smile on my face is the day I will quit.”

That will, no doubt, not happen anytime soon. He loves to play the game.

“There is nothing better,” said Motter, hours before a recent game that he didn’t play in. “Standing here right now, I don’t get to play, I have got an off day. I hate taking off days. You need them, but I hate them.

“I have got to sit on the bench tonight,” he added, with a laugh. “That ruined my night.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

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