Jack Moss takes major-league potential to Arizona State
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. (BVM) — Cherry Creek High School head baseball coach Marc Johnson knows what a major league-caliber hitter looks like. He saw a lot of them in his 38 years as a part-time scout for six different Major League Baseball teams and he’s also coached players who have gone on to reach the majors.
He won’t be surprised if Jack Moss is the next in that line.
“This kid can just flat hit,” Johnson said. “I’ve seen a lot of professional baseball players and he’s a projection, but a really good one.”
The 6-foot-5, 200-pound first baseman was ranked as the No. 1 high school prospect in Colorado by MLB.com prior to the June MLB draft. He didn’t play his senior season with the Bruins after the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out spring sports across the country, but his status as the state’s top player was solidified again in May when Gatorade named him the Colorado Baseball Player of the Year for the second straight year. Moss earned the honor as a junior in 2019 after he batted .490 and slugged .710 for Cherry Creek.
But what Moss has proven against elite competition outside of high school is even more impressive. The Arizona State commit competed with the top prospects from around the country at the 2019 Area Code Games last August and was named to the all-tournament team by Baseball America after hitting .500 with four doubles and four RBIs while slugging .875 over four games with only two strikeouts in 16 at-bats.
“I was getting calls saying, ‘Gee whiz, this kid’s out of Denver, Colorado, not California, not Texas, not Florida; he’s out of a mountain community and this guy just dominated the top high school pitching in the country,’” Johnson said of Moss’ eye-opening performance at the Area Code Games, which caught the attention of scouts from around the majors.
Ranked No. 207 among all prospects — high school or college — by Baseball America prior to the draft, Moss likely would’ve been picked during a normal year. But this year’s draft was cut down to five rounds due to the pandemic. He’ll have to wait until his junior year of college for his next chance to be drafted, but he’s looking forward to his time in Tempe.
“I cannot wait to be an Arizona State Sun Devil,” Moss said. “That has been my dream school since I was 6 or 7 years old, ever since I started playing baseball. Because Colorado or Colorado State don’t have (baseball) programs, the closest thing I had was Arizona State and I would always go down to watch them in Tempe.”
While Moss is excited to join ASU, he remains focused on building toward a career in the majors, and his high school coach is confident he’ll be able to make it there. In his 48 years at Cherry Creek, Johnson has seen several former Bruins become pros, like outfielder Darnell McDonald, who was drafted 26th overall by the Baltimore Orioles in 1997 and All-Star reliever Brad Lidge, who was taken 17th overall by the Houston Astros in 1998.
Johnson believes Moss’ hitting ability will eventually earn him a shot with an MLB team, but his bat isn’t the attribute that Johnson is most fond of.
“His No. 1 attribute for me is his character and leadership,” Johnson said. “He is so high character. He’s a hard-working guy who’s always trying to hone his craft. … I know that there are guys who like him a lot and what he brings to the table. He has the opportunity to be a big clubhouse influence, too. He’s got leadership ability and he challenges people to work as hard as he does.”
Moss has had to work hard. He may look the part of a future MLB left-handed slugger now, but he wasn’t always the best player on his own team, let alone the best in his home state. And he’s thrived while working to improve.
“I encountered a lot of adversity growing up through the game of baseball and I just loved it,” Moss said. “There were plenty of years growing up that I wasn’t always the best player on the team and everybody said that this kid was going to make it or that kid was going to make it, but those kids maybe stopped working a little bit and I kind of hit my growth spurt, got a little bigger, faster and stronger and things kind of took off from there.”
Now Moss is the most highly-touted prospect from his state and he carries with him the potential of being a future high draft pick. With that potential comes pressure to perform at the next level for Arizona State, but Moss welcomes it.
“Anytime I feel any sort of pressure with baseball I welcome it 100%,” Moss said. “It’s fun. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted in terms of my career and it’s only just the beginning, which is the cool part. Whether I was the highest-ranked prospect or the lowest-ranked prospect, my work ethic isn’t going to change and my opinion of myself isn’t going to change. I’m just going to keep being the best Jack Moss I can be.”
