KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Junior pitcher
Josh Karp is a projected top-10 pick in this
June’s Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It’s 11 o’clock on a cloudy morning and most of the
students on the UCLA campus walk around pale-faced with eyes half
shut. People move to and from class in massive blocks, but everyone
is looking at the ground and few words are exchanged among them, as
if they were in some forced-labor camp.
On this unusually somber spring day, Josh Karp is smiling. He
looks relaxed and, unlike those around him, awake. Upon seeing a
familiar face, he lights up even more.
“C’mon,” he says. “Where’s the
energy?”
It’s no surprise that Karp is in a better mood than his
fellow students. He isn’t like most people on campus, who do
nothing exceptionally and will go through life never knowing what
it’s like to be applauded by thousands of aficionados or be
mobbed by groupies.
In a couple of months, Karp, a 6-foot-5 right-handed pitcher on
the UCLA baseball team, will be a millionaire. The junior from
Bothell, Wash., is regarded as a top-10 prospect in June’s
Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.
Karp has a fastball that has been clocked as fast as 96 miles
per hour, a solid change-up and curveball that drops like the
XFL’s television ratings.
A preseason first-team All-American and Team USA member for the
past two seasons, Karp is 4-0 on the year with a 2.61 earned run
average and 73 strikeouts in 58 2/3 innings. He has a huge frame
that continues to grow and Bruin Head Coach Gary Adams has called
him a “Hall of Fame talent.” And contrary to his
demeanor off the field, Karp is savagely competitive on the
mound.
In his three years at UCLA, Karp has developed gradually as a
pitcher while avoiding injury, making his decision to turn down a
$2 million contract offer from the Atlanta Braves out of high
school and come to college seem reasonable.
“He’s throwing harder more consistently,” says
Bruin catching coach Jason Green, who was Karp’s catcher two
years ago. “His curveball is way better. Now, it’s a
power curve, a strikeout pitch. Before he was just trying to get a
feel of it.”
“Josh has the ability to throw any pitch at any
count,” Pitching Coach Gary Adcock adds. “It’s
rare for a guy 21 years old in college.”
But even when considering all that he has going for him, Karp
seems eerily calm and loose. He speaks of everything nonchalantly,
and that includes the draft, which has become increasingly
unpredictable every year. With signing bonuses reaching
unprecedented heights, the recent trend has been for teams to draft
according to affordability instead of ability, leaving Karp with no
idea of where he’ll be selected.
Still, he talks of the draft no differently than he does a cute
girl that walks by, a history class or his school-mandated drug
test that was cancelled.
“It’s nothing I can control,” he shrugs.
When asked if he’s ever distracted by the swarm of scouts
holding radar guns behind home plate on days he throws, Karp
replies, “Oh yeah, of course.”
There isn’t an expression on his face, but soon the
corners of his lips start to tilt upward and his eyes brighten.
“Don’t those radar guns give you cancer? You know,
sometimes I wake up at night and my head hurts.
“I swear,” he continues, “if I ever get sick,
I’m going to sue baseball.”
He breaks into a light laugh.
Karp believes that regardless of which team he goes to,
he’ll be in the the Major Leagues ““ or the “Big
Show,” as he calls it ““ within a few years. In his
mind, he has surrounded himself with the people that will most help
him get there.
First, there is his father, Joe, who taught him how to pitch.
Joe, a former Washington State standout and minor leaguer in the
Kansas City Royals organization, was a scout for the Chicago White
Sox for more than 10 years. Joe flies from his home in Washington
to each of his son’s games to track each pitch and critique
his performance.
Then there is Karp’s present coach, Adams, who has done
everything possible to keep Karp healthy. Although the Bruins, who
are 24-12 overall and 6-6 in conference this year, could benefit
from having Karp throw into the late innings, Adams has held his
star to a strict pitch count in efforts to save his arm.
Only one time has Karp thrown more pitches than the number
designated before the game and Adams still regrets allowing him do
so. It was in a contest last year against Arizona State and Adams
was convinced by a member of his coaching staff to keep the ace
in.
“I didn’t like myself (afterward),” Adams
says. “I was not really proud of my decision. I’ll
never do that again. We’ve always been famous for taking care
of our pitcher’s arms. We want to win, but that’s what
our bullpen’s for.”
The latest addition to Karp’s team is former Major League
pitcher Scott Sanderson. Sanderson is serving as Karp’s
advisor and will represent him as his agent once it comes time to
sign with a pro ballclub.
“He’s not doing it for the money,” Karp says
of Sanderson. “He just wants to give back to the
game.”
That, of course, is questionable, but Karp points to how
Sanderson dumped the Chicago White Sox’s Frank Thomas from
his list of clientele when Thomas made outrageous contract demands
during spring training.
“These are high-integrity people,” Karp says.
“I trust them.”
Karp, however, doesn’t expect all to go smoothly once he
leaves school. He describes pro ball as “cutthroat,”
adding, “You always have to watch your back. It’s a
business.”
His father agrees.
“Getting drafted is the easy part,” Joe says.
“It’s after that that’s the hard part. The draft
is like an event. It’s like getting married. But keeping the
marriage together is what’s hard.”
So until Karp joins the desolate world of the professional
ranks, he’ll be enjoying his last quarter at UCLA.
“These are the best days of our lives,” he says.
Sitting in front of Ackerman Union watching people pass by, he
spots a girl he recognizes and whistles.
“Hmm,” he says. “I know her. I guess she
didn’t see me.”
He shrugs, gets up and heads into the building.
“Lunch time,” he says.