A new baseball journey for Blake Dean

The Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft ended Wednesday with Blake Dean being the only player from this end of Okaloosa County chosen.

Dean, a former Crestview star, was selected in the eighth round by the Los Angeles Dodgers following a stellar career at Louisiana State. He was the 262nd player picked in the draft. And two first basemen from the Southeastern Conference were picked before Dean.

Time will tell if Dean is one of the steals of the draft as Bulldog baseball coach Tim Gillis suggested. Personally, as a longtime Dodger fan, I hope Dean lives up to that prediction and I think he will.

I’ve followed Dean’s career since he was a freshmen at Crestview. From the day he joined the varsity as a ninth grader he was one of the best players on the field. And by the time he was a senior it was clear Dean was one of the best players in the state.

Dean was one of the best players in the storied history of LSU. And he was one of the best in the SEC during his stay in the conference.

Being the best player at Crestview or LSU doesn’t guarantee that Dean will make it to the Major Leagues, much less have a long and successful career in the Big Leagues.

More than any other sport, baseball is the hardest to project from draft day to opening day in the starting lineup of a MLB team.

The National Football League and National Basketball Association draft players with the idea that they will either make the team or be cut. Baseball teams draft with the idea that most players will spend a few years in the minor leagues before working their way up to the parent team.

Stephen Strasburg, the top pick in last year’s draft, made his Major League debut Tuesday. The one-year journey from the draft to the parent club is the exception rather than the rule.

For the handful of players like Strasburg, who make it to the parent club in a year’s time, there are dozens of guys like Alan Cockrell, the ninth player picked in the 1984 draft by the San Francisco Giants. Cockrell bounced around the minor leagues for a dozen years before finally making it the Big Leagues in 1996 when he played in nine games and had eight at-bats for the Colorado Rockies.

Yes, the players that are drafted higher are likely to be given more chances because the organization has more up front bonus money invested in those players. And there is no doubt some politics is involved in every team structure. But the bottom line is the objective of every team is to win championships and at the end of the day nobody cares where a player is drafted as long as he gets the job done.

Up until now, baseball has just been a game for Dean. Yes, he’s worked hard at the game, and through baseball he received a college education. But in a few days when Dean signs his first Dodger contract, baseball will be his job.

Life in the lower minor leagues will be different for Dean than life at LSU. Rather than flying from Baton Rouge to Lexington, Kent., or Gainesville to play a weekend series, Dean will be on a bus riding from one minor league town to another.

Only when he makes it to the AAA minor league level, will Dean again get to fly to games.

If it is true that the SEC is the equivalent of AA minor league baseball, Dean should fair well.

A new baseball journey is now starting for Blake Dean, and as a Dean and Los Angeles fan, I'm hoping to see him playing for the Dodgers soon.