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How a Home Run Derby Led to Eric Wood Switching From a Pitcher to Third Base

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ALTOONA, PA – Eric Wood was a 17-year-old playing for the Ontario Blue Jays, an amateur baseball program who boast themselves as the best developmental team in Canada. A late bloomer of sorts, Wood was considered the team’s ace, and he threw his fastball around 92-93 MPH.

Through high school, Wood was a pitcher and that’s it. Obviously, if you’re reading this article, you know that Eric Wood is not a pitcher in the Pirates’ organization.

So, when did Eric Wood the pitcher become Eric Wood the third baseman/hitter?

It all started in New Mexico.

The Blue Jays were in New Mexico for a tournament, and Wood was the Opening Day starter for his team. This was a big set of games for the youngsters.

“It was a big tournament,” Wood said. “We had to win a tournament to even get there, so it was a big deal to us.”

His coach wanted to keep all of the guys loose before the tournament started, so he let them participate in an intrasquad showdown with their bats — the all important home run derby.

“It was just something we did before the tournament started just to keep the guys loose,” Wood said. “Coach said that pitchers got to hit, too.”

The rest is history for Wood, as he dominated his teammates in the derby. All of a sudden, the pitcher found himself on the mound at times and in the field the rest of the time.

So, why did it take a random home run derby in New Mexico to find out he could hit?

“I was kind of a late bloomer, so I was just a pitcher,” Wood said. “I wasn’t quite big and strong enough to hold a bat — then I grew. So, I started swinging a little bit for fun, and then the home run derby happened. The ball carries well there so that helped me out, but the team decided to start having me hit, as well.”

Scouts began to take notice of the young hitter, and he was selected in the 37th round of the 2011 draft by the Oakland Athletics. Wood decided to attend Blinn College, a junior college out of Brenham, Texas, instead.

“I still pitched,” Wood explained when asked about his college experience. “I still did both in college, then I started playing third more than pitching. When I was drafted as a position player, that was it for pitching.”

Wood hit .318 with a .911 OPS for the Blinn College Buccaneers, and he was still considered one of the top arms on the pitching staff, even though he only threw four innings in his lone season. Wood wasn’t rated very high by Baseball American going into the 2012 draft (he was outside of their Top 500), but the Pirates chose Wood in the sixth round as a high signability pick, creating pool money for Mark Appel.

When asked if he would’ve preferred pitching, Wood essentially said he was willing to play wherever a team told him.

“I had some people ask me what I would prefer, and I also thought to myself, ‘well, if hitting doesn’t work out, I could always go back to pitching again’,” Wood said. “I seemed to have a lot more interest as a hitter, so I decided to go that route.”

It has taken some time for Wood to continue to blossom as a hitter and fielder, but the Pirates are seeing him take off in his second season with the Curve.

Wood is currently in the middle of his hottest hitting stretch as a professional baseball player. Since the beginning of June, he has a slash line of .286/.377/.546 for an OPS of .923. He also has nine of his 13 home runs since that time, including four in the last handful of games.

Compared to last season in Altoona, Wood’s play has been night-and-day to say the least. In his first year in Double-A with the Curve last season, he looked overwhelmed and overmatched, both offensively and defensively. His numbers spoke as much from the plate, as he boasted a .237 average and an abysmal .608 OPS from the hot corner. He also committed 21 errors for a .914 fielding percentage, which, believe it or not, was a vast improvement from his time at West Virginia two years prior when he had 28 errors and an .873 fielding percentage.

This season, Wood only has ten errors in more than 600 innings at third base. He looks to have a quicker first step and a more solid glove. He has also made some tremendous high difficulty plays from the corner position.

Wood credits his manager’s calming presence as a reason for his defensive improvements.

“I’m just being more relaxed,” Wood said. “Joey [Cora] is big on that — being relaxed. I’ve really relied on that, and now I feel like I can just trust myself.”

His bat is also beginning to show that New Mexico promise that Pirates were looking for when they drafted him in 2012. He’s beginning to provide that little bit of pop, which is necessary for any player to stick at third base. To put the improvements in perspective, he already has 19 more total bases in 25 fewer games played than last season.

He has hit 13 home runs so far this season; he had hit 15 home runs in his three and a half years of professional baseball before this year.

“I’ve experienced a little bit,” Wood said. “I keep working on my swing. Hitting is relatively new to me still, and I’m still learning. The best thing about baseball is that you have to keep playing to get better, and that’s all it is.”

Wood explained that he has had to make some minor adjustments to the start of his swing process, but that was after multiple attempts at tinkering with different adaptations.

“It’s been a cat and mouse game to try to find out what works for me,” he said. “Over the last month or so, we worked on bringing my hands a little bit closer to my body, rather than being far away. It’s a minor adjustment — very small — but it seems to be working, and I seem to be able to put backspin on the ball.”

The minor adjustment has led to the best offensive output of his career.

“Baseball is a funny game. You just have to find things that click and work for you, both defensively and offensively.”

Baseball certainly is a funny game. Sometimes, all it takes is a quick trip to New Mexico to find that out. I don’t see any of those on the Curve’s schedule through the rest of the year, but I’d say what the Ontario native has been able to do in Central PA is just fine and dandy. Eh?

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