Grant's Kyle Stroup is enjoying big-league attention

Guess who's coming to dinner?

At Kyle Stroup's house, the guests are sometimes very major league.

Quite literally, in fact.

Recently, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Philadelphia Phillies were represented at his mother's table in the form of scouts, who were breaking bread and sampling her home-cooked cuisine while drooling over what could be one of Major League Baseball's next big arms.

Yep, just another day in the life of a major-league prospect. And the 18-year-old Stroup is definitely one.

Scouts will often visit a prospect at school, get so caught up in evaluating and interviewing him and chatting him up that hours pass and they eventually wind up at the prospect's house for dinner.

Ding-dong. "Get out the good dishes, Mom."

"My mom (Gina Swanner) loves it. She thinks it's great," said Stroup, a 6-foot-6, 235-pound senior pitcher at Grant whose everyday fastball has been clocked at around 95 mph. "She'll send e-mails to all of our relatives about who's been over for dinner.

"It's a pretty interesting experience. I've liked it a lot, too. But it is ... crazy."

Crazy is the fact that about 30 big-league scouts watched Stroup's first appearance of the season (against Wauconda) and raised their radar guns in unison to every one of his pitches. (At least six scouts have been at every one of his starts since.)

Even crazier are the 10 to 20 phone calls per week that Stroup gets from scouts, some of whom have been known to chat for an hour-and-a-half.

Craziest yet is that Stroup, to his own amazement, is about to live out many a boy's childhood dream.

He once figured that a kid from tiny Grant High School would never be found by the scouts. He once believed that he wouldn't even have a chance to play Division I baseball.

Now, Stroup is being told by those scouts at the dinner table, and all the others from across the league who have tracked him religiously since last summer, that he will likely be chosen between the fifth and 10th rounds of next month's Major League Baseball draft, which runs June 5 through June 6.

And, by the way, just for good measure, Stroup has already signed with Northern Illinois. So if the professional route doesn't work out, he's also got the Division I opportunity he once never thought possible.

"This is a dream, that's for sure," Stroup said. "The way I look at it, I really can't lose."

To cover his bases even further, Stroup has also signed with junior college national power Chipola College, located in the Florida Panhandle.

Since junior colleges aren't affiliated with the NCAA, athletes may sign with both an NCAA school and a junior college at the same time. Doing so provides a little more flexibility for draft picks.

"The reason I signed with Chipola is if I get drafted this year and don't get the right kind of money, I might go to junior college because if I go to Northern Illinois, I have to stay there for three years (before becoming eligible to be drafted again).

"But if I go to Chipola, I only have to stay there a year and then I can try to get drafted again.

"Right now, Northern is my priority. I'm going there. I'm getting ready for housing and everything. But if I get the right money in the draft, I'll go pro."

Stroup knows he won't be going first-class though. He's not disillusioned. He's been told all about minor-league baseball -- how tough it is, how humbling it is, how long those bus rides are.

"I'm assuming that I'll be eating a lot of Ramen noodles," Stroup laughed. "I've been warned. I'm just hoping that I'll spend as little time there (in the minor leagues) as possible."

Grant catcher Gerik Wallsten isn't worried. He fully expects to flip on his television and see his longtime buddy on a major-league broadcast sooner rather than later.

"I think Kyle will be throwing 100 (mph) by the time he fully develops and gets on a strength program," said Wallsten, a senior who has been catching Kyle since the two were sophomores. Both were promoted to the varsity as freshmen, but Stroup mainly played first base that year.

"He's already got an overpowering fastball and it moves about a foot," Wallsten said. "He's also got a tight curve ball and a filthy changeup. He's got great command of his pitches. He throws a lot of strikes.

"He's just a monster on the mound. He's an intimidating presence out there."

Speaking of an intimidating presence, how about those 30 radar guns pointing at you all at once?

Even the intimidator was a little intimidated by that.

"In the beginning, I was worrying about what the scouts were thinking, what pitch I should throw, how fast am I throwing, things like that. I started out 0-for-15 from the plate, too," said Stroup, who has rebounded nicely. He's hitting .430 and has belted 7 home runs and 21 RBI in just 20 games. "Even in school it was hard to stay focused because I would be thinking about what scouts were going to be there, how many of them were going to be there."

The pressure took its toll on Stroup at times this season. Against Prairie Ridge, he surrendered 10 runs on 10 hits. That, and Grant's inconsistent defense, has contributed to Stroup's deceiving 3.00-plus earned run average and 2-3 record.

"We definitely haven't helped Kyle out with our defense behind him," Grant coach Mike Mizwicki said. "But I think that all the scouts and all the expectations bothered him a bit, too. It would bother anyone. It's harder than most people realize when you're trying to do more than just win the game.

"I mean, most of Kyle's teammates are worried about whether or not they brought the right socks to the game. It's amazing how well Kyle has handled all of this other stuff considering that he is still just a teenager."

Stroup says that most of the scouts are sympathetic to nerves and jitters. In fact, he says that despite some of his rough spots this spring, they haven't stopped treating him like the phenom who wowed everyone at an elite national tournament in Florida last summer.

With dozens of pro and college scouts watching, Stroup took the mound in the fourth inning against the second-best summer ball team in the country and rolled up 11 strikeouts over the next 4 innings.

"That Florida game may have changed my life," Stroup said.

And so began scout-mania.

"It's rough sometimes, but it gets easier and you get used to it," Stroup said of being under constant surveillance. "Lately, I've just been worrying about what I need to do to help my team win and that helps because it takes the focus off me.

"Trying to help your team win is what the scouts really like anyway."

That, and apparently a good home-cooked meal.