Toms River South Grad Connor Kaden Making His Way in San Francisco Giants Organization

LAKEWOOD - Connor Kaden can still remember being a little kid in his room, swinging a tiny Lakewood BlueClaws bat and dreaming like any other young baseball player.

On Friday night at FirstEnergy Park, it will Kaden's job to miss Lakewood BlueClaws' bats with his fastball, sinker, slider and changeup as a member of the Augusta GreenJackets, the low Class A affiliate of the reigning World Series champion San Francisco Giants. The former Toms River South star pitcher, who was drafted by the Giants in the 27th round out of Wake Forest last year, has turned those idle daydreams into a shot at one day playing in the big leagues.

"I always had a dream that I would be here somewhere, but it's weird coming back and playing on the field where I used to sit behind home plate with my dad and watch the BlueClaws,'' Kaden said before Thursday's game. "I remember swinging a Lakewood BlueClaws mini bat in my room when I was seven or eight years old, thinking about getting a home run with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Being a pitcher now it's a little different, but the same type of dream."

Kaden is expected to see time out of the bullpen on Friday in front of a large group of friends and family. It will mark the first time his parents have seen him pitch in person as a professional. The 22-year-old hopes to get his season on track after beginning 2-3 with a 7.04 ERA in 15 1/3 innings over seven total appearances.

"He's very dedicated and very coachable,'' said Augusta pitching coach Jerry Cram, who pitched for the Mets and Royals in the late 1960s and mid-1970s. "He has an above-average fastball, and once he learns to use it, it will benefit him, instead of trying to trick guys by throwing breaking balls in situations where you really shouldn't. His breaking ball is pretty good, and it will get better."

Kaden, who was an All-Shore performer at Toms River South during his three-year varsity career from 2009-11, was a starter in his final season at Wake Forest last year but has now primarily come out of the bullpen for Augusta. All of the pitchers on the roster are on a 75-pitch count in their appearances, according to Cram.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound right-hander has modified his arsenal as he has ascended to each level. He has worked on his sinker more at the pro level after his power slider was his out pitch for the Demon Deacons, where he went 2-3 with a 3.52 ERA and struck out 52 in 61 1/3 innings last year.

"I've relied more on throwing the sinker with two strikes,'' Kaden said. "In college I used to pitch backwards. In high school I was more dead-ahead fastball, put 'em away slider. Now I need to get ahead with the fastball."

""Once he learns to trust his fastball and his command gets better, the improvement will come,'' Cram said. "He's a quick learner. When we come out to do something the next time, you can tell he's been working on it.''

Keeping the ball down is an important tenet stressed by the Giants. Going forward, Kaden's groundball rate should be a key indicator of his progress at a level where wins and losses take a back seat to development. His groundball ratio so far this season is 2.89, meaning he generates more than five groundball outs for every two flyball outs. For comparison's sake, the Mets' Jon Niese leads Major League Baseball with a 5.67 ratio, with the Pirates' Gerrit Cole at 3.73. Kaden's ratio would put him in the top 10 at the big-league level right now.

"I feel like I needed to get better at locating my fastball on both sides (of the plate) at any point in the count, and being able to locate all three pitches in any situation against any hitter,'' he said. "In college you could leave a fastball up a little bit and they might take it. Here, if you leave a fastball up or belt high, it's going to get hit hard. I've just got to keep making pitches and keep getting ground balls. That's what I do best."

"Almost everybody here and everybody in this league has a tendency to want to pitch to the corners, even on days where they don't have any command, which means that they're then behind in the count the whole game and makes it tough on them,'' Cram said. "Instead of getting a guy out with one or two pitches by keeping the ball down, they end up going deep in the count."

Kaden got his "welcome to professional baseball" moment last season while playing rookie ball for the Giants' Arizona League team. He thought he had made a good pitch and instead got a line drive right back at him that he was just barely able to get a glove on before it would have struck him in the temple.

"It was like, 'All right, they can hit a 2-1 fastball  at this level,''' he said before smiling. "That was interesting."

Kaden had the option of returning to Wake Forest this season as a senior but decided to sign as a junior. He admits this is a bittersweet time when he looks at Instagram and sees pictures of all his old teammates getting ready to graduate, but he has no regrets on leaving early. He also has a standard provision in his contract that the Giants will pay for him to finish college if things do not pan out with his career.

"Those were some long, late nights,'' Kaden said about deciding whether to sign. "I couldn't sleep for three or four nights in a row, but I thought about it as, 'You're only young once.' I can always go back to school and get my degree because it's paid for now."

The margin of error is smaller for a 27th-round pick because the organization has little invested in him compared to the millions in a first-round pick. Being stuck in low Class A for very long can be unsettling.

"There's always that little thing in the back of your head that says, 'You've got to do well, you've got to do well,' but you have to just take it as it comes,'' he said. "I have goals set, but I don't think I need to put an age on it."

"He could be a late guy who comes on at 28 years old,'' Cram said. "I know he's a mature kid. It's just putting it all together. It takes at least three years, almost four years for anybody to get to the big leagues on the average."

Kaden hopes to become a success story like Baltimore Orioles reliever Brad Brach, a former Freehold Township and Monmouth University standout who was drafted in the 42nd round by the San Diego Padres in 2008 and beat the odds to reach the big leagues. Kaden also wouldn't mind being the latest former player under legendary Toms River South coach Ken Frank to make a splash at the game's highest level behind Todd Frazier, an All-Star third baseman for the Reds who starred at Rutgers. Frazier currently leads the National League with 10 home runs.

"I remember going to Ken Frank Baseball Camp when I was a little kid and (Frazier) was a counselor,'' Kaden said. "It's been a long journey for him, and seeing him make his way is great. I'd love (to face him in a major-league game one day). It would be really cool."

For now, he'll just enjoy coming back home and taking the mound at FirstEnergy Park, where he sat in the  stands as a kid and played on the field in tournament games at Toms River South.

"This is what I've wanted to do since I could walk,'' Kaden said. "This is just an opportunity to do what I love."