Rider alum seeks to ride talent to the home of the Braves

by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer

Carl Loadenthal, a standout centerfielder for Rider University’s Broncos for four seasons, was not among the 1,480 players selected in Major League baseball’s 2003 draft. That came as a shock to the scrappy athlete who set school records in runs scored (165) and stolen bases (80) and finished with 194 career hits, good for fifth-place on the school’s all-time list. He was the team’s most valuable player in 2003 and was selected for the first-team All-New Jersey and second team All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference squads.

But such honors are common; everyone in his line of work was a star somewhere.

Shortly after the draft, Loadenthal was invited to a try-out in Baltimore hosted by the Atlanta Braves.

“My college coach told me about it, but I wasn’t even going to go,” he said in a phone interview with NJ Jewish News from Myrtle Beach, SC, where he is now a member of the Pelicans, the Braves’ “high-A” affiliate in the Carolina League. Fortunately a few of his friends convinced him to take a chance.

“I saw him play at Rider several times,” J.J. Picollo, the NJ regional scout for the Braves at the time, told NJJN. “When the draft came, we thought we had filled our outfield needs [so] we didn’t draft Carl. I know no other club had drafted Carl as well. I spoke to his coach [at Rider], Sonny Pitarro, and told Sonny I had a workout a couple of days after the draft, designed for undrafted seniors.

“Carl came and really made me walk away that day thinking I missed something with him as a player when he was at Rider because he was a lot further along and a better player with more tools than I had realized,” said Picollo, who now serves as the Braves’ assistant director of player development.

He called the Braves’ scouting director after the tryout, offered his evaluation, and Loadenthal was offered a contract “within a day or two.”

Loadenthal has already beaten the odds. Picollo estimated he watched about 200 high school and college players over the course of the year. Out of those, he might take a second or third look at 75, out of which a handful might be offered contracts.

The high-profile draft choices, with their multi-million-dollar signing bonuses, get more ink in the sports pages. Loadenthal, 23, represents the majority; he doesn’t wear such a “can’t miss” tag. He signed for $7,500. “I’d play for free,” he said, echoing the sentiment of just about every kid who ever picked up a baseball. He seemed realistic about his chances of making it to the majors, of joining that fraternity of 750 players.

At 5'10" and 185 pounds, Loadenthal is small for a ballplayer. “They put a lot of emphasis on a person’s body frame and what they can project them to do, so the bigger you are, the more they like you,” he said. But his strength is his speed, and the fact that he’s left-handed also helps his cause. “If I was right-handed, I don’t think I’d be playing baseball right now.

“I tend to set goals: I want to hit .300. I want to be among the league leaders in runs scored and stolen bases. Those are the three things I pretty much worry about.”

So far he has reached those goals. In 2003, he hit .310 for the Gulf Coast League Braves (Kissimmee, Fla.), led the team in several offensive categories, and was named to the all-star team; last year he hit .305 for the Danville (Va.) Braves in the Appalachian League and was chosen as the team’s MVP and again named an all-star.

Loadenthal began the 2005 season with the Rome (Ga.) Braves in the South Atlantic League and was promoted in late June to the more advanced Pelicans in the Carolina League. The competition is “different” as he rises through the ranks, said Loadenthal. The pitchers throw harder, but he believes his job is actually easier. “You know they’re going to be around the plate most of the time, so if you have the right mentality and you’re aggressive and swing early in the count, you have a better chance of hitting the ball.”

The minors are a unique environment, in that his teammates are also his competition, some standing in the way of his advancement. “It’s tough. One of my best friends on the team — we’re competing for the same [outfield] spot. But we generally don’t think about it. You don’t hold it against the other person…. The main thing is we want to win.” As of this writing, the Pelicans are 8-12, in last place in the Southern Division of the Carolina League.

Assessing the Rider alum’s chances, Picollo said, “He’s certainly has a chance to be a Major League player. He’s one of those guys that does a lot of little things very well…. It’s just a matter of how it will take for him to get there.”

With a degree in communications, Loadenthal said he hopes he can put off looking for a “real job” for awhile. “I guess I’d give it five or six years, that’s usually the average time it takes. If you’ve been here longer, staying at the same [level], you’ve got to rethink and move on.”

For now, though, Loadenthal doesn’t worry about what’s waiting for him down the line. He just wants to concentrate on the next game, the next at bat, the next ball hit to him in center field.

Ron Kaplan can be reached at RKaplan@njjewishnews.com.