PREP WEDNESDAY : CATCHING ON IN A HURRY : In His First Season Behind the Plate, Greg Pirkl of Los Alamitos Is a Hot Prospect

Four years ago, a skinny 13-year-old went out on a baseball field and started playing ball for the first time.

Less than a year ago, that same boy--not quite so skinny and already turning into a proficient hitter--was moved behind the plate to play what some say is the most demanding position in baseball, catcher.

Today, people are calling the young man--now 17, 6-feet 5-inches tall and 230 pounds--the hottest professional prospect in Orange County and one of the top catchers available in the country.

Meet Greg Pirkl of Los Alamitos High School.

A quick learner?

More than that. Pirkl is the kind that people speak of in hushed tones and make movies about. A natural .

You may not have heard anything about him last season. But last summer, Dodger scout Bob Darwin predicted that the way Pirkl played would “pop people’s eyes out.”

“And now they’re popping,” he said, laughing.

Pirkl is leading all Orange County high school hitters, batting .555 at the start of this week. He has 33 RBIs and 7 home runs.

In the latest issue of Baseball America, in a listing of the top 25 high school prospects in the nation, Pirkl is ranked 14th. Major league scouts expect him to be drafted as high as the third round in the June amateur draft.

“It makes me feel like I’ve improved an extraordinary amount,” Pirkl said.

No kidding. Pirkl didn’t even play Little League baseball. He hung around diamonds in Los Alamitos, but he never got around to signing up until after the registration deadline had passed.

The summer before he started high school, he made the deadline and played on a Pony League team.

“I didn’t have a real desire to play before,” he said. “But I thought it would be fun to be involved in high school athletics.”

His freshman year at Los Alamitos, Pirkl played on the freshman baseball team. His sophomore year, he played a few games on the junior varsity as a pitcher and was performing well enough to move up to the varsity.

Last season, Pirkl started coming on as a hitter and hit .349. But he couldn’t really find his place defensively. He pitched some and also played first and third base.

“We were just trying to find a spot for him,” Los Alamitos Coach Mike Gibson said. “He had control problems as a pitcher, and catching was our weakest link, so we tried him a few games in the summer and he liked it.”

Pirkl worked hard all summer learning to be a catcher. He worked two to three hours every day with Sheldon Rocha, a catching coach in Los Alamitos.

“It was really frustrating,” Pirkl said. “There was so much to learn. I had to learn the footwork, directing players where to go, calling the pitches. Being a pitcher helped me, but it takes time and experience.”

Pirkl got the experience last summer. He played two or three games a day, playing for high school teams and all-star teams. His Cerritos team, a 16-and-under all-star team he played for, lost in the state games to Norwalk.

Norwalk--which was allowed to expand its roster by one player--asked Pirkl to join it, and he played for it all the way to the nationals in Waterbury, Conn. He also played for the Dodgers’ high school scouting team in Sacramento, where he impressed Darwin, one of the team’s coaches.

“He needed some polishing up, but as far as raw, natural ability, I was impressed,” Darwin said. “And he worked so hard. He caught every game, two doubleheaders in a row. He’s as strong as three people and can throw and hit with power. He’s got everything you want.”

Pirkl also played catcher for the Houston Astros’ winter ball team.

“It would take most kids three years to learn as much as he did in the last year,” Rocha said.

Once the high school season started, Pirkl quickly made an impression. A pull hitter, he was sending balls deep, including one against Long Beach Wilson that sailed 400 feet, over the eucalyptus trees at Blair Field and onto the golf course beyond, keeping people talking for days.

Now when Pirkl comes to the plate, the other team does the Pirkl shuffle: All the outfielders move toward left field, leaving right field empty, with the left fielder standing on the left-field line.

Pirkl has been intentionally walked a few times, but Gibson changed the lineup so Pirkl bats third, ahead of Mike Kelly. Walk Pirkl and you get Kelly, who is hitting .463 and is headed for Arizona State in the fall.

Pirkl’s defensive play also has been noticed.

“I’ve been really impressed with him behind the plate,” Dave Demerest, La Quinta coach, said. “Last year, when he was playing third, I thought he was a little out of control. But he’s got the right makeup to be behind the plate. He likes to be involved in the game all the time.”

Pirkl agrees that his position change has helped him to become a better overall player.

“Sometimes I had a hard time controlling my temper,” he said. “But now I know if I get upset, it could ruin the game.”

Pirkl enjoys his role as the leader behind the plate.

“I feel really comfortable out there,” he said. “If I call a bad pitch, I feel I can make up for that mistake when I come up to bat.”

Pirkl describes himself as a perfectionist.

“I don’t need a backup catcher,” Gibson said. “He’ll catch every inning of every game. He wants to do everything himself, and if something goes wrong, he thinks it’s his fault.”

In addition to the pressure he puts on himself, Pirkl has additional pressure this season from the flocks of scouts who have come out to watch him.

When Los Alamitos played Esperanza earlier this season, 25 to 30 scouts were lined up behind home plate.

“I was so nervous in my first at-bat, I was literally shaking,” Pirkl said.

He went 4 for 4 with a home run, two doubles and a single.

“(The attention) is exciting,” Jean Pirkl, his mother, said. “To know that this happens to just a very, very few players and that everyone is interested in your son . . . it’s great.”

Pirkl has taken recruiting trips to USC and Oklahoma. But he said colleges seem to be backing off in their recruiting, waiting to see if he decides to sign a professional contract.

“I’m trying to stay neutral,” he said. “I still have the high school season to finish up.”

But coaches and scouts fully expect Pirkl to be drafted early. And although most believe he would be drafted no matter what position he played, being a catcher makes Pirkl even more attractive to major league teams.

“Good catchers are in demand,” Art Sherman, a scout for the Milwaukee Brewers, said. “They need to be strong and durable, and that’s what Greg is.”

Pirkl’s size also works in his favor.

“It takes a brave person to get back there,” Gibson said. “He’s brave and he’s big. He’s a force behind the plate.”

Some scouts were reluctant to talk about Pirkl. They were afraid they would draw more attention to him and increase his value.

“Last year at this time, no one knew anything about him,” Darwin said. “But, hey, now he’s no secret.”