APPALACHIAN LEAGUE: Shoemaker Has Been On Tear For BriSox

BY TIM HAYES
Bristol Herald Courier
BRISTOL, Va. – After a recent victory, there was a flurry of activity in the Bristol White Sox clubhouse. Some players munched on the clubhouse spread and conversation abounded from all corners of the cramped quarters.

But Brady Shoemaker wasn’t in front of his locker stall. Instead, he was taking part in a rigorous postgame workout. For the Appalachian League’s leading hitter, it’s all business.

“He’s real quiet in the locker room. He takes care of his business and goes about his work as a professional,” Bristol manager Ryan Newman said. “It’s great to have a guy like that in the clubhouse and in the middle of your lineup.”

Shoemaker has made a splash in his first season of professional baseball. After Sunday’s game with the Danville Braves, he’s hit in all 20 games he’s played and his .432 batting average tops the Appy League.

Shoemaker does it with a serious approach. The 22-year-old is focused and possesses a maturity that is many times lacking in players competing at the rookie level, the lowest rung of the minor league ladder.

He credits a lot of that attitude to the lessons he learned at Olney Central (Ind.) Junior College and Indiana State University. He’s picked up the idiosyncrasies of the pro game rather quickly.

“It’s a major adjustment,” Shoemaker said. “But it’s also just the same as it’s always been; you have to see the ball and hit the ball. I’ve had some balls fall in and got some extra hits, but like I said, it’s just an adjustment.”

Shoemaker was an All-Missouri Valley Conference selection this past spring at Indiana State and was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 19th round of last month’s Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.

Current Colorado Rockies second baseman Clint Barmes was a star at ISU and a handful of former Sycamores dot rosters in the minor leagues.

Perhaps none of them started their careers on a hotter streak than Shoemaker.

“As soon as the season opened, he’s been swinging the bat and seeing the ball very well and driving balls into the gaps,” Newman said.

Shoemaker also possesses a high level of toughness. He jammed his ankle earlier this season when sliding into a base, but only missed a few games.

He inherited that toughness from his dad Brian, a former wrestler at Indiana State, and his days on the gridiron at Northview High School in Brazil, Ind.

“Football was always fun,” Shoemaker said. “I always liked the contact.”

These days, Shoemaker is making plenty of contact with his bat.