O'Connor grad launches pro career

Maverick Lasker didn't waste any time.

He figured he did enough of that during the season. So the Phoenix Sandra Day O'Connor graduate signed with the Milwaukee Brewers the day he was drafted.

"It's what I wanted to do from the start," Lasker said. "They called me that day (June 5) and asked if I was willing to sign. We talked money and got it done that night."

With the six-year deal signed, Lasker, a right-handed pitcher, reported to the Maryvale Baseball Complex in Phoenix on June 9 and his professional career was under way.

"I always wanted to do this, but during my junior year when the scouts started showing up is when I first thought it was possible," he said. "I thought maybe I'd get drafted out of high school and although I thought it might be earlier it was good enough for me."

Lasker was taken in the fifth round, 158th overall, by the Brewers despite being shut down as a pitcher for a good portion of the season because of bicep tendonitis. There were some scouts who thought he had first-round talent, but the injury, along with a hamstring injury, held him back.

"He obviously had a future ahead of him and I wasn't going to be the guy who derailed that," Sandra Day O'Connor coach Jeff Baumgartner said. "We were cautious with him, but it left him strong at the end of the year."

Lasker, who is named Maverick after Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun, went the distance in an eight-inning, 3-2 win over Tucson Catalina Foothills in the Class 4A Division I semifinals and also had the game-winning hit with the bases loaded.

"That felt so good," said Lasker, whose team lost in the state title game to Scottsdale Chaparral. "I wasn't myself all year and it was frustrating. That was my time to help the team. I finally felt like myself."

He finished the season 3-0 with a 0.97 ERA in 29 innings. He allowed only 13 hits to the 120 batters he faced, while walking 13 and striking out 27.

None of the really matters now as his new teammates, the ones he is staying with in a Tempe hotel, almost all had dominating numbers.

The 6-foot-3, 195-pound Lasker is now a professional. The team is going through drills - a lot of pitcher's fielding practice - and throwing bullpen sessions in preparation of the Arizona Rookie League season starting Monday.

"It's been great," Lasker said. "We are doing a lot of basic stuff, but they want to see where we are at mechanically and they are making adjustments."

Lasker, who has been dealing with a sore back but no ill effects from the bicep or hamstring problems, told MLB.com what it means to be a professional.

"To me, 'professional' means everything is run the right way. And no excuses," Lasker told the reporter.

Phoenix Sandra Day O'Connor graduate Maverick Lasker.