Coquitlam native David Otterman went from Philadelphia to Milwaukee on Tuesday in about the same time it took him to go out and get a cup of coffee.
That's exactly where the 21-year-old was hanging out when a Phillies' scout phoned him to say the squad was looking at selecting him anywhere between rounds seven to 10 in the 2012 Major League Baseball first-year player draft.
"So I raced home and, just about as soon as I sat down to get the draft up on my computer, I got a text from my advisor saying the Brewers might take [me] with their next pick, but no guarantees," Otterman informed The Tri-City News. "Then, sure enough, I heard my name being called and it popped up on the screen.
"It was overwhelming. Really, after I heard my name called, everything is a bit of a blur."
Otterman, a six-foot-three, left-handed pitcher who played for the B.C. Premier League's Coquitlam Reds in 2008 and 2009, wound up going to the Milwaukee crew in the seventh round (245th overall). Last season, the UBC Thunderbirds' junior was 5-4 in 13 mound appearances, with 69 strikeouts and a 2.96 earned run average. He also held his opponents to a paltry .196 batting average.
Otterman said it wasn't entirely a shock that the Brewers were the big-league team that ended up selecting him, although it was no certainty, neither.
"Milwaukee does like to take Canadian players, so I knew they were one of the more interested teams," he said. "On top of that, they invited me to their pre-draft workout on May 31, and I felt I had a good showing there. I didn't have a gut feeling it was going to be them or anything like that. I was just anxious to see how it was all going to play out. I couldn't be more excited about starting my career with the Brewers."
The Brewers completed the two-day, 40-round draft Wednesday and, in the end, took 21 pitchers and 21 position players with their 42 picks. "We drafted a lot of pitching up top and not for any other reason than it kind of fell to us," said Brewers amateur scouting director Bruce Seid on the team's MLB website. "We may have [gone more] in that direction the last few years, so get the types of bats that we got, I felt in a way that we were really happy. But it's a good balance [because] we followed up with some nice young arms, too... some arms with some upside."
By getting drafted, Otterman joined some select company at UBC, where baseball talent has caught big-league scouts' attention on several occasions, particularly at the pitching position.
Most notably, Adam Loewen of Surrey was taken fourth overall by the Baltimore Orioles and fellow T-birds' grad Jeff Francis of North Delta went ninth to the Colorado Rockies, both in 2002.
"David has worked very hard at UBC for three years and we are proud to develop another high draft pick," said T-birds manager Terry McKaig. "He was our number-one, number-two kind of guy this year. He's a power lefty for a left-handed pitcher. [He] has a slider curve and a change-up."
Next, Otterman is headed Sunday to Helena, Montana where he'll attend a Brewers' mini-camp while he waits for his work visa to process.
