No. 21 on Baseball America's Top 100: Joey Gallo

What happens in Vegas is starting to make its way out of Vegas.

Opening up baseball eyes and ears beyond Sin City has been phenom Bryce Harper as of late, the first overall pick in the 2011 draft, who has so far lived up to the hype that has surrounded his play.

Joey Gallo, a close friend of Harper’s, is hoping to get some looks of his own, starting at the Tournament of Stars as he competes for a spot on the USA Baseball junior team roster. Gallo thinks his friend has opened up baseball in Las Vegas.

“He’s changed it around,” the 17-year-old said. “He makes everybody look at baseball in a different way now. And honestly, it’s probably football that’s the biggest sport out there for us, but most people are starting to look at baseball a little bit and know the game a little more because of him.”

While that all may be true, Gallo is making a pretty good case for the sport as well. As a junior at Bishop Gorman High School this season, the infielder, who is also beginning to try his luck as a pitcher, batted .471 with 25 home runs, 78 RBI, 64 runs scored and a 1.198 slugging percentage. His 25 long balls are the second-most for a high school player in state history. Gallo helped his team to their sixth consecutive state title, three of which he’s been a part of, including a national championship title in his freshman year.

The 6’5”, 205-pound Gallo continues to make improvements at the plate. With great bat speed and power potential, he has earned comparisons to Troy Glaus, a fellow third baseman. As a pitcher, his stuff is a little raw, but he hasn’t spent nearly as much time on the mound as he has in the infield.

“I just throw hard so I pretty much just go out there and chuck on the mound,” Gallo said.

In 19 innings this year with the Gaels, Gallo was 3-1 with a 1.12 ERA and 29 strikeouts. Though he stressed that the competition he faced wasn’t the top of the line, the righthander’s velocity reached 95 mph. He only started taking the hill because his dad, a pitching instructor, urged him to do so. Gallo thinks the biggest thing he needs to work on though, is neither on the mound nor in the infield.

“The mental part of my game,” he said of his biggest weakness as a player. “I think I need to work on that to be a little bit better. And I need to stay in the game a little bit more. But I think I’m getting better at it.

“Sometimes I get into my first at-bat and then I take what happens into my other at-bats, instead of regrouping and just letting that go into the past and focusing on what’s ahead of me. I could improve on that.”

Though Gallo thinks he needs to focus more on his mental game, his high school coach Nick Day thinks that it’s something that the young utility player puts more importance on than anyone else, and it may not be as big of a deal as he makes it out to be.

“Maybe a little bit,” Day said about whether or not Gallo has to work on his game mentality. “But he probably puts more emphasis on that than I would. I mean, any 17-year-old is still learning the game and still learning how to be consistent and having the right approach every time he’s at the plate. I don’t notice it that much but he might.”

During the conversations he has with Harper, which aren’t always about baseball, Gallo takes advantage of the opportunity to talk to someone at a higher level of the game, in the hopes of picking up tips to improve his own abilities.

“I’ve asked him how he takes on the game with the mental aspect because it’s a tough game, but that’s about all I’ve asked him about it,” Gallo said. “I’ve been able to use everything he tells me. He tries to give me advice on pitching and how pitchers attack hitters when you get up to a better level but I think he’s helped me out a lot by giving me more advice when I’m at the plate.”

The LSU commit is much more comfortable at the plate than on the hill, and thinks that if it were a battle between Gallo the hitter and Gallo the pitcher, his hitting side would win.

“I would probably hit a home run off of me,” he said. “It’s because I would probably try to beat me with the fastball and I’d probably be ready for it. I know what I like to throw. So I would be pretty prepared.”

Day also found himself leaning toward the batter’s box when asked who he would choose, Gallo on the mound, or Gallo at the dish.

“Joey the pitcher throws the ball really hard,” the coach said. “Joey the hitter hits the ball a long way. So if Joey the hitter gets ahold of one, which is hard to do against Joey the pitcher, well, that’s a hard question. I’ll take Joey the hitter.”

Day thinks the toughest thing that Gallo will have to deal with down the road is making the choice between hitting and pitching. But, as tough a choice as that might be, it still means that there will be a spot in the game for him.

“The sky’s the limit,” Day said. “Somebody one day is probably going to make him choose whether he’s going to be a position player or a pitcher. I think that will be the hardest thing for him because he’s a great baseball player. And when you throw as hard as he does, someone is going to want to put him on the mound. And I think that’s going to be hard for him, as good of a hitter as he is. But whatever he decides to do, he’s got all the ability and all the tools to go as far as he wants to go.”