Dodgers Prospects, Ben Casparius, Joins Dodgers Daily

welcome to Dodgers daily I'm Casey Porter I'm so glad you decided to tune in we have a very very very special guest as you see on your screen right-handed picture and the Dodgers organization Ben casperius joins Dodgers daily so Ben thank you so much thank you for having me I'm glad to be here okay light moment I'm an Oklahoma boys so I love nicknames of high schools and when I talk to Ryan Ward you know he went to Millbury he was a woolly I thought that was really cool you know you went to Staples and their mascot is a wrecker so first of all what the heck is a wrecker and talk about that whole experience yeah so I think a record is actually just you know hard hat on like more of like a construction guy so a little bit interesting but the mascot was cool um and I had nothing but love for Staples High School um it was a great four years and we went to we went to the state championship my sophomore year we lost and then we won at my senior year so it was kind of the icing on the cake for a pretty awesome four years maybe a little bit of a shared experience 2019 Oklahoma State the field was too wet Oklahoma State they hosted a regional Yukon was in it if you remember Anthony Prado on that team yeah no that that group was awesome I got to see every game they played they were yeah they were awesome to watch so talk about that 2019 team and then we'll get into how you went to North Carolina your high school career here in a minute but I want you to talk about that 19 team and how that Drew you back yeah no definitely so obviously I was finishing up at UNC at the time before I transferred in 2020. um but that was a great that was a great team obviously great leaders and then a lot of those guys went on to play pro ball but just a really good group of chemistry um with Coach penders Josh McDonald's and you know coach Horgan and Coach uh Dez but um just a bunch of guys that wanted to win I think they won I think they won close to 50 games that year as well almost like last year but um you know I went to a super region obviously it's just just saying something it's a top 16 team in the country right there and um you know their success that year was a really big reason why I decided to transfer back home that was an amazing team and I remember I actually can my wife is a witness I actually went down and the fedco brothers and then Anthony Prado I made it a point to go down and tell them how much I enjoyed watching them play although they were the opponent they were that fun to watch so okay let's back up you set a record for all-time hits in Connecticut you were a coaches association Allstate you want to stay championship in 2017 just a ridiculous career there at Staples you mentioned a minute ago but let's dive a little bit deeper into your awesome High School career there yeah no so I mean up until about I was 21 I would say I was a I was a hitter first um I took pride in that I loved it I think you know I got lucky with having a good arm and being able to transfer onto the Mounds come by Junior red shirt Junior season um but you know one of those things where like I think it kind of it came to me pretty quickly the idea of hitting I thought I always had a pretty good approach and that's kind of what propelled me into you know being able to hit in the ACC in college and then ultimately having to make a decision but in in high school was pretty awesome and I I it would have been interesting to see if I was still a hitter in pro ball what could have happened but I have no regrets at all it was pretty cool it was pretty special though you ever beg him to let you take BP and show them what you still got um once in a blue moon I'll be at Short Stop during pre most pre-games taking ground balls but um no I haven't swung in a while so still got some pop can you get some home runs I think so yeah I went to the simulator a few days ago I was working with the trackman and everything I was sitting him pretty well so I know I got to get on the field one of these days okay fantastic as a matter of fact your senior year you hit 490 11 home runs a 1.90 era and then you went to the University of North Carolina which is fairly close by but again North Carolina one of the best college baseball programs in all the United States obvious reasons everybody would choose there you got to play with Michael Bush for your first two years there you had a fantastic both both pitching and offensive year your first year there in North Carolina so take us through your two years there yeah no um obviously North Carolina being really prestigious school um I wanted to go there since I was a little boy um and obviously selfish selfishly enough to I thought I had enough talent to you know get out of the Northeast and go play in the south in a little bit of more warm weather warm weather climate um it's a great place to play baseball um and like you said I got to play alongside Michael he's he's one of those guys where he makes baseball looks significantly easier than it should be um and that's enough that's not saying that he hasn't worked really hard because he does and not only a great teammate but a really really good person can he can hit and he's versatile in the field so that was a fun two years with him I learned a lot from him we were in the same lineup together actually too when I was when I was still a hitter and he was one of the guys I really learned a lot from so it was a great time okay so you know you have the great you have the the great offensive production there in North Carolina obviously we talked about your 490 average your senior year in high school so you know the offensive game seemed to be rolling why do we choose to to be pitcher only yeah so I think I mean there's a there was a I think a bunch of factors that went into it so my my freshman year at the end of the year just like a little tidbit I broke my foot against I think it was against yeah it was against the Duke on I think May 11th it was and I needed surgery on my fifth metatarsal in my left foot I actually withheld that surgery in in the hopes we'd make it to Omaha and I think the recovery was about 12 months or 12 weeks without surgery and then about six months with so I was like you know what I'm probably not going to play Summer ball this year I already played a good amount this year so we'll stick it out we ended up making it to to Omaha and I started in all three of those games um I obviously had surgery like I think it was two days after we got home we were eliminated but it was a good choice for me to you know withhold them be able to experience all that but I definitely it definitely took a little bit of a turn going into the fall of the next year I was still a little bit slow with the recovery I ended up getting another stem cell injection I think it was in December and I started off that year pretty slowly in the Box um I feel like I feel like it was the first time ever in my life where I actually started off kind of slow I wasn't hitting all that well I think I was seven for my first 40 at bats which was tough and then honestly I wasn't even pitching that that grade honestly that year as well so I think the turn kind of changed when I got to UConn I was I was really interested in being a starting pitcher when I got there I was one of one of the reasons I went there because I knew that I was going to at least get an opportunity I didn't think I didn't know if I would make it into the weekend rotation but I knew I was going to get an opportunity to be a starter um and you know I think everything kind of propelled itself it was my first year at UConn in the fall we had a Pro workout I think 29 out of the 30 teams had me more interested in me as a pitcher okay and that's where that's where I think it kind of you know I got the idea like hey you know I barely work on this at all um I have a good arm I shouldn't say barely but it's I put much more of my time and effort into hitting probably 90 hitting and 10 pitching yeah right I mean I was like if I'm still getting a lot of interest from teams like this and I'm not really even working on it then I think there's a lot of upside there and I still had pretty good feel for a slider and a change up at that point too so I was I was pretty confident with knowing like hey I'm gonna I'm definitely gonna you know put all my eggs in that basket um and see how it goes and I was I honestly still was hitting up until 2021 in the fall and then I had a really important conversation it was one of the one of the like biggest uh factors towards that decision but my pitching coach was like Hey man you're a senior or red shirt Junior I should say he was like I don't want to see you get hurt hitting I know it's going to be a lot a lot of fun but he's like if you come around first base and you twist your ankle and you can't make three or four starts that might be a deal breaker for you he was like that's just my he didn't push me or or say like do this or do that but he made a really good point and I was I was already on track to you know I I want to say get drafted and my head already started talking to teams about pitching and I didn't want I didn't want to put any more risk into possibly getting hurt in that regard so I think that's where everything kind of took a turn Okay so very cool experience I it seems like to me I'm a big college baseball fan and you got your first win and your first save both at North Carolina against the biggest rival North Carolina State takes through that experience that was pretty cool um it was actually kind of a kind of a crazy step but I think it was the first time we had ever swept NC State at their place in in the history of the ACC so pretty interesting weekend there they were I think we were eight at the time and they were four so it was a couple of big dogs going at it the whole weekend um and I remember I got the save I think it was or no I got the win on Friday night I think it was I think it came in in like the seventh inning um I actually had an RBI that game too I could go ahead RBI I remember which is pretty cool so it was a action-packed weekend um but I remember Sunday I had I think it was a 1.2 inning save I think I was throwing 83 miles an hour my arm was shot that was the first time that was the first time I could remember in a long time coming in you know back-to-back outings and weekends and you know obviously being a professional pitcher now like everybody's everybody's recovery routines are so so good I don't think it would be an issue at this point but back then when I wasn't you know I wasn't really pitching I think I threw a total of maybe 12 Innings that year so it was it was pretty rare if I was going into pitch um so my arm definitely wasn't ready for that but it was you know it got the job done I got a I gotta pop-up to second base to end that game so it was pretty cool it was a pretty cool experience though and it was the first time I had played at NC State and it's a tough place to play so it was fun no doubt about it those those College moments like that are you know you just can't find them anywhere else they're so fun okay so we're gonna go back to UConn in 2020 you apply for hardship waiver I don't know if it's called yardship but a waiver to to play immediately at UConn that gets denied so that's not good and then the 2020 season gets canceled so kind of from the outside looking in it looks like of course it's not good that nobody got to play but it was kind of lucky for you in the sense that you were going to get to play 2020 anyways and then nobody got to play so you kind of view that as being fortunate yeah I I tell people all the time it's kind of it's an interesting case scenario where you're fortunate but you know it gave me it gave me leverage it gave me a chance to not only be not only be a senior but to be a red shirt Junior when and and don't get me wrong it would have been great to go into the draft as a 21 year old coming off in full season but to be able to be to have two extra years of Eligibility and leverage as a 22 year old after having some success it's huge so I missed 13 games that year um and I think the biggest most pivotal point in my career I tell everybody this was that that Cove had shut down so from the from the months of I would say March to July my only job was you know to take a couple classes online which we were all doing and then you know go to the gym and that's where I started tailoring my workouts towards being a pitcher um I had a lot of a lot of support you know I was doing Zoom calls I was on the phone with my coaches teammates you know learning new grips or pitches and everything but that's where I had I think a lot of people either made themselves or broke themselves in that in that period of time just with the shutdown and you know the lack of resources but you know it became an obsession especially in a short amount of time to like really like I'm like hey I'm a pitcher now like this is what I do um and that's where I made some like major major strides and it was really good timing going into summer ball um I played for the New Britain bees that summer is one of the only only leagues that was actually going on so I made a few starts there and then it propelled me into the fall of my Redshirt junior year which ultimately was my last year yeah and then after that 2020 season you had a free agency offer that you turned down there okay so take us through why did you choose not to go pro there and why did you come back for eventually your last year at UConn yeah it was I was going back and forth for a couple days with my family my agent um because it was one of those instances where I knew I was good enough to like you know get to that point to play professional baseball I knew that my stuff was good enough I was in a really good spot I was healthy um I just thought you know I came to this University to play yeah right I still obviously have leverage with covet that was the biggest reason that I don't think I signed was because I wanted to play for coach penders and his staff so badly um again if even if I had a bad year and I ended up signing as a free agent or I didn't sign I don't think I would have regretted it at all I was so I was so focused on you know playing for UConn playing the full College season as a pitcher going through the year and I don't I don't regret it at all obviously it was a great it was a good bargain for me um and my family and it was a good decision to go back to school in terms of Landing with the Dodgers and obviously going in the fifth round rather than seeing an unsite free agent right but um no that year was it was a magical magical year with the UConn baseball team it was something really special I know we didn't we we didn't get out of our regional but it was I mean I it was awesome it was I have friends for life um I'm still very close to the pitching or pitching coach Josh McDonald and Coach penders coach Horrigan um and it was a it was a real it was a real family there and I I I had so much fun I'm glad I'm glad it happened that way yeah you know just watching that 2019 team and and I saw a little bit of your team play also just the the grit the toughness you know the tough outs offensively and then the pitchers they just they teach you to attack I mean it's like that they don't care everything's always in the strike zone with with multiple pitches you know and it's just you have to beat Yukon Yukon does not beat itself so you know whenever I watch you pitch I just think I'll bet your inner inner Squad scrimmages there at UConn were so competitive I'll bet they were they were they were they were we uh we used to have before or big facility was built which I was fortunate enough to get the first year in it we had a little barn with two cages and like we were going live at like six or seven in the morning on the weekends it got so competitive it was so much fun um that was before we even had trackman built too so like guys were hitting line drives off the side of the off the side of the cage going like that's a double that's double I'm like no it's not a foul um but it was it was it was really competitive I think that's kind of the energy you need to create you know success um and obviously everybody's in on the same goal so there's no bad blood between between teammates or anything like that but it was coach penders and the staff create a very very competitive environment I think that's why they have success every single year another cool experience for you in 2021 your last year there at UConn you got to pitch at Texas Tech that's cool because Dan Law field and Lubbock is one of the best places to play college baseball Tech has one of the best programs but the coolest part of that is on the on the Texas Tech team was one of your future teammates your teammate from last year at Great Lakes Ryan Sublette and you had a really good game you went five innings you had eight strikeouts so do you and sublet do you guys sit around and tell stories about that weekend yeah no we talk about it every once in a while I wish I knew them when we were playing when we were playing there knowing like the type of guy he is it would have been a lot of fun going back and forth with him um but no again I tell everybody that's probably between them State East Carolina um those are that's a tough place to a tough place and there's a reason they went I think they went I want to say 30 and two yeah at home that year it's they when they play at home they win so you know it was it was a lot of fun we talk about it all the time and then I I um I ended up I think Tech made it to the World Series out there they were playing in the Super Regional so I saw him I saw Ryan pitch a couple games on TV when I was back at home and was like yeah this guy's this guy's pretty good and then we end up being teammates so we actually were roommates towards the back end of the season last year too so he's he's an awesome guy to be around him happy he's in the organization so very cool so you got to go back home to UConn you got to have the great 2021 you got to get drafted in the fifth round so I mean just everything just worked out great and so take us through draft day with what that was like for you yeah it was special it was it was pretty quiet too it was me my family um and then one of my really really close friends my girlfriend and it was it was a pretty surreal day I remember it honestly like it was five hours ago um just the first I I knew I wasn't going in the first round so the first day was kind of out of the equation but it was fun to just spectate and see you know guys I played with um upcoming High School talent go um but I knew I had a very very good feeling I was going on the second day and that those first two hours were man were they were they something with the phone calls coming in I was either hearing from my agent or hearing from a scout from a team so it was that that that couple hours it was a long couple of hours but um you know I got the call from my agent saying the Dodgers want to take you to take you at you know pick 162. this is this is the dollar amount what do you want to do and I was like absolutely and it happened I think in the next 30 seconds so you know it went from being pretty stressful to like wow I'm a professional baseball player this is pretty cool especially with you know the Dodgers the best organization in baseball so I mean it was an awesome day I got to share some some time with my friends and my family too and um you know some of the weight came off of my back from you know the transfer and then switching you know primary positions and then it kind of all came together and it was I got to like just sit down with myself and be like okay did it like we're going we're on to the next step and then you know five days later I'm in I'm in Glendale Arizona just going through mini camp so it was it was a pretty pretty crazy month yeah you know to get into your position there's a lot of decisions you have to make you know hey what college do you go to then you had to choose hey do I want to be a position player or a pitcher going back to UConn then you had to choose hey do I want to sign an undrafted free agent contract so you got a bunch of decisions to make man you made all the right decisions didn't you I mean you got to be proud of that don't you no definitely I think I think it all kind of happens for a reason too um and there's no doubt that if I signed as a free agent I don't think that I I was you know nervous about the success I would have had and I hopefully would have had success but I think you know I wanted that extra year in college to really go through a season I was healthy at that point I felt really good about what I've done and what I've put together and at the end of the day you got to just bet on yourself um and that's what I did in a lot of cases and then you know you make a decision you got to go with that decision where you know where I was was transferring from being a position player to a pitcher and I was like I'm gonna do this thing and like I said that covet time period that's where you know I was in the gym every single day I was doing new plyo work I was fixing my arm path I was it was an endless amount of things that I was working on but it was something that really made the difference and it propelled me to even right now where I am and having that strong like fundamental base that I had created uh two and a half years ago until now so I'm very thankful for that and at the end of the day no matter what happens you know you still get that college experience don't you I mean you can't get that back can you I mean that's just no you can't magical it is and I got to do it at two different places too so I got you know I got the southern side of it and then the most northeast side of it too um and I I left this out too but coming back to UConn there are so many guys in the team that had already had a great relationship with that I mean it couldn't have been a better situation to come in as a transfer just with the relationships I had um with those players and you know the common goals that they had it was it was something special okay interesting situation for you last January you get flown out to Dodger Stadium you get invited to this workout to to be had at Dodger Stadium and so you get there everything's great and then you get to the gate to get in and and to get in you have to take a covet test so they send you off to take your kova test and then lo and behold you find out that you tested positive and actually had to quarantine for your time there so take us to the range of emotions and what that experience was like you know going from the excitement of having a workout at Dodger standing Stadium going out to LA and getting that experience to then realizing that you're not going to get to have that work out and instead you're going to have to end up being quarantined in a hotel somewhere after you tested positive for covid so take us to that situation and the range of emotion um we got right to the stadium I walked in the back the players entrance so I came in through the left field top of the left field um line right there um I walked down one hallway into a room took my test sat right outside that room and 25 minutes later it was hey you're you tested positive and I was like oh man here we go and it was that time of the year where everybody was starting to pop get positive again um I ended up staying in the hotel I think from the fifth to the fifth to the 16th I was there for 11 days um I was actually working out in my hotel room I was throwing plios into the I was like the bed mattress up and was just ripping clios into the into the bed I remember sending video to um to a couple coordinators like hey like how does this look I mean I'm still still in my hotel room but um I made do with it um it wasn't you know it's not the worst place to be quarantined in the world in L.A right um but it was it stinks that didn't happen but I think I think the camp ended up or ended up actually not happening the following weeks just with how many people were getting were getting sick um and so I ended up going right from I was already so acclimated on West Coast the West Coast time and I actually just went straight to Arizona from there and um that was a very good decision so just to get back I lost 10 about 10 days of being in the weight room being out on the field growing so I definitely needed a couple of extra weeks to just like feel solid again going forward so it was good that I was able to just pop over there Arizona and kind of you know get the ball rolling there yeah no doubt okay let's talk about your stuff let's talk about the good stuff 93 I've got you at a 93.95 four seam good ride at the top of the Zone yeah I got you with a change up and a slider and then I don't know I'm taking a stab at this one it looked like you had maybe a cutter at maybe 87.88 would that be accurate yeah so the cutter we talk about this all the time but there's one there's a cutter that I'm throwing right now where the idea is you know to keep keep the vert a little bit higher against lefties so I would say I would say those are more in like the low 90s range and then there's another cutter variation that's actually profiling like a like a hard slider that's in the 87 to 89 range yeah that's the one that I saw yeah more to write is because if you really profile my slider it's in that 81 to 85 mono range but it's you know if you flip them around instead of it being here if you flip it like this it's pretty much a sideways curve ball so yeah right so something where where The Carter was brand new in spring training I had started working with it in around December and catch play um I really liked it because obviously I'm you know I'm not throwing a hundred I'm throwing you know low to mid 90s um which I'm very happy about I have nothing against you know where my below is at right but um the car was just another opportunity in zone to miss some Barrel um you know steal some strikes and counts like 1020 um and then the slider is something that I Rely really heavily on obviously you know I I don't mind that as much but I think this year or this coming year I know we were going to talk a little bit strategy this and that but um I think I got to trust my fastball a little bit more especially Throwing It Up and Up In the Zone I get I got a little bit tentative with that at times this year and I think it just comes down to trusting that and then and then the change up is just all about consistency because I feel like when I had that things were going really well and then once um once that kind of disappears and it gets it starts feeling a little funky in your hand it's it's a little bit easier to sit on one or one pitch or the other so so the change up is that real feel that feel heavy for you I know I hear that quite a bit um it is for sure I think I think the change of throw itself feels a little bit or at least this year felt a little bit different than it did you know throwing my fastball slider and cutter um and that's what I've been just hunkering down with this off season is just you know feeling it consistently in catch play like you know starting out at a shoulder ending at a hip and just doing that over and over and over um and that's I think the consistency of that and being able to go in zone out of Zone with it more consistently is going to be going to be huge for me this year you couldn't be in a better organization to learn the change up because the Dodgers man they are the best aren't they that is for sure there's no there's no arguing with that yep okay so really great message you have always been in the spotlight you know you're the you won a state championship you're also in another state championship game you went to North Carolina you got early playing time you got to uh be on some great teams there at North Carolina you had a great career at a at a program in UConn that that was making uh regionals and then Super Regionals and now you're with the Dodgers so you you know you've always been in these big moments you're the guy that that has always embraced those big moments so for those young kids that out there that that are in those big moments maybe they're nervous and they're not quite as confident as they should be how have you learned how to handle those moments so well it's gonna sound cliche but just breathe and and take it in you know I remember my first at bat in Omaha I was I was nervous it was I hadn't picked up for I think I had one practice on that Thursday before we played on Saturday it was the first time I was able to like honestly walk just because I was dealing with a broken foot I was on I was on crutches and in a boot and then miraculously I was like you know let's give this thing a shot I'm having surgery anyways I got into the batter's box in the first inning and I looked out into the crowd and I was just like just breathe everything's all good like you're playing the best sport in the world and this is supposed to be fun I remember honestly I have to re-watch the game a lot because I I blacked out I honestly I couldn't tell you after the game you know what happened this and that um but I think just being present you know and I know people say it a lot and it's it is hard to you know either dwelling on the past or you're so so worried about what's going on ahead of you and what's what's to come next but you got to do damage in the moment and you know by doing that and staying up where your feet are it's going to allow you to put everything your mind your energy your focus into that task at hand and that's what that's the consistency factor of you know a drop in the bucket every day for a year and you've got a full water or Full Bucket and that's the name of the game especially with baseball so I would say just breathe and be where you are so awesome message hey and one last thing you know right before you got moved up to Great Lakes you're on just absolute Terror that it ran shine yeah I mean you were just pitching unbelievable kind of take me to that experience when you got that phone call what that was like knowing that you were getting promoted you know for the first time moving at least from from low a to higher that had been a cool experience didn't it it was and uh I I knew I didn't know after the game but you know I didn't know when when uh during called me into the office it was it was like hey let's go over a few things there are no linger yeah and I was like yeah okay I think this might be the time because I haven't pitched in a couple of days so I think this might be it but um it was really special and I I created some pretty unbelievable relationships the the time I was there I think I was in Rancho for about six weeks yeah um and it was it was my you know that'll always be really special to me because it was the first time I went out for Pro Bowl and not that not that the summer before was but I was only there for about seven days just to get a couple of appearances under my belt but um it was just one of those things like it was it was pretty I was like half I was obviously real to I was being promoted but it was one of those things too where I was like man I'm gonna miss these guys this is you know this is a family this is really fun stuff it was obviously California which is beautiful you can't really beat that weather especially in the summer but um it was really exciting and obviously you know hearing it from Shu or uh coach Shoemaker also that was that was something too where you know playing for him and putting the Jersey on for him and seeing how much he puts into the puts into the organization for how long he's been doing it it's pretty special so that was that was a that was a really cool experience she was pretty special isn't he yes yes I learned a lot from him it's it's um it's pretty rare if you see see that man without a uniform on it doesn't matter if it's you know 11 p.m or if it's five in the morning um and I think it's something that you know everybody can learn from him everybody can you know be inspired by him and that's why I think too you know I showed up to the ballpark and I was like man this guy is ready to go like there's no reason why I shouldn't be ready to go it was and I think he sets a really good example for everybody um and he's got he's got a great sense of humor he makes it fun so it was it was it was it was an awesome experience well Ben I thank you so much I you know when I reached out I'm just so glad that you decided to to answer my message and come on to Dodgers daily I had so much fun following you this last year and then also in college your stuff is just absolutely big time if you have not checked out Ben casparious you can go to all sorts of social medias you'll be very impressed and so I'm so I was so excited to talk to you this has been so much fun for me so Ben thank you so much for joining Dodgers daily thank you so much for having me I appreciate it