Austin Maddox (Bourne ’10) was one of the top high-school catching prospects in the nation last year, but he slipped all the way to the 37th round. That was largely because of signability, but there may have been some questions too. Maddox has power and arm strength that rate near the top of the scouting scale, but some wondered if he could stay at catcher. He’d been playing varsity baseball since sixth grade, but the competition had never been very good.
A lot of buts.
This year, not so many.
Maddox is at Florida now and he has become perhaps the top freshman hitter in the country. Thirty-nine games into the season, he’s batting .349 with 12 home runs, 13 doubles and 45 RBI. He leads the Gators in all those categories. Just a year after the ink dried on the freshman records set by teammate Preston Tucker, Maddox is threatening to rewrite them.
He started fast this season, hitting a home run in his first at-bat. He probably didn’t need a dose of confidence, but he got it.
Maddox hasn’t cooled down. In an early-April series with Kentucky, he homered in each of the three games. He currently ranks fifth in the SEC in home runs and he’s in the top 10 in slugging, hits, RBI, doubles and total bases.
There may yet be questions. Maddox has drawn four walks all year and he hasn’t played much at catcher, instead splitting time between DH, first base and third base. But it’s clear that the bat will play. Maddox has a stranglehold on the cleanup spot for the Gators, and he might find himself there again this summer in Bourne.
If his first Cape League season is anything like his first college season, we’re in for a treat.