Little League friends follow big league dreams: Roseville's Nichols, Susac could hear names called in MLB Draft

They grew up together in Roseville as a Little League battery, remained close throughout high school and plan to continue growing on the diamond together in college and beyond. Oakmont High School's TJ Nichols and Jesuit's Daniel Susac are two of the top local prep athletes with a chance to hear their names called in next week's Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. Things are different in this year's draft. The MLB season has yet to throw its first pitch while the local high school scene only saw a handful of games before COVID-19 shut everything down for the 2020 season. "I try not to dwell on anything," said Nichols, a wiry 6-foot-4 righthander with a mid-90s fastball and a hard slider. "Losing your senior season, you can be sad – and that's OK – but I have no control over this. Why should I feel bad, slump my shoulders and not do anything versus getting out there and getting work in? I'd much rather be playing baseball." With heavy revenue losses in the big leagues and talks of Minor League contraction, this year's draft has been shortened to just five rounds, down from 40 for the past several years. Nichols and Susac embrace the change. It doesn't keep them from grinding, often together in small groups with other top talent from the Sacramento region, and mixing in heavy lifting sessions with live at-bats on empty fields. "The intangibles and competitiveness and confidence are already there," said Nichols. "I just need to keep working mechanically on my pitches and staying in shape. I've always been skinny, so I've been hitting the weights hard and trying to perfect my game." Between mound starts, Nichols is usually at shortstop and creating havoc at the plate. He was last season's Foothill Valley League Co-Offensive Player of the Year and Co-Metro Player of the Year with the Sacramento Bee along with his brother Greg, now at Sacramento City College. Together, they helped Oakmont go 30-3 and raise its first Sac-Joaquin Section banner since 2000. In the latest prospect rankings on MLB.com, Nichols ranks No. 156 overall, which would be right on the cusp of the five-round draft this year. "I've talked to a couple teams who said taking high school guys the last couple years hasn't worked out too well, and I've talked to others who love the fact that he's so young and can throw the ball that hard with his body still developing," said Oakmont baseball coach Paul Martinez. "It just depends on the team and what their projection is for him and how he can help the organization." Susac, meanwhile, a switch-hitting power bat from behind the plate, ranks as the 67th overall prospect, perhaps a late second-round or early third-round choice. Doubling as the Marauders' quarterback in the fall, Susac posted a career .388 average in four varsity baseball seasons at Jesuit, which has a history of producing big-league talent, including among others Rhys Hoskins, JP Howell and Susac's older brother, Andrew Susac. Andrew Susac was originally a 16th-round pick out of Jesuit in 2009. After spending two seasons at Oregon State University, he was redrafted in the 2011 draft in the second round by the San Francisco Giants, with whom he earned a World Series ring in 2014. But Daniel Susac knows his brother's journey is not his own. "He just told me that it's unique," Daniel Susac said of his Andrew's advice. "I'm a different person and my process is going to be different. "It's just about the right team and the right fit. I want to be somewhere I can grow as a person and player. And if that doesn't happen now, I'm confident it'll happen in a couple years." If the MLB path is not the right fit for either Susac or Nichols at this point, the beneficiary will be the University of Arizona. The Wildcats have the second-best recruiting class in the Pac-12 Conference, according to Perfect Game. Nichols and Susac – childhood friends from Roseville – plan to room together in Tucson. "We've been extremely close, since we were about 7 or 8 on the (Sacramento) Capitals," Susac said. "We just became really good friends our whole lives. We had separate paths in high school, but in college, we're getting back together again." The 2020 MLB Amateur Draft is set for June 10–11.