Published On: June 26th, 2015

mike ball pic

By: Alec Dopp, Mallards Public Relations

Madison, Wis. (June 26) – When it comes to evaluating prospective big-league talent, ‘perfect’ isn’t an adjective Madison Mallards field manager Donnie Scott mixes in too often these days. A big-league alumni with minor-league manager of the year accolades, Scott has been there and done that, evaluating the best players professional baseball has to offer. He's thrown batting practice to Josh Hamilton. He's instructed a budding Carlos Gomez in the Dominican Republic, too. But rarely has he pegged a prospect as 'perfect' in any respect.

Which is why it should come as no less than shocking that one player on Madison’s 2015 roster has already elicited the ‘perfect’ reference from Scott. And that player happens to be Mike Kaelin. “This guy’s lights-out,” said Scott after Madison’s June 12 victory over Lakeshore, one in which Kaelin provided two shutout innings of hit-less, walk-less relief with four strikeouts to propel the Mallards to a rebound win in the finale of a twin-bill at the Duck Pond. "He's perfect."

The high praise has been well-deserved.

On Wednesday, Madison’s closer notched his fourth save of the season with a scoreless ninth in Wisconsin Rapids, an appearance in which he allowed no hits or walks and disposed of one hitter via strikeout. The sterling performance lengthened Kaelin’s scoreless streak to a healthy 15.2 innings to begin the summer, much ado to the fact that he has whiffed nearly two batters per inning – his 28 strikeouts rank eighth-highest in the Northwoods League as a reliever – walked one and allowed just six hits thus far.

“He’s been lights-out,” Scott reiterated earlier this week, brimming with enthusiasm after Kaelin’s high-octane showing Wednesday night that eventually propelled Madison to one game back of the divisional lead. “He’s very competitive and he’s got great stuff. He throws strikes and knows how to win. I mean, this guy’s electric. Something good’s going to happen for him – you have to take note of what he’s doing.”

Kaelin has manufactured one of the best starts of any player or pitcher in the Northwoods League this season – perhaps the best of any Mallards reliever, ever. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. The 5-foot-9 right-hander is no stranger to stretches of perfection. This past spring as closer for the University of Buffalo, Kaelin posted a 3.32 ERA and 12.1 K/9 ratio across 43.1 total innings, and at one point retired 24 consecutive batters in early March to helped lay the frame-work for one of the most productive seasons of any pitcher in Division I college baseball. 

“Yeah, I think I was perfect for 20 or so innings there,” Kaelin said, humbly.

Like most budding superstars on the cusp of baseball stardom, Kaelin’s journey to this point began with a simple passion for the game. Born and raised in Cheektowaga, N.Y., as the only child of Teri and Scott Kaelin and supporter of the New York Yankees, Mike became the first in his immediate family to show true interest within the sport, which led him and his grandfather, Roy Redlein, to spend time together to develop his skills from a young age.

“When I was two or three years old, just barely standing, my grandpa was playing baseball in the living room and everything with socks and the whiffle-ball bat,” said Kaelin. “We were always just messing around in the living room playing catch. Even when I was like eight, he would still be throwing fly balls to me and stuff like that. So ever since I could really walk, I was playing baseball.”

Pitching, hitting, fielding – you name it. Kaelin was good at it. His well-rounded skillset led him down a path of success as a five-year-old in tee ball and as an eight-year-old in pitching-machine leagues around Cheektowaga. He was one of the more productive players among his friends when kids began to pitch at nine years old, too. But from the time he made Maryvale High School’s varsity baseball team as a freshman, Kaelin realized what he needed to stick with to succeed down the road: Pitching.

“I’d say about the time I made it to high school I figured it out,” Kaelin said. “I started growing up a little bit and could realize it. I was always a little guy and everyone would always look down on me, but I could realize that year that I was throwing harder than some of the seniors on the team. Honestly, I don’t understand how it happened. It just kind of clicked one day. I started gaining more weight and getting stronger and then it escalated from there.”

By the time Kaelin completed his senior season with Maryvale, he’d left a lasting mark on the program. On the mound, he whiffed a hefty sum of 97 batters as a fourth-year senior – second-most in school history for a single season. He quite nearly hit .500 at the plate during that same scintillating year, too, managing a .474 batting average in league play and .714 mark in the playoffs. What’s more, his 206 career strikeouts across four seasons remains second-most all-time in Maryvale’s lauded history.

Needless to say, it wasn’t hard for Kaelin to draw attention from Division I program recruiters. He could have played just about anywhere he wanted, truth be told. But Kaelin didn't wantt he recognition that came along with a powerhouse program. He wanted something else: To play close to home. Thus, his decision to play for Buffalo became relatively simple. “Sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if I played somewhere else,” Kaelin said, “but being able to rep my home town was something I couldn’t pass up.”kaelin bulls

Unfortunately, his freshman campaign with Buffalo ended before it had a real chance to begin. Three weeks into the 2014 season, Kaelin discovered he’d partially torn the ulnar collateral ligament in this throwing elbow – a devastating development that ended his inaugural collegiate campaign, leading the Bulls’ coaching staff to red-shirt him so as to procure another year of potential NCAA eligibility.

At that point, Kaelin was forced to make a significant personal decision. His trainers gave him the option of continuing to throw on his hobbled right arm to the point where it would presumably tare, at which point Tommy John surgery would be necessary for full recovery. The other option was rehab and physical therapy, which meant throwing a baseball would be out of the question for the remainder of his freshman season and summer to follow. He didn't want to chose either, but Kaelin evantually settled on the latter.

“It was terrible,” Kaelin admitted. “I never was in a season where you play every single day, so going to the park every day and watching my teammates compete and play every day and I’d be just like, ‘I can’t even pick up a ball.’ It was kind of heartbreaking, to be honest.”

With the relentless support of his friends and family, Kaelin knew he'd push threw the recovery period. But perhaps no other person provided more guidance and perspective and than fifth-year Bulls reliever River McWilliams during Kaelin's injury-shortened 2013 season. "I kind of looked up to him because he was such a good leader," Kaelin said. "He never showed emotion; he was always lights-out. I would room with him on the weekends and he was the one who told me to power through everything."

Completing the rehab process, Kaelin returned to the mound in the spring of 2014 as a red-shirt freshman, posting a 0.83 ERA with 20 strikeouts and 16 walks across 33.0 innings primarily out of the bullpen. It was an encouraging step in the right direction for the recovering right-hander, who seemed well on his way toward regaining his promising attributes as a high school amateur. But Bulls pitching coach Steve Ziroli knew Kaelin had more to offer.

"When we were recruiting Mike he usually topped out around 88 and sat 85-87," Ziroli said. "He's produced since the day he walked on campus, but this last season he made huge strides in what I call the "dominant" stats.  He had a huge rise in strikeouts, strikeout-to-walk ratio, batting average against, WHIP, etc. He went from topping out at 90-91 to topping out a 92-93 this past season. I think his biggest improvement has been with the mental game. He has a different confidence about him."

Battling through injury en route to one of the most dominant seasons of any pitcher in Division I this past spring, there's no question Kaelin has the mental wherewithal to pitch — and pitch well — in the big-leagues some day. And with command of a mid-90s fastball, filthy spike-curve and steadily developing changeup, there's no question he has the repertoire necessary, too. The only thing left for Kaelin to prove? That he can remain as confident as he is right now at the back end of Madison's bullpen.

"Every time I step on the mound, I tell myself they're not going to hit this pitch. When I go up there, I'm not stressed out. I'm not going to throw any stress pitches. And that just makes it easier to hit a spot. When you stress something, you're just going to try to tweak it and then you're probably going to miss. I just go up there and tell myself, 'I've done this over a million times in my life.'"

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