Rangers top pick Justin Foscue went to Mississippi State but doesn’t know jack on Dak
Justin Foscue can thank his mother, Maggie, for making sure he got to Mississippi State in one piece and with all his marbles.
She is the one who prevented her son from playing football at Virgil Grissom High School in Huntsville, Ala. In hindsight, especially after the Texas Rangers made Foscue their first-round pick Wednesday, he’s thrilled with the decision.
“But I felt like I could be a pretty good quarterback, but my high school team wasn’t that good,” Foscue said. “So, I probably would have gotten demolished in the first five seconds.”
They have a mascot issue at Grissom High in addition to their gridiron problems. Named for the second American astronaut to reach outer space, Grissom’s teams are called the Tigers.
Why not the Rockets?
Foscue shot into the upper half of the draft after the Rangers fell in love with his bat, the way he plays the game and his work ethic.
He’s ready to start working for the Rangers.
Here’s what he had to say in a Zoom video conferencing call with Rangers beat writers shortly after he was drafted 14th overall in the MLB draft.
Can you describe your mindset a little bit and maybe how you sold yourself to the Rangers?
I would say that throughout my whole life, I’ve never been the top rank kind of player. You know, in high school, I never was highly touted or heavily recruited. But I always felt like I belonged in the SEC, the ACC, that kind of level of play. So I had a chip on my shoulder to prove people wrong. I believed in myself, and I just went to work and I put my put my head down and I didn’t listen to the outside noise with the rankings and such. So just having that ability to not worry about the noise and distractions and always believing in myself, I think that’s how I got myself to this point.
Can you give any insight into what some of those conversations were like?
Yeah, they were just trying to get to know me as a person. I think scouts can only do so much when looking at a game. They watch the way you play, but to get to know who someone is as a person and how they’re wired, I think is another thing. And I think that’s where I separate myself from other people with my drive and my self-motivation. So I guess they liked what they saw and they listened to. So, yeah, it’s just them trying to get to know how I’m wired.
What do you know about the Texas Rangers and how excited are you to be joining them?
From the last year, I know they’ve built an impressive stadium that’s going to attract a lot of people. I’ve heard they’ve invested in a lot of technology to help player development, so that’s one thing that stands out to me is a player development. I feel like how with my game I can always improve on something, and that’s always something I pride myself on is never being satisfied and always improving in a certain aspect of my game. So player development, and I know they got great people in organization. So that, you know, I’ve heard a lot of great things and I’m excited to get to work.
Do you know Mitch Moreland?
I do not know Mitch Moreland. But Mitch Moreland has done a lot for Mississippi State and our program. He paid for our batting cages, and that’s got HitTrax in it. So I know he’s played for the Rangers. He’s won a World Series. I know he’s a great person. So that’s pretty cool to share something like find a Mississippi State, a prestigious college baseball program, with someone that played in the Rangers organization.
The Rangers talked about you having an impact bat. They also talked about you needing work defensively with a hope that you’ll be at least an average defensive player. Do you feel like you’re going to have to prove people something about your defense as well as your bat?
I got to keep doing what I’m doing, man. Like I said, I don’t like to listen to a lot of outside noise. I understand that I have to get better defensively. But I also understand I have to get better in all parts of my game and not just decent. So the fact that the Rangers are investing a lot of this stuff in player development and stuff like that, that makes me want to work even harder. Trying to improve little things like footwork or first step quickness, little things like that make my defensive game better, just working with fundamentals coaches, little things like that, I think that it’s going make me accelerate into the system and make me a better baseball player.
A pretty stark turnaround from your freshman year to your sophomore year. What is your take on what made the big difference between those two years?
So I think it was a little bit of a couple things. Like I said before, when I was in my freshman year, I never felt overchallenged at all. I always felt like I was in every single at-bat. It just felt like I was missing those pitches I could hit on the stadium. And that’s what I changed my mindset to my sophomore year. I said I can’t miss those pitches if I want to be a great player. So, it was that part of it, and then it was a little bit of a mechanic thing — separation in my hands when I load to make my back plane more flat and made me get to those pitches middle to middle in easier. And once I started doing repetitions like that, I found that groove and I gained some confidence and it just staying consistent with my approach throughout the entire season. I found my truth swing.
Being from Mississippi State, do you have any opinions on the Dak Prescott contract situation?
I have zero idea what’s going on with Dak Prescott.
What are you doing the same shape right now?
I think everybody’s situation is different. The first couple weeks when I was back home, unfortunately I was not able to do anything because everybody was locked down. My high school was not letting me go work out there. For the past couple months I’ve been able to go in some places with Rapsodo and hitting off Pack Attack machines. And I love that Rapsodo data. It tells you if you’re spinning your ball, little things like that keep me in my hitting shape. Defensively, I’m working out with my trainer here, and we’re doing speed agility stuff and trying to stay in shape weight room-wise. But it’s not the same like you said. It’s not the same as what you would normally be doing. You have to adjust. You have to kind of have a different perspective on this whole situation. Like I said, you’re not able to do the things that you want to do, but doing the things that if you’re wanting to do those things, you can find a way to make it happen.
Is it making you any more hungry to get back to playing baseball, especially now since you’ve been drafted?
Man, I miss it. That’s for sure. I kind of treated this as a second offseason, you could say. I know a lot of people are saying that. But I miss playing baseball, man. I really hope we would have gone to Omaha three straight years and made history. So that’s definitely disappointing. But I’m definitely excited to start this next chapter of my baseball career.
