The 2016 draft was, thus far, a very successful one for the Braves. In addition to being headlined by a trio of highly talented prep pitchers with big upside in Ian Anderson, Joey Wentz, and Kyle Muller, the Braves have already begun to see dividends being paid with their other, later picks.
One such pick was Ramon Osuna out of Walters State. After being one of the better hitters in the JuCo ranks, the Braves pulled the trigger and picked him in the 14th round. Osuna has rewarded their faith in his bat by slashing a .346/.410/.529 line through 31 games and begin to show his impressive power. Ramon was nice enough to take some time to sit down with us and talk about his experiences in professional baseball as well as about who he is as a player. Enjoy!
Thanks for your time, Ramon. You were selected in the 14th round of the draft by the Braves. Tell us a little bit about the process leading up to the draft. Did you know the Braves were interested in you? Did you have any idea where you were going to be drafted or by which team?
Everyone always tells you that the draft process is crazy and they weren't kidding! The draft process was to me was really fun though...I enjoyed it a lot! And being from JuCo, that allowed me to go out to the pre-draft workouts and got to go out to a few big league parks and that was definitely a crazy cool experience. I did know that the Braves were interested leading up to the draft, I actually got to go to their pre-draft workout at Lake Point and we wore a Braves jersey during the workout and at the time you have no idea who's going to draft you or where you’re going to go in the draft but after putting that jersey on I knew that the Braves were the team I wanted to play for and was super excited when they drafted me in the 14th round.
You came from the JuCo ranks where you had two extremely strong seasons at the plate. What went into your choice to go to junior college and specifically ending up at Walters State? Would you recommend more players taking that path?
My time at Walters State was one of the best times of my life. I was actually lucky enough to have gone to The College of Charleston out of high school and redshirted there my freshman year and enjoyed my time there, learning a lot from the older guys and the great coaching staff that was there. My decision to go to junior college came towards the end of that year, though, when Coach David Shelton called me asking if I was interested in going to Walters State the next fall and told me to do a little research on them. I was instantly attracted to the huge winning baseball tradition it had and the list of all the players that went on to sign a professional contract or went on to an SEC or ACC school and both have always been a dream of mine so it didn't take long for me to make my decision. It really has turned out to be the best decision I have ever made.
There are a few differences between junior colleges and division one schools but the main one that I liked the most was that in junior college there aren't any practice rules like there are in division one schools. That means that you get to spend a lot more time on the field and that will obviously help you developing, especially with the coaching staff that I was blessed to have during my time there that taught and helped me more than I could've ever imagined in both baseball and in life. I was extremely fortunate to have had a lot of success there but honestly the main reason that I was able to have it was because of the great selfless teammates that I had there and us just wanting to win together. The friendships that you make in JuCo really is something special and I had a great experience taking the JuCo route and would definitely recommend it to a lot more players if they had the choice to take it. Especially if they don't get the offer they want out of high school or just want to enter the draft sooner but two years at a good JuCo really does make a huge difference in your game in a positive way.
You currently play first base, but have you ever played other positions in the field and do you see playing in the outfield or any other positions in addition to 1B?
I actually played outfield at Walters State, I split time playing left and right field. But I understand that our organization is loaded with a lot of great outfielders and will play anywhere they want me to. I would definitely like to always have the possibility of playing the outfield again though and to be as versatile as I possibly can be and will work hard to get my body in better shape and get quicker to be able to play any other positions if needed.
You are off to a fantastic start to your pro career down in Danville at the plate. To start with, what is the biggest adjustment you have had to make as a hitter as a professional?
Thank you! One of the main things I had to adjust other than swinging wood instead of metal has been the velocity that pitchers throw on a consistent basis. Every pitcher you face now has a good fastball and you learn that they're going to challenge you with it so you have to get yourself ready to hit it. Our hitting coach Cruz has really helped us by helping us understand our swings and helping us understand what we have to do to get ourselves into our hitting position on time and attacking the fastball early because you really don't want to get behind in the count on these guys and let them use their secondary pitches.
What goes into preparing for each game as a professional hitter? Describe your game day routine so fans can understand what goes into it.
Preparing every day before the game is a major key and you learn that the better that you prepare that it will translate over to the game and better preparing will help you out a lot. We usually get to the field around 2ish for the most part at home, because that's when we can really get our work in, and swing in the cages with Cruz, our hitting coach, before BP and he's there throwing to us and helping us get better everyday. He really has been a huge reason of our success at the plate and I enjoy learning something new everyday from him. After our early cage work we take BP, so we get a lot of good swings in.
Have you noticed any tendencies as to how pitchers pitch to you as the season has gone on?
The main tendency that I have noticed has been that they're not afraid to challenge you with their fastball and that was not something I was really used to. In junior college, a lot of the time I would have to think backwards because the pitchers would try to get you with their off speed early, but now they're not afraid to use their fastball even when they're ahead of the count so you always have to be ready for it.
What are the biggest things you need to work on as a hitter?
In hitting, you always have to work on your swing everyday. You will never always have it figured out completely because it is the hardest thing to do in sports and there will always be areas that you need to improve and I try to improve something in my swing everyday. One of the biggest things physically that I would like to improve is pull side power. I get a lot of top spin on my pull side and I would like to improve on changing that and back spinning baseball's on a more consistent basis because I know that would help improve my power numbers. Another thing would have to be the mental side of hitting because I know that would help me decrease the number of times I strike out which is something I really need to improve.
What has been the best part about being a professional baseball player? Are there any teammates in particular you are close with?
The best part of being a professional baseball player is definitely getting to put those spikes on and being on a baseball field every single day. It really is a dream come true and there isn't anything better than being able to say that your job is to literally to play baseball every day. And I would say with my entire team, our team here in Danville is pretty close all around and we enjoy being with each other and playing along side of each other everyday.
Is there anything else you want to say to Braves’ fans out there?
I would just like to say thank you to all of them for being the greatest fans in the world! And that I am beyond excited to and extremely proud to have the opportunity to join the Braves family!