Trek Stemp off to hot start in Tampa Bay Rays organization

Even though his season started a little behind schedule, Trek Stemp has not failed to impress with the Princeton Rays this summer. Stemp, who was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 29th round, is hitting .367 and was profiled by the Bluefield Daily Telegraph Thursday.

Hitting for average was something that Stemp did for WSU, and it appears that skill has translated well into the Appalachian League, that Princeton plays in. He did note in the article, that the rookie league level had some differences to what he was used to.

"It is still really competitive and it took a little bit of getting used to coming here to see how big some of these guys were especially compared to me," Stemp said. "I am not a huge guy, but it is about the same, just the speed of the game is a little bit different. I am adjusting good to it."

The same injury that cut his Cougar career a few games short also required Stemp to miss the first four games of Princeton's season. It appears that he has put that behind him, however, as he hasn't had many issues at the plate, or on the base paths, where he's stolen three bases already.

As long as Stemp continues to hit like he has shown he can, and adjusts to different league's his baseball career may be far from over. It's not every day a 22 year old utility player that was drafted in the 29th round makes it to the big league, but who knows. Maybe one of our own will be that needle in the haystack.