As MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred called his name as the 11th selection in the draft, all Missouri State third baseman Jake Burger could think was how perfect it was that he would soon sign with the Chicago White Sox.
“There’s no words,” he said. “I’m in a dream right now, to be honest.”
Not only is he the 11th pick in the entire draft, which carries an estimated signing bonus of $4.199 million, but he’s taking all of those homers to the team he grew up rooting for. That’s admittedly odd for a St. Louis kid.
“He found his own way to being a White Sox fan,” Jake’s dad, Mike, said. “We never asked and he never explained it.”
And he also wasn’t shy about it when he met with team officials.
“I told them, ‘look, I’m a die hard White Sox fan and it would be awesome to play for you guys,'” Burger said. “There was a lot of connection and good chemistry.”
Connection is something he knows a lot about. He connected on 22 homers this year on his way to being named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year and a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist. As the 11th pick he’s now the highest drafted position player from MSU.
“That’s something special. To think of the greats that have come through here – Ryan Howard, Tate Matheny, Matt Cepicky, I mean the list goes on,” Burger said. “It’s definitely humbling to see my name on top of that list.”
This is the culmination of a life spent in the sport. From his dad throwing him batting practice (they guess somewhere around 10,000 pitches) to joining Missouri State believing that this coaching staff could make him the player he always thought he could be. The coaches didn’t need much convincing that they had a top talent on their hands.
“I knew freshman year his first day of fall practice,” head coach Keith Guttin said. “Coach [Brent] Thomas, who had retired, was in the stands and I said, ‘what do you think?’ and he said, ‘he’s special.'”
“The coaching staff down here at Missouri State has been unbelievable,” Burger said. “Everybody from Coach Guttin to our director of operations, Tyler Jeske, played a role in this and I’ve got to give a lot of credit to them.”
As for what he expects to do with that bonus money, “I haven’t thought that far ahead to be honest,” Burger laughed. “I just want to get to Chicago and talk to them and get playing.”
