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 (Photo courtesy of the Potomac Cannons) caption:
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Former Princeton Star Pitcher Pauly Heating Up in the Carolina League
By Bill Alden
During his outstanding baseball career at Princeton University, star pitcher Thomas Pauly got used to fending for himself.
"The coaches at Princeton are not down your throat to lift or train," said Pauly, who was named as a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection and chosen as the pitcher of the year by the New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association during his junior season at Princeton in 2003.
"They know you're there for school and they don't babysit you like the coaches do at some other schools. You develop an independence and a work ethic. You know what you've got to do and you get it done."
Pauly's poise and his 90-95 m.p.h. fastball got him picked by the Cincinnati Reds in the second round of the 2003 Major League Baseball draft. Forgoing his senior season at Princeton after going 6-2 with a 1.46 ERA as a junior, Pauly signed with the Reds and was shipped to the Dayton Dragons of the Rookie League to learn the ropes of the pro game.
This summer, Pauly is getting the job done for the Class A Potomac Cannons of the Carolina League for whom he has compiled a 6-6 mark with a 3.16 ERA and 102 strikeouts in 82 innings through July 25.
With a season of pro ball under his belt, the 6'1, 195-pound righthander from Atlantic Beach, Florida has developed a comfort level this summer.
"I have a little more confidence on the mound this year, I go right after guys," said Pauly, who helped pitch Princeton to two Ivy League titles in his college career.
"Last year I had a tendency to nibble and that led to walks. I'm throwing harder this year. Last summer, I didn't have the fastball I had in college. This year, I'm back at 90-95 m.p.h. When you have that fastball at this level, you can leave it over the plate and not have to worry about getting punished."
The independence that Pauly developed at Princeton has helped him thrive in the minor leagues. "They expect you to show up at work and get the job done," explained Pauly, whose fine work on the mound helped lead the Cannons to the first half title in the league's Northern Division. "You learn to be responsible for yourself. The competition is better. You get to play in front of a lot more people which is nice."
Pauly's goal, of course, is to pitch in the major leagues in front of the biggest crowds in baseball. "I'm hoping to go all the way to the majors, whether it takes two years, four years, or six years," asserted Pauly. "I'm going to keep playing as long as they let me."
With the Reds organization having stocked up its pitching prospects over the last two years, Pauly realizes that he may not make it to the show with the team that drafted him.
"Everybody gets traded sometime," said Pauly, who is not the only former Princeton player in the Reds chain now that Tiger star outfielder B.J. Szymanski has signed with the organization and is playing for Billings in the Rookie League.
"If you do extremely well, that will help you end up with somebody. There are scouts at every game just like in college and they are reporting back to their organizations."
Whether or not Pauly achieves his dream, he wouldn't trade places with any of his old college classmates. "When I talk to my friends from Princeton who are on Wall Street, they tell me that they get up at 6 a.m. to go to work and don't get back until 7 at night," added Pauly, an Academic All-American at Princeton who will be back on campus this fall to continue his engineering studies.
"I get up at noon when we have a night game and and we head to the park at 3. We have a lot of fun in the bullpen on nights I'm not pitching. I'm having fun doing this."
