Zach Dotson will wait, maybe not all that patiently, at his grandmother’s house today. Should his phone ring — and it likely will, many times — one of those calls is expected to be from a major league baseball franchise.

The first-year player entry draft begins tonight at 6. Dotson, who graduated from Effingham County High School just three weeks ago, is expected to be a top draft choice.

“I’m more anxious than nervous,” said Dotson, a 6-foot-3 left-hander.

Scouts with radar guns in hand were frequent visitors to Rebel Field this season during Dotson’s starts on the mound. They were also there to catch teammate Evan Jarman. Both players are rated as four-star prospects by Baseball America and are projected to be taken in the first 10 rounds of the draft.

Seeing the array of radar guns pointed at him from just beyond the screen didn’t bother Dotson during his senior season.

“I got used to it that summer, before the season started,” he said. “I didn’t want to do anything different when they were in the stands. I just wanted to go play.”

Prior to the season, Baseball America ranked Dotson as the No. 86 high school player in the nation. He signed in November with the University of Georgia, giving him another option and perhaps some leverage with major-league teams.

“It’s a win-win situation,” he said. “I’m going to be happy with whatever choice I make.”

Like his teammate, Jarman too has signed with a college, having inked a grant-in-aid with junior college power Middle Georgia. But the 6-1, 185-pound right-hander — whose junior season was sidetracked by an illness — now has another large hurdle to overcome.

Jarman tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee on April 1.

Jarman, was hurt trying to steal second base in a game against Louisville Male (Ky.). The Bulldogs even had a pitchout called, but Jarman beat the throw, which was on the right field side of second base.

“I was in the middle of my slide, going head first,” Jarman recalled. “The shortstop dove. We hit and my foot stuck, but my knee didn’t.”
Jarman knew immediately the ACL was gone — having had the ACL in his left knee pop during his freshman year.

“I’m glad it wasn’t the LCL,” he said. “My therapist said some of the Georgia Southern football players have tore that and tore a nerve that goes all the way to the feet and now they can’t walk normally.”

It’s been seven weeks since his surgery to repair the ACL and Jarman said the rehabilitation process has been going well.
“It’s been going really good. I’m way ahead in my therapy,” he said.

Told it would be four to six months of rehab, Jarman expects to start doing lunges and jogging this week. Running isn’t far off, about another week or so away, he said.

“We’re so limited in what I can do. I can’t jump,” he said. “At nine weeks, I’ll actually start running.”

He started playing catch two weeks after the surgery and he’s been throwing bullpen sessions for a while. Jarman has been doing so in tennis shoes — “the therapist doesn’t want my foot to stick,” he explained.

Having been through the sometimes arduous work to recover from ACL surgery, Jarman knew what to expect this time around. He even has the same therapist and drives to Statesboro every day for treatment.

“I know how to handle it,” he said. “I knew what to expect with this, so I came back faster and stronger. A lot of people are saying it’s a delay.”

He was faster in the 40-yard dash coming off surgery as a freshman than before, he said, dropping three-tenths of a second off his time. So he’s anticipating bouncing back quickly and even better than before.

“I’m so excited,” he said.

Jarman was entered into the draft as a pitcher and a hitter. Though he’s right-handed, Jarman hits left-handed and hit leadoff for much of the time this year.

“My first bullpen, I felt like I was throwing just as hard as I was during the season,” he said. “That was my main concern, losing my arm. I’ve got to keep my arm strong because I can’t hit yet.”

Jarman hit leadoff for the Rebels, two spots in front of Dotson in the order. But he noted that much of the interest from the pros has cooled since his injury, much to the relief of his coaches at Middle Georgia. They’re penciling Jarman in as an everyday outfielder and a starting pitcher on the weekend.

Right now, the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds are the only three teams talking to Jarman. His dad, he said, is good friends with someone in the scouting bureau and teams have been calling him every week.

“If I get drafted, it will be a surprise,” he said. “But the scouts have said they have seen crazy stuff happen.”

For Dotson, it’s been the variety of teams calling him. He was scheduled to go to New York over the weekend for a workout. At this point, he has no preference who is on the other end of the phone to tell him he’s been drafted.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Whoever calls, calls.”

But since the end of the season in late April, he’s been hard at work.

“My mechanics were all out of whack during the season,” Dotson said. “I got some help with that. As soon as the season was over, I worked on stuff to make me better and to get my projection higher.”

He was called the most projectable pick in the draft and “the most talented pitcher we have coming in” by University of Georgia coach David Perno. Dotson has been to seven workouts and played in an all-star game as well.

Even at Georgia, Dotson projects to pitch exclusively and should he get drafted and agree to terms with a major league club, his days as a middle-of-the-order hitter are over.

“I’ll miss hitting,” he said. “I can’t hit with those guys, but it’ll be all right.”