Crafty Chris Cotton
CORPUS CHRISTI - Dreams are important, and they can be life-changing. But, they require more than vision.
They take hard work. Just ask Chris Cotton.
Cotton was born to be an LSU Tiger. His father, Jim, is a graduate of LSU Dental School in New Orleans. Mother Alisa studied Radiology at LSU Medical School there. Brother Kyle holds a Baton Rouge degree, and younger sister Lauren will make it a Cotton clean sweep when she graduates.
Alisa has been known to dye the family poodles purple and gold for special occasions.
Chris' bio on the Tigers athletic website says the artful left-handed reliever would "rather walk on at LSU over any scholarship offered to me."
No one questions the claim. After all, he lived it.
Truth is, there was just one other offer. From a Florida junior college.
"They had a 10 o'clock curfew there," Cotton remembered. "I decided it wasn't for me. I was going to go to LSU."
To go to school, and nothing more. Despite posting a 9-1 record and 1.46 ERA as a senior at Shreveport's C.E. Byrd High School to go with first-team all-state honors, Cotton attracted scant attention from college programs. Perhaps it was his slight build and underwhelming velocity.
And school worked out; Cotton completed studies in International Trade and Finance.
But what happened on the mound - given his mindset in the fall of 2009 - became one of college baseball's most compelling and endearing stories. If South Carolina's Michael Roth was the face of the game as the College World Series Rosenblatt Stadium era bridged to TD Ameritrade Park in 2010-11, Cotton became a widely-known symbol of what can happen with pluck and a little luck.
Cotton was a true (uninvited) walk-on at LSU six years ago. The Tigers had captured their sixth national championship the previous spring on their 15th CWS trip.
"It was a shot in the dark. I didn't even know how to sign up," Cotton admitted. "I didn't intend to walk on. I didn't even know where to go to look for the pamphlet and the forms. My dad is good friends with (2008-10 Tiger and current Brewers Triple-A pitcher) Austin Ross' dad, and Mr. Ross told him when the walk-on tryouts were, in mid-September. We'd already been in school for about a month."
Cotton showed up along with about 40 other hopefuls. He didn't know what to expect, even as a former high school standout.
"Some of the players were talented, and others not so much. (Coach) Paul Mainieri asked five of us to come back. We wore our own clothes every day and changed in the parking lot. But, they kept telling me to come back. That went on for three months, and I still wasn't on the team when winter break rolled around. Then, they told me, 'we don't know if you'll be on the team, but keep your arm fresh.'"
The coaching staff had obviously seen something in Cotton, but he wasn't so sure.
"Those guys were the defending national champions, and I can remember thinking to myself during fall ball, 'don't (hit) hurt Blake Dean or Tyler Hanover, or Mikie Mahtook with an inside pitch.'"
Then, the good news for Cotton.
"The week before the opener (Feb. 19 vs. Shreveport's Centenary College), they told me I was on the team. It was awesome, a great feeling. My freshman year, I was a situational guy, threw a little mop-up. My sophomore year, it was more of the same. Then my junior year, that was the turning point. I was the set-up guy, and then the closer as a senior."
Known as "The Sheriff" for shutting down the opposition during LSU's 2013 Omaha run, Cotton summarizes his college career in understated terms. The numbers say otherwise. He finished 13-1 with 18 saves in 104 appearances and tied the school season save standard with 16 as a senior in addition to earning SEC Tournament MVP honors. In all, Cotton struck out 113 and walked 16 over 127 1/3 innings.
In retrospect, he knows the genesis of that "turning point."
"I'm 5-10 on a good day, with boots maybe 5-11. And 175 pounds. I'm not the biggest guy or the strongest," Cotton stated. "But, my junior and senior years at LSU, I worked hard to get stronger and get in better shape. I took it to the next level in the weight room and became more athletic. You can have talent, but if you're not willing to put in the time and effort to get better, it's not going to matter."
Cotton was 7-0 as a junior, and by then he'd fully embraced pitching in front of capacity crowds at LSU's Alex Box Stadium (10,326).
"Like football, we pack it out for baseball," Cotton said. "My first couple of years, it was intimidating to me. I can understand the effect it has on visiting teams.
"If I do have the opportunity to pitch in the big leagues, playing at LSU will have been a big reason for my success. I faced adversity, and that experience has helped me. I attribute that to LSU and the SEC."
Another life-changing moment awaited Cotton as he prepared for a home Super Regional matchup against Oklahoma in 2013.
"I was surprised to learn I'd been drafted by the Astros. I was getting out of the shower, about to head off to the game. They called and said I'd been drafted in the 14th round. I couldn't believe it. I'd talked to a handful of teams, but not Houston."
The Astros continue to appreciate what they see. Like Mainieri, they respect Cotton's competitiveness and guile. He doesn't pay much attention to the radar gun.
"Someone said I hit 92 a couple of times. I'm more of an off-speed pitcher. I throw my curve ball and change-up in any count. I feel like I have the location and change up in velocity."
Which is fine with Cotton. He grew up a Braves fan nursed on the approaches of fellow southpaw Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux. Get ahead. Throw strikes. Change speeds.
"You just have to be yourself, be comfortable with who you are. I know who I am, and who I'm not," Cotton acknowledged. "I stay in my role. I change speeds, hit my spots, and stay ahead. If I do that, I can be successful."
Don't bet against him. He's easy to cotton to, unless you're an opposing batter. A thinking man's pitcher, they know he can consistently throw each of his pitches for strikes and make his balls look like strikes.
Just ask Paul Mainieri. And the Astros. They had the foresight to take Cotton - a college senior - in the mid-teens. Cotton made eight appearances the summer he was drafted at Short Season-A Tri-City, 35 between Class A Quad Cities and High-A Lancaster last summer, and 13 more in the California League before promotion to Corpus Christi. He's 8-8 with a 2.77 ERA as a professional and has struck out 124 while walking 26 over 133 2/3 innings. Cotton's Texas League WHIP is 0.96.
And, he's not so sure he would've been a senior free agent sign, had it come to that.
"I don't know about that. I have my degree," he said when asked about a collegian's last resort to keep his dream of pro ball alive.
Hooks and Astros fans are just fine with Cotton putting the world of international trade and finance on hold for the time being.
And Cotton, he continues to take a day at a time.
"If someone had told me, six years ago at Byrd, 'you're gonna play four years at LSU and then compete for the Astros,' I would've laughed at them."
No one's laughing now.