At 6 foot 4, 215 pounds, Cody Sedlok has MLB scouts drooling. But it wasn't too long ago the Alleman grad
"He showed up at alleman at 5'10 130 pounds soaking wet," explained Alleman assistant coach John Marx.
“No one else thought it, but as a sophomore in high school, I'm watching the draft and I say I can do that, I can be a top pick in the draft," said Sedlock
It was at that point Sedlock made an important commitment, off the mound.
"It started my junior year of high school,” explains Sedlock. “I went to QCSP every day. I went there before school, I went there after school. I was waking up a 5am to work out. That season I saw my velocity jumped up and everything became a little more successful and I just ran with it."
As Sedlock got bigger, the baseball got better, with the 2 going hand in hand.
"With a pitcher especially I think people take the weight room for granted,” says Sedlock “If you do it the right way it can be a game changer"
“He goes balls to the walls and he gets everything out of it,” explains Drew Dickinson. “He transformed his body to be a dominate guy like he is now.">
"The stronger I feel , the better I feel throwing . The better I feel when i wake up in the morning, I have more energy during the day. It's a routine I've gotten myself into,” says Sedlock
The work in the weightroom continued in Champaign, but so too did the wait to make an impact.
“For 2 year's he had a great arm but we just had a lot of great pitchers here and he never complained,” says the Illini pitching coach. “Never said or thought Ii should be pitching although he could have. He just continued to work hard knowing he was gonna prepare himself to be the guy and he's done that.”
"I think I really took that into this year. I'm not taking any start or any inning in this uniform for granted,” admits Sedlock “I think my 1st 2 years has helped me and humbled into the position I'm in today."
Sedlock is projected to be a 1st round pick in June’s MLB draft but is focus still on improvement.
"He goes ‘I feel like there's more in there . i feel like 100 mph fastball in there’ and i totally agree with you,” smiles Dickinson. I’m never gonna shun you for what you think you can do. That's scary but also exciting."
“There's no doubt in my mind i have 100 in me,” admits Sedlock. “It's gonna come out. I wouldn't say sooner than later but it will."