Draft prospect Pack Jr. counts Kemp, Crawford, MLB Develops as major influences

PHOENIX -- Anthony Pack Jr. remembers the feeling. As a young kid, he looked out at Dodger Stadium, that wide expanse of green grass, and saw Matt Kemp patrolling center field. It was then that the Long Beach, Calif., native knew: he loved baseball.

Now a prospect in the 2025 Draft class who has had his own successful prep career, Pack has gone from watching big leaguers from the stands to counting one among his most influential mentors.

More than a decade ago, there was another dynamic left-handed hitter from Long Beach making waves. J.P. Crawford attended Lakewood HS, rivals of Pack’s Millikan HS, and hit, ran and flashed the leather at such an advanced level that the Phillies took him with the 16th overall pick in 2013. Nine big league seasons, more than 750 hits and a Gold Glove later, and Crawford is still going strong, while also giving back to the next wave of talent.

Crawford is a member of the foundation team at Baseball Generations, which aims to give young baseball players from all backgrounds the opportunity to play the game. In addition to what they do on the field, the company cites a desire to help youth improve off it as well, which is how Crawford met Pack, who played in one of the organization’s tournaments in 2023. The two still keep in touch, especially after Pack helped lead Millikan to a pair of wins over Lakewood this year.

“J.P. is definitely not only a mentor to me, but kind of a big brother,” Pack said. “We just talk about things beyond baseball. He's been through what I'm doing right now.”

Pack has gained vital advice from other avenues as well, including the MLB Develops program. Something of a veteran of the circuit, having appeared in eight events (the DREAM Series and Hank Aaron Invitational among them) over a two-year span, Pack has emerged as one of the faces among the current prep crop due to his outgoing personality and comfortability in front of the camera -- but it wasn’t always that way.

“My first interview, I was a young 11th grader, a lot of cameras on me,” Pack said. “I was really nervous, but you know, as I did more and more, I think I got better at it and I'm a lot less nervous.

“MLB Develops just helped me not make it too big. You know, this is actually a big deal, but it just mellowed me down and just settled me down. Now I know what to say, know what to do and it just helped me overall.”

And while Pack has made strides off the field, he has emerged on it as well. A University of Texas commit, Pack's wheels are his highest-graded tool and help him to cover tons of ground in center field. MLB’s No. 240 Draft prospect got to show off those skills in front of big league evaluators during the MLB Draft Combine in mid-June.

At the dish, Pack boasts a compact left-handed swing. Listed at just 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds, the power has been slow to come, but it’s not from a lack of vigilance. The 18-year-old has been in the lab re-working his bat path to help facilitate his evolution as an all-around player.

“Back in the day, I was just swinging how I did when I was young,” Pack said. “I didn't really have any mechanics, any batting coaches. But now that I have really good batting coaches, I just simplified my swing. I’m just doing everything that's efficient and not doing too much, and it's been working, and I'm still working on it every day to perfect a repetitive swing.”

Sure, Pack enjoys playing video games and hitting the beach, but he’s obsessive about his craft. It’s why he’s traversed the country for years, putting his name on the map by playing -- and excelling -- in events against some of the top-tier competition in this year’s Draft class.

“I just keep the main thing the main thing,” Pack said. “I just wanna play baseball. I want to make it to the highest level possible, and at the end of the day, I wanna be a legend one day."

Pack, citing the lessons he's learned both on the field and off it, offers a glimpse into what a big league organization would be getting by drafting him:

“You would get a hard worker, somebody who's competitive, a perfectionist,” he said. “But you'd also get a good person and a great teammate.”