From brushing off an early-inning home run to no-hitting the hottest lineup on earth, Sean Manaea carries himself with quiet confidence.
But that wasn't always the case.
In the small town of Wanatah, Ind., (population 1,017), the A's left-hander stood out as the best young pitching prospect in the middle of hoops country _ but how much stock was he supposed to put into that?
He had hardly even garnered a sniff from Division I college programs, and even when he got his D-I chance at second-tier Indiana State he hadn't exactly blown the doors off that opportunity and flourished.
So what got into Manaea that summer on the eastern-most shore of Massachusetts, pitching in one of baseball's mythical proving grounds, the Cape Cod League?
He hadn't been feeling great about his stuff heading there. It was hard for Manaea to see how his fastball, which sat around 88-92 mph at the time, would find success against the likes of players like Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber and the other top collegians who assemble in Cape Cod each summer.
"For me it was like, don't embarrass yourself and be one of those guys who comes here for two weeks and gets cut," Manaea said. "I didn't want to be one of those guys."
But on June 14, 2012, when he took the mound for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks for the first time that summer, Manaea underwent a transformation.
"I don't know what happened," he said. "(But) I saw like 95-96 on the radar gun and thought, 'Where the hell did that come from?' "
He immediately put that heat to good use, striking out eight batters and everything began to flow.
Not only did he last well beyond the two weeks, he dominated the Cape Cod League for two full months _ setting a new strikeout record (85 in 57 1/3 innings) en route to being named the league's top prospect over the Judges and the Schwarbers.
In case he needed confirmation that his velocity was up in a big way, Manaea hit 98 on the radar gun while in Cape Cod.
Up too was his confidence. No longer just a big fish in a small pond dominating hitters around Indiana and the Missouri Valley.
Suddenly he was legit MLB prospect with endless potential.
And he was starting to believe it.
