The Smokin' Sports Gun

This article was gotten on off  SheaBaseball.com. The article was written by Brian Pollack a guest writer at sheabaseball.com.  This guy you're going to here about is ridiculous, the story is ridiculous, there's really no weaknesses in his game...AND HE'S ONLY 17-YEARS-OLD.

There is an old saying that applies to the Mets more then ever. "Leave no stone unturned". With Brian Bannister, Victor Zambrano and John Maine injured, the Mets back end of the rotation is reduced to played journeyman, never-was Jeremi Gonzalez and has-been Jose Lima. Out of the two, Gonzalez is the most likely to do anything positive, as Lima has shown that all he can do is fail. When your ERA is over 8.00, in both Norfolk and the Major Leagues, it is time to hang it up. But the Mets are still short of pitchers; there are not many options out there to plug into the rotation. Sure, there are the options of Aaron Heilman, Alay Soler and Mike Pelfrey, but it doesn't seem like there is much hope for those options. When all of logical options are exhausted, it is time to look elsewhere, and that is where international scouting comes in.

When you want to win, you must bring in the best, and that brings me to Estonia. Estonia is best known for oil shale; it is hardly a hotbed for talented baseball prospects. But in the town of Kohtla-Järve, there is a seventeen year-old phenom: Nikoliya Tsych-Litschova, a 6'6", two hundred fifteen pound lefthander is the next big thing. His fastball tops out in the high nineties and is complimented by an absolutely sick "twelve-to-six" curveball that never fails to buckle the batter's knees, as well as two different change-ups (a circle change and the euphus pitch) which both average a speed of about sixty-three miles per hour, as well as a cut-fastball that rides in hard to righties.

Born to an oil shank miner in Kohtla-Järve, Nikoliya never recieved a formal education. From the age of seven he was put to work doing odds and ends around town, though he was able to get some education in between the various duties he was forced to do. He never had a lot of money and each day was a struggle toget by. The only thing his family had going for them was that they had a small piece of farm land; the only way they got through each day was living off what they were able to grow out on the land. Nikoliya worked twelve hours a day, six days a week, whether it was running errands for the elderly, sweeping up the streets, or working on the farm making sure the land was fertile.

He never knew his mother, who died while giving birth to him. His only form of entertainment was throwing a homemade baseball with his father, Grischko. Grischko learned the game of baseball as a teenager in the Soviet army during World War Two. Nikoliya needed no instructions on how to throw the ball; the art just came naturally to him. Since they had no extra money to spend on such trivial matters as baseballs, Nikoliya had to make due with a rock that was welded inside the skin of a cow. When he wasn't working, he was throwing the ball. Be it with his father or throwing it off the side of the abandoned barn on the land. That was after being banned by his father from doing it on the side of his house because he had thrown several holes into the house.

Sometimes it is funny how things work out. Living in Estonia, a baseball player would not expect to be discovered; Estonia not exactly the place to be when you're an up-and-coming superstar. Sometimes fate has a funny way of showing up. Freelance scout John McDrew was taking his annual vacation backpacking through Europe, when, while hiking through Estonia, he passed by the Tsych-Litschova residence at the exact moment Nikoliya was throwing the ball around. Astonished at what he saw, he pulled out his videophone, taped a video and proceeded to send it back to America. Within days, innumerous scouts came from Major League teams to watch him pitch, and pitch he did. He constantly touched ninety-seven MPH on the radar gun. When asked to throw his curveball, a catcher that a scout had brought with him was fooled on the break of the pitch every time.

"This kid has absolutely sick stuff: his motion is fluid, he has all the tools you can ask for in a pitcher." said one NL scout.

When asked about what weakness he has and how long until he may see Major League hitters, the scout said, "I can't find a mechanical weakness in his game. Throwing his fastball at ninety-seven miles per hour as a seventeen year-old is an incredibly scary notion when thinking of how fast he will throw when he grows into his body. I would not beshocked to see his fastball reach one hundred and five miles per hour.

"Emotionally and physically might be another story. Since he has only tossed the ball around here, we are not sure how long he will be able to make it into games at first. But once again, when he grows into his body that should not be much of a problem. The only thing we cannot tell from watching him s how he will handle the stress. We will not know how he will handle it when people start to get hits off of him.

"As for how long it will take, that all depends on the situation. On some teams it could take anywhere from four to five years, while other teams may give him the spot as soon as he's eighteen. He is that good. Again, it depends on the situation, as well as the teams philosophy."

When asked where he would prefer to play, Nikoliya, through an interpreter, expressed no preference. While no exact numbers are known yet, bidding could reach up to three million dollars per year for this phenom. It is expected that the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers will be the teams to make the biggest push to land Nikoliya.

While there is no timetable for him to sign, Nikoliya and Grischko would like to see this process completed within several days. Whichever team Nikoliya does sign with, if he signs at all, will be getting the next big thing; a mix of Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson.

Bryan Pollack is a guest columnist for SheaBaseball.com.

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