Ridgewood Teen Drafted Into MLB

The Baltimore Orioles made Pedro Beato the happiest man in Ridgewood. The Orioles selected the 6-foot-5, 210 pound right-hander with the 32nd selection in Major League Baseball’s amateur draft on Tuesday, June 6.
“It’s a great team and it’s going to be a great experience,” he said from the Sheepshead Bay home of Mel Zitter, his summer baseball coach with Youth Service League Inc.
Beato, 19, pitched in front of eight Oriole scouts, including their scouting director, in Baltimore last Saturday in an exhibition game with Youth Service. “I didn’t throw as well as I’m capable of,” he said, “but I showed some stuff and it obviously paid off.”
However, his workout with the Orioles appeared to impress their scouts.
“He’s very strong,” said Orioles Scouting Director Joe Jordan. “He’s a 6-foot-6 kid that’s gonna be an innings eater. We saw him hit 95 or 96 mph this year with both a breaking ball and a change-up.”
Originally selected as a draft-and-follow in the 17th round last June by the New York Mets, Beato starred at Xaverian High School in Brooklyn. He was considered a possible first round pick during his junior year until he underwent reconstructive elbow surgery on April 26th of 2004. However, he rebounded, and was brilliant this past spring, pitching for St. Petersburg College in Florida, where he went 6-3 with a 2.75 ERA.
Many felt Beato would end up with the Mets, but the Flushing team balked at Beato’s asking price that reportedly exceeded $1 million. Now he will likely get his money; the first pick in the second round of last year’s draft signed a contract of $1.25 million.
“He’s going to get a lot more money than the Mets offered him,” said Zitter, a former scout in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization. “I expect he’s going to sign. … He got drafted very high and he’s very happy.”
“My career starts now, that’s what I’m thinking,” Beato said.