Hard to believe that in less than 10 years ago, Jakob Hall was the short kid with the long flowing black hair — Beatles style — that rumbled around the bases like a whirling tornado for the United Linen team in Bartlesville Area Amateur Baseball 14-and-under league play.
His next stop will be pro baseball.
Since the mid-2010s, Hall sprang up to be a 6-foot-2 disciplined diamond dynamo. More importantly, on Monday he became just the fifth Bartlesville High School player in the last 35 years to be picked in the Major League Baseball draft. The Twins chose him on the second day of the three-day event.
The Minnesota Twins tabbed him on the eighth-round (248th overall pick). Hall is the first former Bartlesville Bruin to be drafted since the Baltimore Orioles selected pitcher James Teague in the 37th round of the 2016 draft.
Hall recently completed his junior season at Oral Roberts University, where he established himself as one of the ace starting pitchers. The powerful right-hander recorded big career numbers as an ORU Golden Eagle hurler — a 20-6 record, 4.12 earned run average, 232 innings pitched, 239 strikeouts, only 47 walks and giving up an opposing batting average of .253.
His sophomore and junior years he surged to a cumulative 18-6 record, a sub-4.00 ERA, 205.2 innings, 204 strikeouts and only 38 walks.
Although he looked forward to his senior season (2025) at ORU, Hall said joining the Minnesota organization was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse.
“They (the Twins) gave me something I didn’t want to turn down,” Hall said, adding he hadn’t been expected to be picked until much further in the draft.
“My advisor said he thought I might be picked the third day,” Hall said, adding that: “This (playing pro baseball) is the only thing I’ve imagined doing for my career. It’s been a dream.”
Prior to college, Hall sparkled for the Bartlesville High and Doenges Ford summer baseball teams . His senior year at Bartlesville Hall registered an 0.559 ERA.
“We’re just really proud of him,” said Bartlesville High head baseball coach Cody Price. “Jake has obviously worked really hard to get to this point. More than that, he’s just an awesome kid. …When your best player is one of your most coachable kids, everyone on the team sees that. … I’ve never, ever had a single issue with Jake. This could not have happened to a better guy.”
Hall — who is looking forward next week to his physical and contract signing with the Twins — is just at the starting gate of the thrust that he hopes will carry him to the Big Show with Minnesota. First he’s got to run the course through the minor leagues. I definitely have to get bigger, faster, stronger,” he said. “I think the big thing holding me back is velocity (on his fast ball).”
Many major league pitchers throw in the mid-90s to 100-plus, while he clocks out at about 88-to-92 miles per hour, Hall explained.
“I’ll have to get better with my off-speed pitchers and get used to pro hitters,” he added.
Now he has the golden chance to transform his dream into vivid reality.
Former Bruins drafted in the late 1980s or 1990s included Tim Pugh, Curtis Shaw and Russ McGinnis, Both Pugh and McGinnis advanced to the MLB and Shaw made it to AAA ball. Teague spent three seasons in the minors before ending a promising pro career by retiring to attend law school.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Bartlesville grad Jakob Hall to seize opportunity with Twins
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