BASEBALL: Alm hopes to further professional dreams at East Coast Pro showcase

Published 12:20 pm Tuesday, August 5, 2025

In a summer full of new sights, Gunnar Alm recently enjoyed a rarely-witnessed view – that of his bedroom.

“I’ve been home maybe four days this summer,” Alm laughed.

Since Polk County’s baseball season ended in May, the Wolverine standout has stayed busy on the travel circuit, competing throughout the South with his primary team, the South Charlotte Panthers. Alm’s next destination, though, doesn’t involve the Panthers – but does involve perhaps the biggest opportunity to date for his future.

The Polk rising senior left Thursday for Hoover, Alabama, to participate in the invitation-only East Coast Pro event. Set to run Friday through Monday, the ECP showcase is operated by Major League Baseball scouts, with those same scouts determining the players who are invited for four days of education and competition.

Now in its 30th year, East Coast Pro features the top high school seniors on the East Coast. Scouts select and invite players who will be split into six teams, with skill sessions and games held at the Hoover Met Complex. Personnel from all 30 Major League teams typically attend the event. Wooden bats will be used throughout.

It’s all designed to provide as professional an environment as possible.

“It’s the biggest thing you can do in amateur baseball,” Alm said. “It’s exciting.”

For a player hoping to one day have a chance at a professional career, Alm knows that a good showing could help open doors to that end. East Coast Pro officials say that in an average year, 80 to 110 alumni of the showcase are selected in MLB’s annual draft.

“I want to run well and do well, because typically if you do well at this event, you give yourself a chance to make a bunch of money the next July,” Alm said, referring to the draft. “I just want to compete, do the best I can do.

“I feel as good as you can going into this. We’ve played a bunch this summer, so the body’s a little sore right now. But I’ve heard there will be like 450 pro scouts, so I’ll figure out a way to feel pretty good for that.”

The brush with professional baseball is the second this summer for Alm, who traveled to Arizona in early July for the Perfect Game National Showcase. That event was held at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, giving Alm a chance to face some of the nation’s top high school players on a grand stage.

“It was crazy to be in that environment,” he said. “Just being from how small a town we are, going there, and they can fit four times our county’s population in that stadium.

“The top 120 players were all there, and it was just loaded. It was 94, 96 (miles per hour) every single at-bat, with wipeout sliders. There were 200 pro scouts there. It was different, for sure.”

Alm heads to Alabama after competing last week in the Perfect Game 17U BCS National Championship in Fort Myers, Fla. He had a two-homer, five-RBI game early in the tourney while helping lead the Panthers to the championship game, where they dropped a 1-0 decision to a team from Puerto Rico.

That tourney brought an end to 13 years of summer travel team tournaments for Alm. He’ll play in one more event with SCP, the Perfect Game WWBA World Championship in October in Jupiter, Fla. Otherwise, he’s focused on gearing up for his final baseball season at Polk County and then whatever follows.

“It’s a little different this year in that I’m not playing basketball or football,” Alm said. “We’re going to a personal trainer and a nutritionist. I’m 160 pounds now, and my goal is to be at 185 by the time baseball season rolls around next year.

“I’m just wanting to give myself as good an opportunity as I can to be drafted next July. And if I’m not selected or it’s not the right time, then I’ll go play at North Carolina State (where he is verbally committed). Those are the goals now.”