How good is he?

That dream of playing Major League Baseball, shared by so many boys all throughout America, is becoming a reality for Max Stassi.

In fact, the senior catcher at Yuba City High has a real possibility of playing for a major league organization — and not after a college career either.

Early 2009 MLB draft prognostications have the standout catcher getting picked as high as sixth overall and as low as 32nd of the first round.

But before they get caught up in all the hoopla, cooler heads are prevailing in the Stassi household.

"You just can't get caught up in all of that," Max Stassi said. "It feels awesome to have your name thrown around at the top, but I'm not thinking anything of it until I hear my name called on ESPN or until it's written in stone."

His father agrees.

"You know the whole process has been pretty exciting for the family," said Max's father and coach, Jim Stassi. "You never know until June and until the name is called. The projections don't draft the players. The way we're approaching it is the worst thing that can happen for him is that he has to go to UCLA."

Aside from receiving visits from around 20 organizations following his summer of traveling and playing as a two-time All-American and a member of the USA Youth National Team, Stassi continues to work on improving.

"One of the things that stands out to me is (Max's) work ethic," said Yuba College baseball coach Tim Gloyd. "He puts in a lot of time in the weight room and does the right things. That is a big reason why he is the player he is."

Stassi led the Honkers to their second straight Sac-Joaquin Section Division III title in 2008 by batting .461, belting a school-record 15 home runs and — in between being hit by pitches or walking 33 times — collecting 45 RBIs in 87 at-bats.

In his career, he has earned two gold medals as a member of the USA Youth National Team and has been named to every first-team list in the country. He also broke the all-time home run record at Yuba City (29) before his senior year.

Runners no longer attempt to steal base while he's behind the plate. He committed just four errors in 224 chances in '08 and has a major-league ready arm.

"Defensively, he has a plus-plus arm and he's got major league power," Gloyd said. "What I like about Max is that you can't tell how good he actually is because he's so polite and humble, others do the talking for him, and that's the sign of a good baseball player. He's the best player I've seen since (Derrick) Lee."

In addition to his off-season workout, where he says he's put on 20-25 pounds, Stassi is consumed with thoughts other than the June 4 MLB draft. He's thinking three-peat.

"I definitely think we can get that third section championship, we just have to play as a team," Stassi said. "There's going to be some holes to fill, because we lost some really good players, and we'll need some guys to step in, but I definitely think we can win again."

Stassi sees this spring as another step toward playing in the big leagues.

"I would love to play professional baseball. I know I can hang with the best in the country and I'm going to play as hard as I can this spring and see where it takes me," he said.