By George Zeliff
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Spring 2024 has been a big deal for Scottsdale native Cam Caminiti.

While he led Saguaro High School to its fourth baseball state championship title, and he also was selected 24th overall in the 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft on Sunday, July 14.

Caminiti said winning the 4A state championship was a short term goal, and getting drafted was a long term goal. At 17-years-old, the Atlanta Braves selected the youngest player in the first round.

“There were a lot of emotions flowing,” Caminiti said. “I remember as soon as I heard my name called, I immediately started tearing up, just hugged my family and then when I walked out, I didn’t think there would be that many people cheering for me. It was so cool just walking out, shaking the commissioner’s hand, and then it was pretty quick after I got picked, a lot of media stuff, interviews and then signed some autographs.”

Caminiti spent the next two days in Texas meeting fellow first round picks and watching the MLB All-Star game and Home Run derby. He also met new Braves’ teammates Max Fried and Marcell Ozuna.

Joe Muecke, Caminiti’s high school coach, said the Braves got a great kid and a steal at No. 24. Muecke said Caminiti has all the intangibles and always showed a great understanding of how to respond to failure. Even when things went well, Caminiti trained just as hard to duplicate his success.

“He threw a couple innings for us in our opening scrimmage as a freshman,” Muecke said. “In two innings, he had five strikeouts, and these are against three and four years older than him…You knew something was pretty special. There’s not very common for a freshman to come in and just make it look as easy as he did.”

Caminiti finished his 2024 campaign with 114 strikeouts in 52.2 innings and a 0.93 ERA. He allowed two hits and threw 11 strikeouts in the 2-1 championship victory over Canyon del Oro, and that was also his third complete game of the season.

Muecke said as Caminiti matured, he learned to attack the zone for a higher strikeout percentage. Caminiti had never pitched a complete game for Saguaro before this past season.

“I think my mentality improved a lot more on the mound,” Caminiti said. “Not worrying about the past or the future, controlling the controllables, positive self-talk, and then just thinking about the next pitch, the next pitch, executing every pitch. My mentality and my command definitely got a lot better.”

Caminiti took seven classes a day and attended summer school to reclassify from the class of 2025 to the class of 2024. He said it was tough in the offseason with no baseball, but during the season, baseball got him through long days.

Caminiti had 34 hits, 28 RBIs and three home runs in his senior season. He wants to give both hitting and pitching a try at the professional level, and he said he’ll work as hard as he can to help the Braves.

“I want to win baseball games,” Caminiti said. “I want to win a World Series for the Braves. They’re getting someone who’s going to come in there, compete, try and win and give his very best every single day. I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”