Troy

It's a scene that plays out around the minor leagues, the bus pulls in, the lights go on, players struggle to wake up, unpack the bus, sort out their laundry and then go home and sleep a few hours before coming back to the ballpark for a home game later that evening.

The Tri-City ValleyCats had returned Thursday morning to Joe Bruno Stadium, the sun already risen, from the first road trip of the year, a short 303-mile one-way trip to Aberdeen for a three-game set with the Ironbirds.

"I saw a lot of tired faces, sleepy eyes. I think it was five or six when we got back today," said 27-year-old manager Jason Bell, who's in his first season as a manager, making a transition himself while guiding Seth Beer, Riley Cabral and their teammates' transition into the Astros organization.

"For me, it's all about preparing the schedule to help them," said Bell, the second-youngest skipper in minor league baseball behind the Hudson Valley Renegades' 25-year-old Blake Butera. "So today, we didn't do on-field batting practice. We're kind of easing them into the day, so they're ready for 7 o'clock, rather than having them do a lot of work and not being ready for the game."

Just over a month ago, two of the newest ValleyCats, Beer and Cabral, were college kids, balancing studying and playing a college baseball schedule that generally included four games and two practices a week.

"In college, you play a weekend series and then a midweek on Tuesday, sometimes you've got one on Thursday," Beer said just outside the Tri City ValleyCats indoor batting cage early Thursday evening. He was selected in the first round, 28th overall by the Houston Astros in the 2018 MLB draft.

"Transferring to seven games a week is different. Mentally, you also have to adjust to that as well. You practice and play in the same day."

For Cabral, a round-faced flamethrowing right-hander from Oklahoma who played college baseball at Chipola College and the University of Memphis, the difference between college and professional baseball is in the atmosphere.

"Pro ball is more laid back because it's on you whether you do your stuff or not, whereas in college you're kinda forced to work out, to run, to do everything as a team," said Cabral, who has a fastball that scrapes 96 mph. "So here it's just basically on you. If you want to fulfill your dream and get to the bigs, it's on you."

The Astros took him in the 31st round of this year's draft. It was his second time being drafted; the Arizona Diamondbacks took him in the 13th round last year, but Cabral opted to spend another year in college.

Being a first-round pick, it would be understandable if Beer, who played college baseball at Clemson, felt some level of pressure or expectation. He's been an elite athlete in two sports, having set an age group record as a 12-year-old in the 50-meter backstroke that put him on the map as a potential Olympic-caliber swimmer.

"I think expectation is something that internally you can put on yourself," Beer said. "Thankfully, I think Clemson prepared me a lot for what the expectations are like and how to deal with them... so for me, it's not as bad as it could be, and I'm just going to keep it loose, free and easy."

Of all the players you'll see at Joe Bruno Stadium this summer, Beer is the one you'll likely see in the major leagues before long. Two of the past four outfielders drafted out of college in the first round by the Astros are playing in Houston this season, and both Derek Fisher and 2017 World Series MVP George Springer both played for the ValleyCats.

But whether his players are first-rounders or 40th-rounders or undrafted free agents, Bell, the manager, thinks they all have a shot.

"If you are in our organization, you have a chance," Bell said. "Just because you're a first-rounder or a 40th-rounder ... at this point in your career, if you perform and you get better, you have a chance. Our organization isn't just having guys in that they don't think can play. There may be less of a chance, but there's still a chance."

lskodnick@timesunion.com • 518-454-5425 • @LeifSkodnick