With a 1.51 ERA and 43 strikeouts in eight starts this season after recovering from Tommy John surgery, Jupiter Hammerheads pitcher Jordan Holloway may be one of the Miami Marlins’ best pitching prospects.

If this were to become the trend for the remainder of his minor league career, Holloway could soon be the Marlins’ biggest Draft steal in recent history. He has the talent of a top round draft pick but was taken in the 20th round back in 2014.

Holloway committed to Nebraska-Omaha but eventually signed for $400,000. With a fastball that ranges from 95-99 mph, he showed top-of-the-rotation potential in Bativia in 2015 with a 2.91 ERA in 14 starts. He struggled in Greensboro in 2016-17 before Tommy John erased all but a month of 2018.  Striking out nine batters with no walks in 7 2/3 innings turned out to be a precursor to this season in Jupiter.

Much of his potential came from his athletic upbringing in Colorado, right in the outskirts of Denver. Altitude was a hard trainer for most athletes, especially pitchers. Most pitchers in the big leagues wouldn’t wish pitching in Coors Field on their worst enemies and the same goes for those in prep and college. However, for the initiated, it can make them that much better than the rest.

“Growing up, I didn’t know any different,” Holloway said. “I didn’t start traveling around the states until I was probably 16-17 years old so obviously altitude was always just a thin. You never really thought of it, it was just baseball to you. Now that I understand it, I’m 22 years old now and I’ve pretty much played everywhere on the East Coast, it’s crazy how much it plays a factor. I definitely makes you learn the hard way if you’re up in the zone. You get a pop fly, it can be a home run. Not even in Colorado, even in Low A like when I was in Greensboro, just places with higher altitude than like down here, it’s just like if something gets hit up in the air relatively hard there’s a possibility of it being gone so you learn to be a ground ball pitcher and work in the bottom of the zone.”

Holloway has become a full-time Floridan since last year and in a weird twist of fate, an element that was once natural to him became painfully foreign.

“I didn’t move down here until I had Tommy John,” Holloway said. “After that I’ve lived down here every single offseason. When I’d go home I would just be sucking in air and I couldn’t breathe. I could barely get through a warmup let alone a workout where I couldn’t breathe. It felt like my lungs were on fire. When I lived in Colorado and I came down here to Spring Training, I could just run laps around people because I just didn’t feel the same fatigue that these other guys did that lived more like in Florida because it felt easier. My lungs felt like they were 10X more powerful than they did when I moved and now when I go back and visit it feels like my lungs were on fire every single time I do anything like walk my dog with my mom. Like I need to take a break cause I can’t breathe. It’s crazy.”

Athletes who train in high altitude acquire more red blood cells which allows their blood to carry more oxygen. Juan Pierre had a similar experience coming to Florida after spending the first three years of his career with the Colorado Rockies. They get a natural boost to their muscles when additional oxygen is available at lower altitudes.

“It’s crazy how in shape you get,” Holloway said, “and the effects are relatively really quick. It normally takes me two or three weeks to get used to it and then after that I feel good again.”

For Gables High School to the University of South Florida to the Colorado Rockies farm system, Coco Montes is adding another notch of the legacy of Miami baseball.

It’s similar to how those in the rap game have to represent their area — California, New York, Atlanta, etc — in the battle of geographic supremacy. The minor league baseball clubhouse is no different. While California, Texas, Arizona and Virginia are baseball hotbeds, none of them compare to Miami.

“In Miami Dade County, baseball is just different for people,” Montes said. “It’s the best county in the country in baseball. We produce the most baseball players and it’s something that I’ve taken pride in.”

Nearly 100 players from high schools and colleges in Florida were selected in the 2018 MLB Draft, Montes among them when selected in the 15th round by the Rockies. He was the fourth USF Bull to be drafted. Shane McClanahan was taken by the Tampa Bay Rays with the 31st pick. The Chicago White Sox selected Andrew Perez in the eighth round. David Villar went to the San Francisco Giants in the 11th round.

“The numbers don’t lie,” Montes said. “Baseball America came out with it last year, most baseball players since 2000 has been from Miami Dade County. I think Broward County is second and it’s basically right next to us.”

For the early part of the South Atlantic League season, Montes shared a clubhouse with Eric Hepple, who is from Margate and played at Central Florida. The two were part of one of college sports’ most underrated rivalries until both being drafted by the Rockies last summer. While one played in Pioneer League and the other in the Northwest League last season, the two converged in Asheville, N.C., as members of the Tourists. While the two didn’t really know each other and faced off in the diamond one time, Montes knew many of the players on the UCF side of the rivalry and called it one of his favorite weeks in the college baseball season.

Montes recalled USF sweeping UCF at home during his sophomore season in 2017 as his best memory.

“Predictions for regionals had just came out,” Montes said, “and our coach was pissed off because they predicted UCF to be in a regional that year and they had us out of it. And we had them the next day and we swept them that weekend. So of that rivalry that was probably my favorite. We won the series all three years so it’s something I’m happy about.”

Montes made his professional debut with the Grand Junction Rockies last summer, winning Pioneer League MVP for slashing .333/.413/.513 with eight home runs and 42 RBI in 69 games. A very nice season to say the least. Montes saw Grand Junction as a place where he could get his work in every day and that was usually enough for him. It was also a place for him to experience the altitude of his future big league home for the first time.

“I had bad, bad, bad headaches the first four days in Colorado,” Montes said. “I didn’t know what it was. I thought I was either dehydrated or something. I was chugging water. I would get to the field and be fine. I go through practice fine and then as soon as I got home and laid in bed I had horrible headaches like every night for four days until I got used to it.”

Now he’s in Asheville, a beer garden carved out of the forest near the Appalachian Mountains. McCormick Field, a 95-year-old gem, showcases a green monster of it’s own with all the trees and foliage just beyond the outfield wall.

“I love this field a lot,” Montes said. “It’s amazing. The green behind the stadium really makes it good for a hitter to see the ball. It’s historic, you walk around the concourse and you see all the guys that have played here and it’s really cool.”

In some places, minor league baseball is the only show in town during the summer. Asheville is one of those towns. While the life of a minor league baseball player can be a grind, being the big attraction in town helps alleviate that in a way that makes it all worth it.

“It’s been good,” Montes said. “Asheville, we get a good crowd. The fans really support us and it’s really welcoming coming here and being something that the town actually looks forward to. Coming to the Tourists games and hoping that we win and make the playoffs is like a big deal around here.”

May 21 was Bark in the Park night at the site of the first Thirsty Thursday. Montes game the crowd something to bark and celebratorily chug beer bats about when he drove in the winning run on a walk-off bunt single in the bottom of the ninth against division leading Charleston.

Origins of Coco: His full name is Robert Patrick Montes, and yet was given the nickname “Coco” since he was a child.

“When I was a baby, I was born with a full head of hair,” Montes said, “and so when I got home my mother decided to shave my head. I don’t know why she did it but she shaved my head and my grandfather started calling me “cocoliso,” which is a hispanic way of calling someone bald coconut basically and it ended up sticking to “Coco.”

The photos come from the camera of Matt Valdez. Follow him on Twitter @MattValdez116