Scouting Reports on Texas A&M Kingsville and Tarleton

On Sunday April 1st (No April Fools I promise) 2012, I watched Texas A&M Kingsville play Tarleton University.

The starting pitcher for Kingsville was Zachary Pettiford, a right handed junior listed at 6-4 220. He was throwing quite a bit harder than Tarleton's starter (more on him later), but was most likely south of 90 MPH. He also had a hard slider and a curveball, and although he threw some good ones, he had real control issues with those pitches. He hit a batter with one, but they seemed to be good complementary pitches even though he will have to live with mainly his fastball while those pitches develop. I am not sure he can do that with his fastball. He gave up lots of flyballs and it turned into lots of runs in the game.

For Kingville's lineup, Sophomore Dustin Aguilar can fly, at 5-10 165. The center fielder has a decent arm but had some trouble with the breaking ball. For the most part he wasn't chasing but he really didn't do much with pitches I thought he should have crushed. Ben Villafuerte can play in both the outfield and 2nd base (where I saw him). The small junior wasn't real fast and lacks patience at the plate. Trent Wagner has good size at 6-3 200, but the right fielder is really slow out in the field. Catcher Jake Mediola has a good arm, with a relatively quick release. Predictably, the senior is pretty slow. 1st baseman James Wallace looked awful on most breaking pitches, even though he did smack a hanging one. The junior drove the ball to the wall once but struck out the next time. The DH was listed 2nd baseman/pitcher Cameron Dullnig. The senior had some pretty lackluster swings, even with a couple of hits. He can definately run though. 3rd baseman James Black drove the ball pretty well in his at-bats. The junior stands at 6-0 185. Mario Siller is a small freshman shortstop who isn't a quick runner. He did seem pretty solid in the field,but couldn't drive the ball very well. Julian Duran had an awful drop in left field, and was chasing a bunch of breaking pitches. He does run pretty well though.

Cole Foster is a freshman right handed reliever who stands at just 5-11 179. He isn't going to blow you away with velocity, but not many pitches were in the middle of the plate. He threw mainly fastballs, with a very mediocre breaking pitch that he couldn't get down. The glove flies ahead of him in his delivery and 2 of his first 3 pitches turned into contact. He does field his position pretty well.

For Tarleton, a team I have seen 3 times now (and will see them at least one more time), the starter was Matt Buckmaster, a pitcher I have seen before (read previous posts to see more detailed scouting reports on the team). The lefty junkballer threw a lot of strikes (his first two fastballs were down the middle), and had some hard hit balls. His breaking ball stayed pretty low, but it provides very little speed differential.
Landon Thompson is a guy who I have seen with the bat and in the field but hadn't seen pitch yet. He is just 5-11 190, and has okay velocity. His plan was clearly to just throw a lot of low fastballs. They weren't fooling anyone, and just made him get behind in the count. When the fastballs crept up he was hurt and he couldn't consistently throw them low. He broke out a curve but has little to no feel for it. He threw a couple good ones finally, only to hang the next one. Even though he was awful for the most part, his fastball seemed better when he put it on the inside or the outside of the plate (and not at the low part).
Kyle Supack came in and showed a good pickoff move. He got a nice jamshot and put a lot of fastballs in the middle to middle low part of the plate. He hit 2 batters in a row and was absolutely tattooed.
Tanner Ross was throwing a lot of curveballs and looked a lot better than the last time I saw him. He had some good stuff, and was getting quite a bit of swing and misses early but then walked 2 in a row as the stuff became less deceptive.

For the lineup on a day when the ball was carrying, Garrett Hardey hit a homer on a breaking pitch. That is pretty remarkable considering he hasn't done anything on breaking balls in other at-bats I have seen him. Defensively, he looked awful with 2 really bad defensive plays.
Ryan Small hit a double on a fastball right down the middle. Andrew Jacobi DH'ed but is listed as a catcher, and is really small for a catcher. He can run though, which he has to as he is a ground-ball hitter. Andrew Wolfe made a really nice play at center field, while Noah Ringenberger looked bad out in right field. He did drive a low fastball to the wall though.