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Friday, July 6, 2012

Notes on the USA Baseball Prospect Classic

I watched a couple of games (one online and another one on MLB Network) of the USA Baseball Prospect Classic. Here are some notes on some of the players:

Stephen Gonsalves is a left handed pitcher with a 90-92 MPH fastball. Skinny and tall, he could grow out more and potentially gain velocity. He has a whole lot of motion in his delivery with a big arm swing. It provides some deception and makes his fastball look harder than it actually is. He was fastball heavy early on and got a whiff on his fastball from Michael Lorenzen. His curveball was 72-73 MPH and moves both vertically and horizontally. He didn't have a lot of command but has a good pick-off move. 

Ryne Stanek of Arkansas is considered a potential top draft pick in the 2013 draft. He showed off a 93-94 MPH fastball that occasionally hit 95-96 MPH. It isn't completely flat, with almost has late sink, and he keeps it middle or low. He has a hard curve with some good break at 80-82 MPH and showed off some big break at times. His 86-87 MPH slider looks a lot like the curve, and looked like a better pitch when he got it down, but he made a lot of high mistakes with it. Most importantly, he has swing and miss stuff. He had a long layoff before his 2nd inning and his fastball looked flat at 93 MPH and was turned into a hit. All of his breaking stuff was really inconsistent. At times it looks great, other times, not that great.

Cameron Varga is right hander with a 91-93 MPH fastball and a 81 MPH breaking ball that hung high in the zone. He actually has a couple different breaking balls, one a 78-79 MPH curve that was really effective. His command really wasn't there, especially on his breaking ball and he really struggled.

Keegan Thompson, from the Class of 2013 from Alabama has a 90 MPH fastball with a mainly high breaking ball didn't look good at 85 MPH that looked like the change. He was struggling with control, but had a pretty good curve in the mid 70s. He hit 92 MPH once when he got ahead 0-2 and things around him weren't going well. He has a little bit of a weird arm action and when he was locating the fastball low, it work liked a relatively effective sinker.

Carson Sands out of Florida (Class of 2014) has a 90-91 MPH lefty fastball. He has a decent looking breaking ball that stayed too high. You may get tired of hearing this, but his command and control was pretty raw.

Austin Cousino showed off a not very impressive arm in center. He isn't very big, and was jammed on a 95 MPH fastball. A normal at-bat including him getting jammed then chasing a breaking ball. He just didn't look good at plate but he can run.

D.J. Peterson got around on a couple 95 MPH fastballs, with a foul and then a hard pulled single. Along with the quick bat, he has a weird swing with almost has a hitch in his body. The righty came open a little too quick on a hanging breaking ball, grounding out to 3rd. Peterson also got blown away by a fastball, and looked at a breaking ball in zone. He is a first baseman, and didn't look good there defensively.
Garrett Williams was also blown away by a fastball. He looked bad on the breaking ball as well. His lefty swing is pretty violent and almost one handed. He has a great arm and pitches as well. The left hander was at 89 MPH on the fastball with a 77 MPH sweeping curve and 85 MPH unimpressive change. He is part of the 2013 class out of Louisiana.
Trevor Williams of Arizona State hit 94 MPH on the fastball. He can sink it, and is a groundball guy. His change didn't look very good with a not good movement or location. He was effective though.
Marco Gonzalez hit a high 93 MPH fastball out of the zone for a double to the wall. He also got a bloop hit the other way. He has a good looking left handed swing with good bat control. He pulled a fastball down the middle from a lefty for a line drive single. He can also pitch, and evidently pretty well from what I have heard.
Jose Trevino has good power but looked bad on good breaking balls. He also whiffed on fastball that caught a lot of the plate at 90 MPH. He is just a big, raw hitter.
Bryson Brigman looks like he has good speed, and got a hit the other way. Nathan Conforto is a high schooler from Alabama that DH'ed. He had a bad whiff on a hanging breaking ball.
Reese McGuire is a good receiving catcher with a not necessarily a good throwing arm (even though it looks like he has the arm strength). In the Class of 2013 out of Washington, the left handed hitter has a quick uppercut swing.
Johnny Field has an extremely weak arm in left field. He has a pull swing and is an okay runner.
Trea Turner is a burner that seems to have a good eye. He doesn't have a power swing, but he did hit a ball pretty hard
Timmy Richards from Long Beach (class of 2013) is a Cal State Fullerton commit. The skinny shortstop should fill out a little. He was fooled badly by a not all that good breaking ball. It doesn't appear to handle the bat really well or have a good eye. He has a really goofy swing. He runs okay from what I saw, but isn't a real fast runner. He also made a bad play out in the field.

Cavan Biggio (son of Craig Biggio) is a balanced hitter, and can go the other way and pull it. He has some power and pulled a difficult outside pitch for HR. He is a contact guy that will chase pitches.

 Drew Ward looks good at 3rd base and is a good looking athlete. He is a lefty hitter looked silly chasing breaking balls.
 Jake Reed is pretty short and has a little bit of a low arm angle. He is just 88-89 MPH (touched 90 MPH) as a righty.
Kevin Davis is a righty at 91-92 MPH with a bit of sink. He struggled to throw strikes but has a decent looking soft slider/curve
William Abreu is lefty hitter with good size and speed and plays CF.

Dan Child of  Oregon State has a weird messy delivery with a huge leg kick. He sits at 92-93 MPH with some deception and side to side movement at times. The slider doesn't look very good, and stays high.

Nick Gordon is very raw both defensively and offensively but has elite speed like his brother Dee.

Ian Clarkin (University of San Diego commit) is a left hander that throws 92-93 MPH with a big looping curve at 71 MPH. The fastball rides high and it looks like he has a 82 MPH changeup. He didn't show any command at all of his  breaking pitches.

Dominic Taccolini, a high school right handed pitcher out of Sugarland Texas, is a big guy but is only throwing 90-91 MPH. It also looked like he threw a separate moving fastball that was 1-2 MPH slower and had some decent break, but he left it up too much. He also has a curve and a slider that have decent breaks.

Hunter Green, a lefty from Kentucky with a 87-90 (he hit 92 MPH once, but it was pretty wild) MPH fastball that he can locate low. His curveball is at 73-75 MPH with a changeup at about 80-82 MPH. The curveball looked better than the change, especially when you factor in current command. His velocity is inconsistent on all his pitches, and he was having some control issues.

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