Navarro College Scouting Report

Here is the final scouting report from the Weatherford junior college baseball tournament:

Zach Hobbs was the big left-handed starting pitcher for Navarro, but he didn't have an overpowering fastball. The slider doesn't have a ton of movement and he was trying to throw it for strikes. He was clearly pitching to contact and threw a lot of changeups as well.

J.D. Hammond is a deception right-hander with a lot of arms and legs coming at the hitter. The ball hides behind him until the last second. He wasn't throwing real hard and I don't think the delivery will work against lefties (he really tries to come in on them). He also throws a very not noteworthy curveball.

Drew Benefield is a pretty big catcher with a good arm. It looks like he may be able to generate some power with his size. As a pitcher, he had an elaborate over the top delivery but simple mechanics. He throws an okay high fastball but had more trouble when he threw it low. He just lacks the velocity. He can bury his curveball, which will help.

Tyler Wilson is clearly bigger than his listed weight. He doesn't have great bat speed and was trying to go the other way for some reason. That really cuts into his power. At first base, he didn't have much athleticism, and is a DH type (which makes the lack of power in approach frustrating).

Kaleb Goodell has the bat speed and a strong other way stroke as a small left-handed hitter. He struggled with off-speed stuff, even from right-handed pitching. He isn't very quick with the feet either.

Kevin Meredith hits balls hard on a line and plays a pretty good centerfield. He has a strong to decent arm to go along with range and run.
Mason Salazar looks athletic with a pretty good eye at he plate. He is not a good runner though and with his small size it looks like he lacks power.

J.T. Autrey is a big right-handed pitcher (6-6) that was throwing reasonably hard (although there was some solid contact made on him early). He has a pretty normal delivery and keeps his fastball low. The curveball is without big loop (Sort of a hard break but didn't look like a slider) and the change has good bite. He didn't have much control over either and the curve tended to stay up. Control is a serious issue for him except on his fastball.

Blake Griffin is a right-hander with perhaps a little deception but not a ton with his leg kick and how he uses his glove (it hides his arm). The fastball looks pretty good and he also throws what looks like a slider that breaks away from righties. He uses a changeup that breaks down. He got several whiffs on his fastball but his off-speed stuff stayed up and got hammered (his fastball then got hammered). He was absolutely crushed after a decent first two innings. He then made an adjustment and threw quality breaking pitches for whiffs.



Navraro also had a few players that were not listed on their roster. I took notes on them anyways as I expected the coach to email me back with some names and information. Apparently that wasn't very wise. I'll post the notes here with the corresponding numbers, and if any reader happens to know who these people are, I would great appreciate it if you could share that information (for now, I'm guessing I will wait until the spring, when the rosters will be better, and see if I can make the corrections).

Navarro had a scrawny right-handed pitcher with a sidearm delivery. His feature pitch drops like a change. Obviously, he didn't have good velocity but he does keep the ball low. The control wasn't great.

#9 will take a walk if you throw him breaking balls. He doesn't have a quick swing, so you can burn him with fastballs up, even when he has the platoon advantage. He can run up the line quickly with good looking speed.

#6 struggled with the strikezone against right-handed pitching. He also didn't look very good at shortstop, while #18 was destroyed by breaking balls. #28 had a lot of late swings and misses

#14 was the backup catcher. He has a slow swing and is not good at blocking pitches in the dirt with a rather weak arm.

#36 is a right-hander with decent size (looks tall) that tries to make up for velocity with deception. He gets his shoulder closed toward the hitter and then comes over the top. Has a curveball that is okay and could get him some grounders when he keeps it down (it should be hammered when up).

For ease, here are the links for all the other scouting reports from the tournament:

Panola College

Hill College

Grayson College

McLennan College

NorthEast Texas Community College

Weatherford College

North Central Texas College