Scouting Reports on Rice's Baseball Team

I went and saw Rice and TCU play a Fall Game on October 14th in Round Rock. Here is the report on Rice:

Austin Kubitza is a 6-5 202 right handed pitcher that threw a lot of off-speed pitches, especially to begin his outing. He doesn't throw especially hard, showing off more of a sinker than a fastball at 89-90 MPH. He gets arm-side tail and downward movement on the fastball/sinker. He works with what looks like a good change that he can throw for strikes along with a slider that he gets very good movement on (glove side) and bounces quite often.

Jordan Stephens is 6-1, which is small for a right-handed pitcher. He tries to make up for this with a high leg kick in his delivery to hide the ball. He keeps the ball low and didn't want to come in at all. He has mediocre off-speed without sharp bite that he can throw for strikes. When he missed, he missed out of the zone, and not in the zone. He threw a few decent looking fastballs, getting up to 90 MPH, but high and up is not where the good ones are.

Zech Lemond is a RHP with good size, but still has the turn and the leg kick you see in many college pitchers (usually when they are trying to compensate for size, as we saw in the Weatherford tournament). It helps him hide the ball obviously, but he also wasn't very consistent with it. He keeps his 89-92 MPH fastball low, with some good armside tail. The command wasn't bad, but it wasn't very good. He was hanging his slider/off-speed pitch a lot, but it was a good pitch when he got it down.

John Simms has good size at 6-3 210 and has a quirky delivery. He comes quickly and perhaps violently over the top. He has a leg kick and his lower half actually pretty quiet. He throws what is a really nice looking change. The fastball doesn't have great velocity (not quite 90 MPH), but he locates it well and it seems to have good life. His 3rd pitch is a slider/curve that he can throw for strikes.

Chase McDowell sits in the upper 80s-low 90s, but looks shorter than his listed 6-2. He throws a lot of fastballs, most of them high and straight and it looks pretty good.

Ford Stainback has a pretty good tight swing to go with his crouched stance. He can hit the ball the other way and has what looks like good hand-eye coordination that helps him have a good contact tool. He is also a decent looking athlete.

Michael Ratterree is a senior that seems to have a little pop. Rice has a lot of mistake hitters that like to go the other way. Skyler Ewing is stocky and slow, but he can go the other way at the plate and has good plate discipline. The big 1st baseman seemed solid on defense. He obviously isn't going to move well, but has good fundamentals.

Geoff Perrott is a senior catcher with a very good arm (his arm may have been he best tool in the game for either team) and a quick release. He is not big, in fact, even though he is listed at 6-2 205, he doesn't look like a catcher. At the plate, he was way ahead of the changeup (you can fool him with the breaking ball) and has an uppercut swing. With that said, he can drive the ball, and looks like an excellent gap/doubles hitter.

It is hard to get excited about small senior (Rice has a lot of seniors it seems) infielders, but Christian Stringer had a nice double off a lefty (as a lefty). He can run, but is not a burner. His swing may be a little long with somewhat of a hitch.

Leon Byrd is not a patient lead-off hitter as a freshman, but he runs decent (he almost seems pudgy for his height). He is a slap hitter and is going to hit a ton of ground-balls and try to beat them out.

Keenen Cook is a guy with good speed who drove the ball well and plays 2nd base. Blake Fox plays first base and showed off some other way strength. Connor Teykl is a freshman that also doubles as a pitcher. He showed off decent run with surprising gap power considering his size (188 pounds). He was out in front of the change and didn't show off great plate discipline.