Arlington Martin High School Scouting Report

I was able to watch Arlington Martin High School, one of the best high school baseball teams in the country according to Perfect Game, and the highest rated out of teams in the Metroplex.

Tyler Kendrick is a small senior who looked quick, but ran a 3.82 on a bunt and a 4.34 on a traditional swing/ground-ball as a left-handed hitter. The bat looks pretty quick, and he occasionally breaks out the jail break swing, but it came with swings and misses.

Joshua Watson is stout already as a sophomore, is pretty short, and is not a great looking runner. He pulled a pitch that was left up in the zone for a homer. It was a really bad mistake, but you see that there is some pop there.

Matthew Waller has pretty good size as a senior, and as a catcher he is not much of a runner. His arm behind the plate is legit and he looked athletic behind the plate, and seems like a good receiver/framer. At the plate, he was clearly cheating for power.

Andrew Dowdy seemed pretty solid in centerfield, but he wasn't really tested. The senior has a very slappy swing, is a contact premium guy. He showed good, though I would hesitate to call it plus speed, and ran about a 7.4 on a double. He will chase, but he pulled a ball better than I expected he would.

Anthony Lyons has very good size, and will probably fill out, even though he is a senior. The left-handed hitter played right-field and his arm looked very weak out there. His actions in the field were awkward and not very good, but he may just have not grown into his body yet, though his routes were just awful. At the plate, he showed plate discipline but had some really poor swings. Lyons has some real raw strength and ran a 3.84 on a bunt. Here is a video of him at the plate (you can watch another shorter video of him here):

Turner Larkins played 1st base, has good size, though he may be a little short, so there may be concerns that he has filled out already as a junior. He ran a 4.53 to first, and has a little bit of pop and got under the ball.

Daniel Lingua has solid size as a junior, along with some good running strides, but it was not showing up in speed, and he ran 4.19 on a bunt and 4.47 on a "dig". The swing can get long and upper cut happy, but he showed good range at 2nd base and the arm seems fine.

Landon Sackett has an easy plus arm at 3rd as a junior, and while his range and athleticism looks solid, he is really slow, running a 4.63 to first and a 8.79 on a double. He has a dip in his swing, but some good bat control.

Colton Hoisager is a junior who DH'ed, even though he doesn't look big. It is hard to trust high school managers' decisions when assessing players, but he may just be a bad defender. He is slow and not much of a runner, and his swing looked pretty slow as well, with a big uppercut.

Nathan Soraka was the starter, and the sophomore (actually only listed on the JV roster) showed what I thought was an advanced feel for pitching. He looked like he had decent size on the mound, and his delivery was relatively easy, especially his body. He brings his arm way back, not quite like Brian Fuentes, but it sort of reminds me of it (and obviously he is right-handed)

He threw just 78-80 MPH, sometimes dropping into the mid 70s. He showed a lot of curves that had 2 way break that is impressive at times. It broke, just like his fastball did a lot, glove side, but he had problems getting it down. He threw it for strikes and the fastball isn't straight. However, he was not really athletic off the mound. While it is certainly too early to tell what Soraka will do, he looks like a college reliever to me, how big the college probably depends on how his fastball develops.

Cole Dobbs is a senior right-hand pitcher that is 5-10 and already filled out. He was throwing 78-81 MPH and the same kind of curve as Soranka that was 62-64 MPH with 2 plane break.