Denton High School Scouting Report

Here are some scouting reports on Denton High School:

Mark Johnson is a Junior right-handed pitcher that has size, but won't fill out, as the weight is already there. He sat in the mid 70s and maxed out at 79-81 MPH with a little bit of sink. He was working mostly armside, but was throwing strikes and worked low in the zone. He also threw curveballs that got down to 61-63 MPH. He does not come in on lefties and has nothing that really sweeps away from righties. Overall, he didn't seem to have a put away pitch. In his delivery, he brings a high leg kick, and doesn't pause, but he doesn't fluidly continue his delivery. With runners on base, he lost absolutely all fluidity in his motion, and it really cost him his command.

Interestingly, people in the stands complained about the lack of pitching Denton has had over the past couple of years. As a hitter, Johnson is a bad body type that doesn't run well and has a pull swing. Terrance Lucas is a short lead-off hitter, that has decent to plus speed. He plays centerfield, and even though he has good plate discipline, he doesn't have great bat speed. He gets under the ball a little bit too much for a player of his type. Malik Minter is an athletic Freshman shortstop that looked pretty good defensively. He is lanky, so he has some room to fill out, but he has some swing and contact problems. With that said, his plate discipline wasn't bad.

Roman Arnold is a tall and lanky reliever (perhaps a projection righty) that threw a fastball in the 78-79 MPH range, a change in the low 70s, and a curve that was 63-64 MPH. He didn't command the curveball very well at all, but it is a decent pitch with two way tilt, and he really likes to throw it. He has a pretty clean and calm delivery, though he gets a little jerky and sometimes the actual speed of the delivery was different. However, he hides the ball well and uses his frame. Like Johnson, his delivery sort of breaks down when he couldn't use his leg kick with runners on. He also tended to yank the ball glove side. As a left-handed hitter, he fell for a slurve, and had a slow swing that tries to get under the ball.

Dylan Tekell has a pretty quick bat, but was very aggressive, and was eaten up by breaking balls. As a catcher, he had good blocking skills, and the arm strength and accuracy seemed fine. However, his throwing motion had serious problems and hurt his throws. As a short and stocky catcher, he is not going to have speed, but quickness behind the plate was a little bit of a problem.

Josh Chavez was 78-79 MPH on his fastball, touching 80-81 MPH (and getting down as low as 74-76 MPH). The short right-hander has a 3/4ths delivery and his pitches had some sink and drop. He threw mainly fastballs with maybe a few changeups mixed in, and also broke out a 63-69 MPH curveball. He locates reasonably well, mainly low and glove side, but also pulled the ball a little bit too much a few times.