Saturday, February 9, 2013

Southlake Carroll Scouting Report (2013)

I saw Southlake Carroll High School play on February 9th. Last year, I saw them play and wrote about them here.

Tyler Alexander was the starting left-handed pitcher, a senior that is evidently committed to TCU. His fastball got down to 85-86 MPH and got up to 89-90 MPH. He hides the ball behind a high leg kick and a general tilt towards first base. He also has an occasional little bit of glove flutter.


His solid arm action helps him get good plane on the ball, and he seems to stay on top of it well. He is athletic and proved to be a good fielder on the mound. The only breaking pitch he showed was a pretty rare 76 MPH 2 plane curve that almost knuckles into righties. A scout at the game wasn't as impressed with the pitch as I was. He absolutely chewed up lefties and was able to get in on righties. Assuming he is able to add a little more velocity to his average fastball, this is a legitimate MLB prospect. The scout said this was the problem, it is tough to know whether he will actually add velocity, and if he does, how much. He has the size, good height, and he is still a little skinny. He certainly could, but that doesn't necessarily mean he will.

Nic Motley played some behind the plate, and the tall and slender player didn't really look the part, and he had problems blocking the ball. At the plate, he really struggled with breaking balls, swinging through some pitches with a long uppercut swing. He definitely gets under the ball, and seems susceptible to the infield fly-ball.

Chris Altimont doesn't have good size or speed, but was the leadoff hitter. He showed some good bat control and is pretty aggressive. He did show a little pop, but it is probably all pull power.

Hayden Zier is a left-handed hitting catcher that is a little small and scrawny. He has an uppercut stroke, and handled low and in balls well. Despite the size, he has solid blocking and receiving skills and a good arm behind the plate. He doesn't have great bat speed, and is pull happy/ahead of breaking pitches.

Kenny Hill is a good sized 3rd baseman, who may get too big to stay there. His throwing motion is a little strange, but he does have good arm strength. At the plate, his swing is slow, and there is a lot of swing and miss.

Barry Casey played 1st base, and has 1st base/corner outfielder build. His swing is slow, and he is slow, with a 4.62 to first base. He does have some really good pull power though. I just don't think the rest of his game is well rounded enough.

Preston LeJuene is short and already built out. He doesn't have plus run, but he made a great plate at 2nd base. He makes good contact, but he is a little too aggressive.

Ryan Nolan has a quick swing that makes it hard to get in on him, despite the fact that he batted at the bottom of the order. He is not very fast though.

Tech commitment Sean Thompson is a short stocky righty that comes straight over the top. He got up to 88 MPH on his fastball, but his velocity was really inconsistent, sitting at 85-86 MPH a lot. He got a lot of whiffs and it really ran in on righties. The scout really liked his changeup that usually sat at 81 MPH. It had really nice horizontal movement on it. He also showed a 12-6 curve, but I think he threw it just once. Just like Alexander, he gets on top of the ball pretty well.

Ben Leeper is a scrawny projection pitcher, with a high leg kick, and a very similar delivery to Alexander, except from the right-side. Delivery repetition may be a problem, and his control wasn't nearly as sharp as the two pitchers above. Another guy that gets on top of the ball, he threw 89-91 MPH when he was at his best and he climbed the latter well. However, he didn't throw as hard out of the windup, and got down to 84-86 MPH (and overall, he lost velocity really quickly). His curveball is in the low 70s and breaks into lefties. It sort of knuckles sort of like Alexander's, though it doesn't have as much horizontal movement as his.

Bryce Balkman is a senior that is planning to walk on to Oklahoma State. A former basketball player, the right-hander has very good height, but has a very rigid delivery. It is not very fluid, and he had some problems repeating it and his command and control was just not there. He was sinking a 81-84 MPH fastball (honestly, it looked like a change, but that is as hard as he threw) that he kept pretty low and mixed it with a curve that broke just vertically.

Mack Morgan is a short deceptive delivery that turns his back briefly to the hitter. He is a junk pitcher that sits in the mid 70s and touches 81 MPH. He got down to 66 MPH on the curveball.

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