Jacob Stone Scouting Report

I saw Jacob Stone pitch for Weatherford College on February 8th (I wrote about the rest of Weatherford team here), and wanted to write a whole post on him. The right-handed pitcher was drafted in the 39th round by the Cincinnati Reds in 2012 after throwing 61 innings as a freshman, striking out 1 less hitter than he threw innings in 11 starts, with a 2.4 K/BB (no batters faced data). The 19 year old will turn 20 in April, and actually turned down a football scholarship to pitch at Weatherford

Despite this, Stone is not a big guy for a pitcher (listed at 6-1 200 by Baseball Reference and 6-0 205 by Weatherford's official game program), so the first reaction is that he will be a reliever as a pro. He could theoretically add a little weight, so a little more velocity could be coming in the future. I found his warm up routine a little strange as he consistently wouldn't get on the mound for his first 2 or three tosses every inning. Here is a little video of him:

Stone had some command issues early on, causing scouts to really shake their heads. However, he showed some good command in the 2nd and 3rd, only to be squeezed by the umpire. He walked the first 3 hitters in the game but really settled down after that. He wasn't putting hitters away early because he was throwing way too many fastballs, and not many of them were for strikes. A few of his fastballs showed a little bit of sink. I tried to log his pitches by pitch type, velocity, and location. After the first couple of innings, I quit listing velocity as it made it easier for me to write notes on other players and still log every pitch (I threw out and just ignored a few pitches because of mistakes). With that said, he was still throwing about 88-90 in the middle innings. I inputted them into a spreadsheet that you can look through below (they aren't in order and are just sorted by pitch below):




The curveball breaks both horizontally and vertically, and is good when spiked. He also threw a couple of really nice strikes with them. He located some really well and I thought it was his best pitch.

He threw a change a few times to lefties, and it did not look like a good pitch (or one he could get down). A couple of other times he threw what looked sort of like the change but could have been bad curves. I just left them out so I didn't misclassify them.

For whatever it is worth, he gave up just 1 hit in 5 innings. There was 1, maybe 2 hard hit balls in the outing. But as noted above, scouts seemed generally disappointed in the outing.

According to the pitches I collected, Stone threw 3 changeups (4.2 %), 23 curves (32.3 %), and 45 fastballs (63.4 %). So the fastball percentage is rather normal, but the curve percentage is really high. You often see a pitcher, especially a relief pitcher, throw sliders over 30% of the time, but that many curves seem rare. Wandy Rodriguez was the only qualified starter to throw more than 30% curves, and it was lower than Stone's. Just 4 MLB pitchers that pitched at least 50 innings in 2012 threw more than 32.3 % curves, while 33 pitchers threw at least that many sliders. It is enough to reconsider pitch classification, but it is clearly not hard enough to be a slider.

Out of the fastballs I kept the velocity for, Stone averaged 89.68 MPH. Obviously you can project another MPH or two, and if he moves to the bullpen, he could add another MPH or two, but his fastball most compares to Brandon Lyon and A.J. Griffin's in the Majors. His curveball averaged 74.46 MPH, closest to Nathan Eovaldi's curveball. An 80 MPH changeup is also below average, close to both A.J. Griffin and Joe Vargas.

Here is his very simple heat map (agnostic towards balls and strikes):

4	6	5
11	4	5
5	20	11

As you can see, thanks to both his curveball, and his ability to sink or at least his fastball low, Stone threw the ball low in the outing I saw him. This most likely limits his strikeout abilities/helps his ground-ball abilites, and also shows that he seems to realize his stuff isn't plus, and as most pitchers with below average fastballs tend to work low, Stone works low as well.

Stone obviously isn't a great draft prospect, but he is draftable as a 2 pitch average fastball reliever. While A.J. Griffin's name came up a couple of times, I don't think Stone has the tools to be a starter like Griffin does, seems to locate the ball low more than Griffin, and doesn't have the fastball movement like Griffin does. I am not sure what round Stone deserves to go in, but I would think he is a 2nd half of the draft guy, past the 20th round, depending on signability. This is really cliche, but a lot depends on his command. My guess is that as a reliever, he will be able to command like I saw him command in the 2nd and 3rd innings especially, keeping the ball low and throwing a lot of curveballs and fastball/sinkers. If he is able to do that, he may not miss many bats, but he could get a lot of guys out in the minors with that stuff.

Weatherford College (Spring 2013)

I saw Weatherford College Play on February 8th, mainly to see Jacob Stone pitch. I have seen Weatherford play several times over the last calender year, so I don't writeup a lot of the players, but there are some notes on a few different players here. Here is my article on Jacob Stone, but this post is on the rest of the team. I noticed that a lot of the Coyotes seem to have some kind of hitch in their swing that makes it harder for them to get around on fastballs. That is, it took a while for their swings to get started, and you could get inside on them.

Paxton Delagarza is a Freshman shortstop that was a pre-season All American as a senior at Coronado (Lubbock) high school. Originally a Missouri commit, he doesn't have much speed, as I got him at 4.47 to first base. He also didn't have great bat speed, and his swing got a little long as he was clearly trying to pull the ball.

Tyler Lewis doesn't look like a first baseman (thought that is where he played), and he isn't built like one either (listed at 5-11, 185), but the freshman ran a 8.65 on a double, which is really slow. He made a good play on defense, but at the plate he was eaten up on breaking pitches, as he lunges heavily in his swing.

Cole Fiola is a freshman outfielder from Denton (Guyer) that showed a quick bat (and stung the ball hard), but he didn't really show great running abilities. The small left-hander hit .329 as a senior (.415 OBP) in college, which in context, isn't that great of batting average.

Sophomore Outfielder Collin Sefcik runs pretty well, even though his running form seems really strange. At the plate, the left-handed batter really struggled with a right-hander changeup. As a freshman, he played in 25 games but really struggled, with a .295 OBP, with just 1 extra base hit and no steals.

Skyler Wheeler was the first reliever, and I saw him and wrote about him in the fall. He was grunting pretty audibly, and that delivery has to be pretty effort filled:

His breaking ball looked good, and he got good movement on all his pitches, but he was a little too fine and it to a couple of walks. However, he was wild and threw pitches to both sides of the plate. He wasn't throwing particularly hard and didn't throw a lot of fastballs (and didn't throw many strikes with them when he did). The ball was hit really well off of him, and hitters were able to get under his breaking ball.

Dustin Emmons was used as the closer, and scouts that had left (at least, left their seats) came back to watch him pitch:

His fastball sat between 86-88 MPH, and his breaking ball was between 76-80 MPH.

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.

Midland College Scouting Report

I saw Midland College play on February 8th 2013:

Jake Bateman is a 6-2 211 right-handed pitcher that started for Midland. The Sophomore from Dallas that was dominant in 2012, giving up just 12 runs in 52 innings. However, he struck out less than a guy per 2 innings. The Texas Tech commit has the decent size, but comes with a high sidearm delivery, sitting in the low 80s (83 MPH seemed to be the average). Here is some video of him facing Hunter Lockwood, the catcher from Weatherford College (who I timed at 4.31 running to first later in the game):

Most of the scouts put away their guns when Bateman started to pitch, especially after the first couple of readings. The delivery has to be a little hard for right-handed batters to pick up. His fastball has a little bit of sink, but stayed high a lot. He tended to pitch inside to righties. He faced a very right-handed heavy lineup, and held them reasonably well until he gave up a 2 run homer to Trooper Reynolds in the bottom of the 6th. He still gave up less than a hit per inning in the game, and last year as a freshman. He also throws a changeup that slides both ways to get outside to righties. At 73 MPH, this is what he threw to the few lefties he had to face.

Jared Robinson is a right-handed pitcher that is listed at 6 feet, and looked very short. There is a lot to his delivery, as he brings his hands to his crotch, then raises them up, and then has a high leg kick. He obviously gets rid of this when runners are on. When runners are on, that is delivery is easy and clean, but it is quite a dramatic change. He struggled to throw strikes when runners were on.

He showed a good curve that he spiked a lot, it didn't have a lot of loop or velo, but he located and hides it well. He located a few fastballs well down in the zone and sat in the mid 80s. He throws an okay curve that has decent dip but he slows his arm speed down. He doesn't have a MLB profile, but he absolutely dominated. He threw just 8.2 innings last year as a freshman.

Joel Atkinson played short, but the Sophomore didn't show great range or speed and didn't have very soft hands. He is small, listed at 5-8 153 pounds. He originally signed to play baseball at Oklahoma State, but is now committed to Northwestern State. He had a below average range factor in 2012, but had a decent OBP (thanks to nearly as many HBPs as walks).

Blair Beck is a Midland native, and the 6-1 190 Sophomore doesn't have raw power, but has line drive abilities. I wish he didn't dip his hips, and he has a hitch in his swing, but the swing itself is solid and he stayed in on curves well. He originally was going to Texas Tech, but never played there and really struggled at the plate in 2012 for Midland.

2nd baseman Matt Reyes showed some good contact skills and a decent eye. Another Midland native, the sophomore is relatively small, and definitely has a slap swing. He was a little late on some fastballs, but showed a little bit of potential gap power. Perfect Game timed him at 6.64 in the 60, noting his speed and flat bat in swing. He put together an OBP over .400, mainly thanks to his high batting average, and he had a good range factor as well at 2nd.

Tyler Barlow has a squared stance, and it takes his bat a little while to get going. He is listed as a catcher, so it isn't a surprise that he is slow. However, he played 3rd base in the game, and obviously has a good arm and showed some decent athleticism. At the plate, he had some problems with the curveball. The Canadian didn't post MLB type pop times for Perfect Game, but overall they seemed to like his defense. They also noted he had good bat speed and a good swing.

Chris Shaw clubbed a ball to the wall, and showed some decent speed and athleticism. The Freshman from Canada is listed as a catcher, but I believe he DH'ed. He is not the Chris Shaw drafted by the Mets that went to Boston College.

Hunter Redman was the actual catcher, and he showed off a decent arm back there. He is small (5-11 188), but the Sophomore is athletic behind the plate. He has signed to play with Texas Tech, where his brother has played.

Corner outfielder Ethan Kohnle really stung a ball and showed off a good swing with solid contact. Not really build like a middle infielder, the left-handed hitter, right handed thrower really struggled with breaking balls. He didn't walk much as a freshman, but had a decent offensive season anyway.

David Reyes Scouting Report

David Reyes is a 21 year old (turns 22 in April) Mexican League right-handed pitcher. I watched him pitch for Mexico in the Caribbean Series. Reyes came in to face Miguel Tejada as a right-handed reliever, and got him to fly-out to center. He would then pitch the 6th inning and would get all fly-balls (though one was an infield fly-ball).

Reyes is listed at 190 and 6-0, but looks skinny, and probably has some projection, so just size-wise, he is probably going to remain a reliever long term. 

He's got impressive tilt on slider, with lots of horizontal movement to the glove side, especially late. It is a little soft at 79-81 MPH, but it darts out of the zone pretty well. I could see it being homer prone if left up.

Reyes has a 89-91 MPH fastball, that is pretty straight, but he gets a little bit of glove side movement. He seems to be a very slider/fastball heavy pitcher (but he is clearly not sinker/slider pitcher, as the fastball is thrown up high and works like a 4-seamer). He seemed to miss off the plate on the glove side quite a bit. He also broke out a slow curve at 72 MPH that breaks just up and down like a traditional 12-6 curve.

As far as his delivery goes, Reyes has sort of a high leg kick and pause, and a delivery that clearly looks like a reliever motion. The motion is not fluid, and the glove is in a weird place (away from the body and to the right) when he finishes). His arm angle is a pretty traditional 3/4 delivery.

In 2012, Reyes pitched in 30 games in the Mexican League (57 innings), mainly as a reliever. He had a 3.85 FIP, in a league where the average FIP was 4.29. Since Mexico Diablos Rojas' (Reyes team in 2012) 2 year (raw) park factor is about 113 (so just for ease, we will change average expected FIP to 4.85), this about a 79 FIP -. While his H/9IP (not a predictive statistic thanks to BABIP) was right at league average, he did a better than league average job at limiting homers. Considering he looked like a fly-ball pitcher to me, this surprised me. However, he has been a good ground-ball pitcher in Mexico, getting 45.8 GB% in his two years in the Mexican League, while league average was 43.9 % in 2012. So this is why he has been able to hold opponents to a .130 ISO and 10.4 HR/OFB % (with league average at 12.4 in 2012) in his 82.1 career innings. Of course, since he is a reliever, these numbers need to be regressed some to determine value. He does nothing especially well, that is, he is not an exceptional strikeout pitcher or control pitcher, but he has been above average, even when looking at non-homer DIPs like SIERA and kwERA as a young pitcher (only 8 pitchers 21 or younger threw at least 40 innings in the Mexican League in 2012, and only one, Remberto Romo, was better in terms of FIP).

Obviously the lack of a plus fastball makes Reyes less interesting as a possible MLB prospect (and ignoring the logistical and contract problems that sometimes arise in these situations), but he does have two breaking pitches that may not be plus, but could be MLB pitches. I would like to see more strikeouts from Reyes, but he is a little advanced for his age.

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. 

Howard College Scouting Reports

Overall, Howard College was a really slow team without great athletes or defense. They clearly value the batting and offensive skills more than speed and defense (or that is at least how their roster shakes out). 
Cameron Neal is small (the Redshirt Freshman is listed at 5-8 160), but he comes with some (but not great) some bat skills (though he certainly isn't going to hit for power).He played centerfield and showed good range and athleticism, but he ran just a 4.34 to first and struggled with jumps and reads. Reggie Wilson ran a 4.28 to first and was too passive at the plate, taking pitches right down the middle.

Reed Seeley doesn't have much run either, but showcased a quick bat and solid follow through in his swing. He struggled with changeups, and at 3rd base he clearly didn't have the athleticism, but he did show off his arm, which is a plus.
Omar Garcia is a slow Redshirt Sophomore. Zach Ake ran about a 4.47 to first base. The Sophomore infielder is on the smaller side at 5-10 180

Keegan Sanford struggled in left and is another player with below average run. At the plate, he has an other way approach and struggled with pitch recognition, as he was burned on changes by left-handers as a right-handed hitter and then took curves down the middle.

Jose Favela played behind the plate, but it was clear that he didn't belong there. He is a very big player that just doesn't have enough athleticism to block balls, but he did have a good arm, which is why he was most likely there. At the plate, his stance doesn't take advantage of his size, and he doesn't show as much power as you would expect (his power to strength ratio is off basically). His bat is too relaxed on his shoulder, but he makes up for it with a very quick bat. Unfortunately, it is more of a slap swing, and he isn't able to get under the ball.

Brian Drapeau was the only reliever I saw, and the right-hander is big and stocky, offering no real projection (the 220 is probably a little conservative). He has a quick delivery, but not a great stride.

His fastball sat at 82-84 MPH, but it was not straight. The change sat about 73 MPH, with some decent movement, but it stayed up. His 76-77 MPH (touching 78 MPH) was his most consistent pitch in movement, location, and velocity, and it was the pitch he threw the most. In fact, he really struggled when he went to the fastball or the changeup. The slider has some nice left to right action, and is not really a "dirt pitch" (meaning, he is trying to throw strikes with it, or at least stay near the zone). He had good command of it, putting in places that made it hard for left-handers and right-handers to hit it.

The starting pitcher was Tommy Burns, and his scouting report will be with something larger that I am working on that I will link to here when I am done.