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After
an eye-opening performance a few nights ago, mammoth 2017 righthander
Joe
Boyle
pitched again on Wednesday, albeit in a short relief appearance.
Despite the short stint, Boyle showed again what has evaluators
salivating at his future potential, working 88-89 and touching 90
with a loose, easy arm action and almost limitless velocity
potential. He’s taken steps forward in his command in just the past
few weeks alone, to the point where he throws strikes consistently
and shows the ability to work side to side with his fastball. It may
have been just an easy one inning for Boyle, but it was anything but
to opposing hitters.
2017
righthander Caden Lemons, a very recent Ole Miss commitment,
combined with Jacob Sears on a no-hitter for the Excel Blue Wave on
Wednesday morning. Lemons is a 6-foot-6, 170-pound prospect with the
kind of loose, easy athleticism and arm action that, when coupled
with his obvious physical projection, makes it easy to dream on his
potential. Touching as high as 88 and working in the mid-80s
throughout his start, Lemons showed a very advanced feel for
commanding the fastball to all four quadrants of the strike zone with
relative ease while maintaining velocity throughout, a rare pairing
for such a young prospect.
2017
shortstop/third baseman and Florida Gators commit Greg
Lewandoski showed
off the already well-known hit/power combination that made him such a
highly sought-after prospect in the class of 2017. Playing at the
cavernous Cartersville baseball complex, Lewandoski made it look very
small early on in their Wednesday afternoon game, jumping on an
elevated fastball at the letters and smashing it deep over the wall
in left field. Lewandoski has always had advanced bat speed and
overall hitting mechanics, but he’s really added strength to his
swing as well, showcasing the plus power potential that will
assuredly make him a dangerous threat in the middle of the Gators
lineup in a few years.
Just
a few days ago, 2017 shortstop Jacob Nesbit committed to
Arkansas, and impressed not only the Arkansas coaches, but the
Perfect Game scouting staff as well on Wednesday afternoon. Showing a
very athletic, highly-projectable frame and overall physicality,
Nesbit immediately stands out in the field with smooth actions with
soft, sure hands and first-step quickness to both sides. He made an
outstanding play up the middle, ranging far to his right before
snagging a groundball at near full extension, then showing off his
athleticism and body control by gathering himself well enough—while
still on the run—to make a hard, accurate throw to nab the runner
by a step. His arm strength is already solid with certainly more to
come, along with the quick release and clean arm action that project
him to stay on the left side of the infield for years to come.
At
the plate he hits from a semi-crouched stance while a bit open with
front hip, then loads back smoothly with a quick foot up-foot down
timer, closing off the front hip as the front foot comes down and
firing through online. His hands go back a bit towards the catcher in
his load, but the barrel stays in a good spot and his advanced hand
quickness and direct path allow him to get the barrel to the zone
quickly and stay in the zone for a long time, with natural loft and
excellent bat speed. There is very little wasted movement in his
swing, and he already shows gap-to-gap power, driving a ball off the
wall deep into the left-center field gap with backspin and impressive
carry, and that present power will only turn into more as he
continues to physically develop. He’s a very impressive prospect,
both with the glove and with the bat.
During
the first round of playoff action on Wednesday night, Chain National
threw their ace, 2017 lefthander and Florida State commit D.L.
Hall, a 6-foor-2, 170-pound prospect from Valdosta, Ga. Hall was
impressive earlier this week, and was dominant yet again in this
outing. Working 90-92 and touching 93 mph in the first inning, Hall’s
fastball was explosive out of his hand and absolutely dominating to
opposing hitters, with excellent life to the arm side with some
deception out of his hand, as a result of his hiding the ball well up
until actual release.
Hall’s
velocity dipped a little bit from that point on, but was still 88-91
for the majority of his outing. His arm is very loose throughout, and
though there is some effort there, he’s able to repeat his delivery
very well and hold up over the course of multiple innings. He’s
highly projectable with room to fill on his frame, as well as the
athleticism to handle that additional weight/strength and maintain
the looseness throughout his delivery and arm action.
He
brought his hammer with him on Wednesday as well, showing a very
sharp, legitimate swing-and-miss curveball that has power depth and
very tight spin. He was able to throw it for strikes as well as throw
it as a chase pitch down and out of the zone, eliciting several
flailing hacks on it throughout the start. Commanding both his power
fastball and power curveball, Hall was able to easily breeze through
opposing hitters, racking up 11 strikeouts over his five innings on
the mound. He has certainly entered his name into the conversation as
far as the preeminent lefthanders in the class of 2017.
The
most impressive, most physical swings of the day came from 2017
Golston Gillespie of Team Elite Louisville Slugger, who showed
off the kind of raw hitting tools from both sides of the plate that
are often unheard of for rising juniors. At 6-foot-4, 210-pounds,
Gillespie already has plus strength, but it was the rest of the
package that was downright incredible late Wednesday night. Showing
lightning-fast bat speed with that already impressive strength,
Gillespie impacts the ball harder than even some of the top prospects
two years older than he is, and he does it from both sides. He
drilled a home run from the left side and a double from the right,
releasing big swing after big swing and impacting the ball better,
more square, and harder with more consistency than anyone we’ve
seen in a single game setting so far this tournament. With even more
room to grow on his already well-built frame, Gillespie has a chance
to be the marquee name when it comes to prep power by the time the
2017 MLB Draft rolls around in just under two years.
– Brian
Sakowski
Connor
Hamilton
(2017, Forestport, N.Y.) is currently ranked 99th in the 2017 class
according to Perfect Game as he’s hit the ball very hard from the
right side ever since appearing in a PG tournament. Yesterday
afternoon Hamilton not only showed off his strength but he displayed
a strong feel for hitting as he generated solid extension out front
and went with an outer-half pitch, driving it down into the right
field corner for a double to put Syracuse up 1-0 early in the game.
He
may have just finished his freshman year of high school but by
looking at Dawson Barr’s
raw stuff on the mound it’d be hard to tell. A 6-foot-1, 175-pound
righthander, Barr climbed all he way up to No. 18 in the latest 2018
class rankings, and despite throwing earlier in the tournament he
again turned in a solid performance to justify his lofty positioning.
Watching
from behind during his pre-game bullpen allowed the college coaches a
look at just how much his stuff moves even as he was warming up as he
throws from a long and loose arm action before releasing from a low
three-quarters slot. Barr topped out at 90 mph with his fastball
early on and consistently lived in the 86-89 range but still projects
given the looseness of his arm and the athleticism on the mound. The
velocity is more than impressive for a 2018 graduate, but it’s the
heavy, late sinking life that truly sets him apart. As one would
imagine Barr is able to induce weak ground ball contact though he
also has the ability to miss bats with three pitches.
Over
the first two innings Barr worked exclusively off his fastball/slider
combination and didn’t need much else to show much else, but he
did. Thrown in the mid- to upper-70s, Barr’s slider shows true
two-plane depth with tilt away from righthanded hitters giving him a
second pitch that he can miss bats with. As the innings wore on Barr
began to show another above average pitch, a changeup that came in at
80-81 mph. Maintaining his slot it’s easy to see why the changeup
is as good as it was given the life on his fastball and he showed
just as much feel for it, pulling the string whenever he needed to.
Not
in the program for Elite Squad Prime, David
Luethje
(2018, Vero Beach, Fla.) had coaches looking for his name after the
long and loose 6-foot-4, 170-pound righthander threw a couple of
warmup pitches. Moving on into the game it looked as though Luethje
was still just playing catch as he remained loose and fluid with his
arm action and did so with relative ease.
Early
on Luethje was up to 88 mph with his fastball and lived comfortably
in the 84-87 range from his high three-quarters arm slot, showing
cutting life to his glove side at times. As the innings wore on he
began to get on top of the ball better which allowed him to work down
in the zone while missing barrels with his fastball. Given his age
and length Luethje did a nice job of controlling his long levers on
the mound and he’s only going to throw harder as he continues to
fill out his broad-shouldered frame.
He
showed some strong pitchability as well for a player of his age as he
featured three different off-speed pitches with his slider being the
best of the group. Though he slows his arm action slightly on the 74
mph bender it already showed quality shape with some depth and will
continue to develop into a true swing-and-miss pitch as he continues
to throw it and maintain. Luethje’s changeup featured some diving
action down in the zone from the same high three-quarters arm slot in
the 77-79 mph range.
Though
only going into his junior this upcoming spring righthander Weston
Bizzle (2017,
Memphis, Tenn.) is no stranger to throwing in high-level games as he
already has 30 events listed in his profile. Already committed to
Vanderbilt, Bizzle is one of the more consistent arms in the 2017
class as he consistently competes on the mound, fills up the zone
with quality strikes and gives his team a chance to win every time he
takes the ball.
Bizzle
shows quality stuff on the mound but when the deception he creates in
his delivery is added into the equation it makes for a difficult and
uncomfortable at-bat. Working with an up-tempo, high energy delivery,
Bizzle has a hip turn at the top of the delivery which helps hide the
ball before showing a quick arm that produced a fastball upwards of
92 mph a time or two early in the outing. The future Commodore threw
a total of five innings and in that time lived in the 86-90 mph
rather comfortably from a high three-quarters arm slot. When he
stayed on top of the ball he was able to generate solid downhill
plane while locating to either side of the plate.
Combining
his fastball life and command with his breaking ball Bizzle was able
to strikeout 11 in just five innings. He shows very strong comfort
with either breaking ball which allows him to consistently mix while
keeping hitters guessing and off balance. Bizzle’s curveball shows
big depth with 12-to-6 shape up to 76 mph, and though his slider came
across at 75 mph it showed distinctly different shape with late
sweeping life away from righthanded hitters. In his final inning of
work Bizzle allowed his second, and final, hit of the game early in
the frame before bearing down to strike out the next three hitters,
one on a slider against a righthanded hitter and the next two on
curveballs, one looking and one swinging.
Righthanders
James Marinan
(2017, Boynton Beach, Fla.) and Cameron
Lauer
(2017, Greenacres, Fla.) split the game for the Easton Rockets, and
though the weren’t able to pull out the victory, each of the two
showed interesting potential on the mound.
Marinan
recently committed to the University of Miami and was handed the ball
at the beginning of the game for the Rockets. Listed a 6-foot-4,
200-pounds, Marinan stands with long levers and a high waist with
broad shoulders and plenty of room to still fill out. Just watching
from a side angle you can tell Marinan can run it up on the radar
guns given how quick his arm is on his stroke through the backside.
Jump to behind the backstop and you would have seen readings on his
fastball in the 86-89 mph range, touching 90 early on. Staying on top
of the ball allows Marinan to generate some downhill plane though
he’ll get across his body at release occasionally which actually
plays to his advantage as he’s able to generate late cutting life
on the ball. Marinan pitched mostly off his fastball throughout the
night though he did show a short slider up to 81 mph and an 11-to-5
curveball in the mid-70s.
Lauer
isn’t quite as tall as Marinan standing at 6-foot-1, 195-pounds,
but he also shows long limbs with a high waist, making it easy to
project him physically. Another similarity amongst the two
righthanders is the quality stuff that leaves their hands as Lauer
worked in the 84-88 mph range, peaking upwards of 89 mph just as he
had earlier in the tournament. His arm action is quick coming through
while staying short and at release he’s able to generate solid
angle on his fastball. Already showing solid present velocity on his
fastball Lauer projects for more given how cleanly the ball comes out
while showing comfort in throwing his slider which was up to 74 mph.
Like
Marinan above, center fielder Aldrich
De Jongh
(2016, Lake Worth, Fla.) is a recent collegiate commit to Florida Atlantic University, and though I was able to only see a single swing while walking
from field to field during the playoffs, he showed plenty. A
lefthanded hitter full of quick-twitch muscle, De Jongh may have
connected for one of the louder hit balls of the tournament towards
the end of the game as he squared up a pitch for an extremely hard
hit double to dead-center field, showing both his strength and speed
on the bases.
– Jheremy Brown