The
scouting highlight of Day 3 was the heavily anticipated start by 2016
righthander Kevin Gowdy (Santa Barbara, Calif.) who took the
mound for GBG Marucci Navy in a second round playoff matchup against
fellow SoCal powerhouse CBA Marucci 2017. Gowdy touched 90 mph in the
first inning and snapped off a 77 mph hammer curveball with sharp
12-to-6 break that hit the bottom outside corner on his glove side
for a called strike.
His
limber low-effort delivery typically lends itself to quality command,
which in turn causes Gowdy to attempt to live on the corners. In the
early going his fastball command was a touch off and he didn't quite
have feel for the end point of the run on his fastball, causing him
to miss on a lot of borderline pitches and run his pitch count up
early. As his outing went on he found the feel and in the third
inning he painted with his upper-80s fastball, frequently starting it
off the backdoor corner and running it back over for called strikes
to right handers. It wasn't Gowdy's sharpest outing by any means, but
his stuff is high quality and he projects well going forward.
A
number of the players in the prospect laden playoff matchup between
CBA Marucci 2017 and GBG Marucci Navy have been covered thoroughly in
this space over the past two editions of the EvoShield Underclass
National Championship, but the depth of both teams leaves several
more worth touching upon.
Gowdy's
batterymate 2016 catcher Lyle Lin (San Juan Capistrano,
Calif.) showed off a strong arm behind the plate and quick feet. He
also passes the eye test with a big sturdy frame while having good
athleticism for his size as well. He went 1-for-3 and cut down a
would be basestealer and showed frequent sub-2.0 second pop times on
between inning throwdowns with good carry.
On
the theme of catchers, it appears that the McGuire family has now
produced a third prospect who will play at the next level. 2017
catcher Shane McGuire (Kent, Wash.) showed interesting ability
at the plate and behind it. His oldest brother Cash is currently a
junior infielder at Seattle University, and the middle brother Reese
(also a lefthanded hitting catcher) was the 14th overall selection in
the 2013 MLB Draft. Shane doesn't have the same foot quickness and
athleticism as Reese (few humans do) yet, but Shane is a skilled
receiver in his own right and is advanced for his age on both sides
of the ball. His lefthanded swing has similarities to Reese's and he
went 1-for-2 with an RBI single in the Rijo Athletics' playoff loss
to Team Northwest.
While
it's difficult to get a strong feel for the ultimate long term upside
of the players who have already begun to emerge from the class of
2018, there have been a handful that have started to make an
impression. One of those was shortstop Tim Borden (Henryville,
Ind.) is one of them. The fact that he moved Jason Jones, who has
been highlighted in this space for his own impressive abilities, off
of shortstop in a playoff game speaks to their coaches confidence in
Borden's ability, as well as his position in the lineup hitting
leadoff. Borden certainly held his own against older competition
(going 2-for-4) and is showing the underlying quickness and
coordination to develop quality tools as he matures physically.
One
of the highlight performances of the day offensively came in SACSN's
quarterfinal playoff victory, as 2016 outfielder Wyatt Featherston
(Lakewood, Colo.) crushed a pair of opposite field triples showing a
quality combination of speed and power, to both burn the right
fielder and leg out triples. He would add a single in his third
at-bat to finish the day 3-for-3 and break out of an early slump as
the games become even more important.
2016
catcher Ryan Hernandez (Pinecrest, Fla.) showed that he can
provide similar quality defense behind the plate when high level
teammate Tyler Duval gets a break from catching duties. Hernandez has
a similarly strong arm and is a quality receiver and blocker. He
continued to show quality offensive ability also and went 1-for-3
while posting frequent sub-2.0 pop times between innings.
SACSN
National Team third baseman Daniel Bakst (2016, New York,
N.Y.) has had a strong event thus far, going 4-for-10, including a
double and a triple, to go with five walks and six RBI. He has some
of the best raw bat speed in the 2016 class nationally and the ball
just explodes off his barrel. The righthanded hitter has unusual
hitting mechanics in a late hard shift into contact that really gets
the lower half of his 6-foot-2, 175-pound body into his swing. That
hard, late shift will occasionally cause Bakst timing problems but
one can only imagine in a couple of years when he's filled out with
about 20 pounds of strength what his bat speed in going to be like.
As Bakst's defensive tools are high level already, that bat speed
potential puts him into a possible high round draft category.
Righthanded
pitcher Jack Weisenburger (2016, Rockford, Mich.) is
part of what makes SACSN truly a "National" team, as he may
be the only player from Michigan in Arizona this weekend. The
two-way prospect – he has also started three games in the outfield,
going 3-for-8 at the plate – threw a three-hit shutout in his
team's 8-0 win over Trosky Baseball in the first round of the
playoffs Sunday. Weisenburger is listed at 6-foot-3, 200-pounds but
appears slimmer on the mound and has a very young face. He throws
from a very low effort delivery with a fluid arm action that produces
an 85-89 mph fastball that is no doubt going to add a few ticks, and
perhaps many ticks of velocity, as he matures physically. One thing
that Weisenburger will have to work on in his delivery is pitching
taller and not drifting out to his front side so quickly. He flashed
hard spin on a curveball up to 76 mph when he stayed back just a bit
but most of his curveballs were "cast" in scouting
terminology due to his body being so far in front of his hand coming
through.
Shortstop
Donovan Langston (2017, Frisco, Texas) finished the event a
perfect 7-for-7 in stolen base attempts in Phenom Texas' five games.
At least four of those steals were of the "steal second, steal
third, score on the wild throw to third" variety that produces a
run all by itself. Part of SACSN and lefthander Jake Wilson's
(2016, Las Vegas, Nev.) ability to shut out Phenom Texas in the
quarterfinals 5-0 was holding Langston to an 0-for-3 performance.
This
entire event has been marked by the significant number of high level
young shortstops that have shown their tools and skills in the
Arizona heat, including Langston,
SACSN's Nicholas Quintana (2016, Las Vegas, Nev.), CBA Marucci
17's Nick Allen (2017, San Diego, Calif.) and GBG Marucci
Navy's Will Proctor (2016, Manhattan Beach, Calif.).
Add
another name to that shortstop list in Rijo Athletics shortstop
Kyler McMahan (2017, Lynwood, Wash.). The 5-foot-10, 165-pound
McMahan especially stood out on defense, where his combination of a
very quick release and a strong accurate arm produced a number of
impressive defensive plays. That combination is so effective and
polished that McMahan tends to lay back on some ground balls that he
will need to be charging as the game speeds up but he will learn that
with experience and repetition. McMahan also has some present bat
speed and will do very well offensively moving forward, although it
will be his defense that carries him in the future.
Righthander
Adrian Mardueno (2016, Upland, Calif.) may only be 5-foot-10,
175-pounds but he's going to get lots of outs in his future career on
the mound. Pitching for the Phenom 14U (not a 14U team, by the way),
he faced the hot hitting AZ T-Rex Baseball Club in the first round of
the playoffs and tossed a two-hit, 84-pitch complete game in Phenom's
6-2 victory. Mardueno has a fast paced deceptive delivery that hides
the ball well and throws in the 84-87 range, plenty firm enough to
force hitters at this level to adjust. His key ability, and the one
that will win him plenty of future games, was a sharp breaking ball
that he could work anywhere between 71 and 77 mph with command,
alternately pulling the string on it, powering it in on lefthander's
fists or dipping it outside to righthanded hitters and forcing lots
of soft contact. Notably, one of the few hard hit balls was by
infielder Jacob Gonzalez (2017, Scottsdale, Ariz.), who rocked
a triple off the left-center field fence as one of the two hits that
Mardueno allowed.
One
of the most impressive hitters of the week has been CBA Marucci 16U
outfielder Aaron Greenfield (2016, Los Angeles, Calif.), who
went 7-for-12 in five games, including a pair of triples, and drove
in seven runs. Greenfield has a strong 6-foot-1, 175-pound build
that should continue to fill in nicely and a notable ability to
square up the baseball. Sometimes it looks as if he tries to stay
inside the ball too much and he had a number of ground ball hits to
the right side. Then just when one is considering that from a
scouting perspective, Greenfield turns on a pitch and hits a rocket
up the left-center field gap to show his bat speed and power
potential.
GBG
Marucci Navy outfielder Jordan Prendiz' (2016, Visalia,
Calif.) production numbers and style mirror Greenfield's in some
ways. Prendiz is one of the fastest players in the event and is
6-for-11 in the tournament, with four walks thrown in, but among his
six hits are a pair of doubles and a pair of triples. All of those
extra base hits have come to left field off the bat of the lefthanded
hitting Prendiz, who is a spin hitter with a slashing opposite field
swing but shows surprising power in that direction. The extra base
hit total is helped by the fact that the 100 percent all out hustling
USC commit automatically thinks double on any hit in front of
outfielders and triple on anything an outfielder has to move much
for. And then, just like Greenfield, when one is thinking "opposite
field only" with Prendiz, he'll turn on an inside pitch and hit
a line drive to right field.
GBG
Marucci Blue has powered into the semifinals on the basis of their
strong and consistent offense that has produced 37 runs in five games
and at least six runs in every contest. That offense has been led by
second and third baseman Riley Livingston (2016, Redondo
Beach, Calif.), who has nine hits in those five games (9-for-20) and
has scored seven runs. The 5-foot-9, 155-pound Livingston has
surprising bat speed and power for a small bodied player and four of
his hits have gone for extra bases, including three doubles.