During the course of the five-day 17u Perfect Game World Series (July 21-25) Todd Gold and David Rawnsley will be providing daily recaps of notable prospects and their respective performances.
Contributing: David Rawnsley
17u Perfect Game World Series: Event page| Scout blogs
The
team that arguably had the best day Tuesday should surprise no one.
The defending champion SF Elite Squad – Louisville Slugger posted
two victories, 6-2 in the morning game over the DBacks Elite Scout
Team and later won a shortened game due to the run rules over the
Dallas Patriots 12-0 in the night cap while pounding out 14 hits. The
Elite play with a great deal of confidence, especially on offense,
and travel with a notably enthusiastic group of fans. Their
record now stands at 4-1 with pool play games remaining Wednesday
against Mountain West and CCB Elite.
The
Elite received an impressive pitching performance from big RHP Andres
Nunez
(2014, Archbishop McCarthy HS, FL) Tuesday night, as Nunez threw four
shutout innings. Nunez works from a high three-quarters to over the
top arm slot and powers the ball downhill very well in the 87-90 mph
range with plenty of heaviness down in the strike zone. He also threw
a big downer curveball up to 76 mph that was a solid second pitch.
LHP/1B
Michael Mediavilla
(2014, Mater Academy, FL) seems to square the ball up every time up,
and is 7-for-14 with 5 RBI. IF Kirvin
Moesquit
(2014, Highland Christian HS, FL), who hits ahead of Mediavilla in
the batting order, is 6-for-13 at the plate and has scored seven
runs.
2014
RHP Devin Meyer
(Coral Springs, FL) didn’t light up the radar gun, topping out at
86 mph, but he shut down a lineup filled with the best prospects the
state of Arizona has to offer. He showed good command to both sides
of the plate with his 83-86 mph fastball, good arm side fade on his
changeup at 77-79 mph and a 12-to-6 curveball with good depth and
shape at 76 mph. His thin athletic frame projects to add significant
strength over the next few years, and even if he doesn’t see a
significant jump in velocity between now and the draft, he could
develop into a prospect while at the University of Miami.
One
of the top prospects in the class of 2015, OF Daniel
Reyes
(Miami Springs, FL), broke open what had been a tight ballgame in the
sixth inning with a two-run triple to the wall in centerfield. Reyes
is a physically imposing 6-foot-2 200-pound outfielder who can handle
centerfield at this level, but projects for the corner long term. He
has big power to the pull-side and up the middle of the field with
good bat speed and a lot of strength at contact.
DBacks
Elite Scout Team 2014 SS Cole Tucker
(Phoenix, AZ) is a switch hitter who is better from the left side at
this stage in his development, and he broke out of a slump, showing
off both his emerging power with a deep drive that burned the center
fielder while showing off his speed, getting to first base in 4.26
seconds on the turn and legging out a triple.
Two-way
2014 LHP Andrew Shaps
(Paradise Valley, AZ) followed up a solid showing on the mound
yesterday where he topped out at 88 mph with a 2-for-3 day at the
plate showing good bat control.
Florida
Burn 2014 IF Dalton Guthrie
(Sarasota, FL) continued his hot hitting, going 3-for-4 with a double
and a mercy-rule inducing walk-off bunt single (3.89 seconds home to
first). Guthrie has been locked in at the plate all tournament long.
He played a little bit of first base at the end of the game after
serving as an extra hitter, but he’s a high level defensive
shortstop. 2014 MIF Matt
Reardon
(Palm City, FL) got the start at shortstop in Guthrie’s place and
didn’t miss a beat, showing good range of his own and smooth
defensive actions while also going 2-for-2 at the plate.
2016
RHP Austin Bergner
(Windemere, FL) was the breakout star of opening night of the
tournament, topping out at 92 mph and showing pitchabillity beyond
his years. Today he showed that he can do more than just pitch, going
2-for-3 with a double that one-hopped the fence in left center field.
He also came in at shortstop late in the game, and while his slightly
gangly 6-foot-3, 160-pound frame looked a bit out of place in the
middle infield, he handled a sharply hit one-hopper quite capably and
then made a good feed to start a 6-4-3 double play.
2014
3B/RHP David Hensley
(San Diego, CA) put on a show at the plate, going 4-for-4 with a
double and what proved to be the game winning RBI in the San Diego
Show’s 3-1 victory over the East Cobb Braves. In his first at-bat
he burned speedy CF Dalton Ewing with a shot to the wall. His next
time up he took the pitcher’s hat off with a hard liner back up the
middle before putting two more balls up the middle for singles. He
showed very good range and body control defensively at third base as
well and was a major factor in the Show’s victory.
Another
day, another impressive power display from 2014 MIF Greg
Deichmann
(Metairie, LA) whose loud foul balls to the pull-side echoed
throughout the Reds spring training complex. He crushed a double to
right center after just missing a home run foul, and would add a
blooper to left in a 2-for-3 effort.
2014
RHP Alex Lange
(Lee’s Summit, MO) showed high level stuff, sitting 90-92 with his
fastball and mixing in a plus slider at 80 and a solid changeup at 78
for Marucci Elite. But he didn’t have his command today, walking
five CCB Elite hitters in three innings of work, allowing four
unearned runs.
2015
OF Nick Oar
(Pleasantville, CA) continues to be a pleasant surprise in his first
Perfect Game event, hitting in the middle of the CCB Elite order. He
went 1-for-2 with a walk against Marucci and homered in the morning
game against the San Diego Show.
2014
OF Derek Hill
(Sacramento, CA) continued to have a quiet showing at the plate, but
showed off his speed in NorCal Baseball's nightcap against the
Houston Banditos. Hill fell behind 1-2 in the count after a
borderline strike call went against him, but he then shortened up
with two strikes and grounded one to the second basemen who pivoted
and threw to second to attempt a 4-6-3 double play, but Hill sprinted
down the line in 3.98 seconds.
The
EvoShield Canes continued to roll out power arms as 2014 RHP Jake
Godfrey
(New Lennox, IL) and 2014 RHP Jeff
Harding
(Cambridge, MD) each touching 92 mph (with Harding getting up to 93)
out of the bullpen. The Canes starter, 6-foot-7 2014 LHP Ryan
Avidano
(Starr’s Mill, GA), sat 84-87 with very good extension out front,
allowing his fastball to play up a tick. They combined to hold a SGV
Arsenal lineup that came into the game with the second most runs to
just one run on three hits.
2014
OF Marcus Wilson
(Los Angeles, CA) went 0-for-3, but just barely. He grounded out to
second base on a bang-bang play where he went home to first in 4.07
seconds.
At
the end of the morning games no team had established itself as the
dominant, team to beat, especially with about half the games in Pool
B ending in ties. Marucci Elite was in position to potentially claim
that role in their 8:00 am game Tuesday morning. Marucci started the
game with a 2-0-1 record but played to a 1-1 tie against Mountain
West, thanks to a strong performance from LHP Caleb
Prentiss
(2014, Carlsbad HS, NM). A bright spot for Marucci Elite was their
own pitcher, RHP Carlo Graffeo
(2015, St. Paul’s HS, LA), who also threw a complete game, allowing
five hits while throwing 95 pitches. Graffeo pitched in the 84-87 mph
range and his best pitch was a low-70s curveball that was sharp late
biting at times.
Houston
Banditos LHP Nick Kennedy
(2015, College Station HS, TX) had an outstanding outing Tuesday
morning in a 1-0 win over Team Northwest, and had a large contingent
of college coaches behind the backstop nodding in appreciation.
Kennedy has a very strong 6-foot-1, 200-pound build and a loose, fast
left arm that produced fastballs up to 88 mph to go with a low- to
mid-70s curveball that developed better spin and depth as the game
moved on. Kennedy struggled some in the early innings repeating his
release slot, but once he settled down he cruised and only threw 65
pitches in his six innings of work.
RHP
Ricardo Salinas
(2014, North Shore HS, TX) made his second relief appearance in this
event and continued to impress with his arm strength, pitching in the
89-92 mph range, and picked up the save while allowing the only Team
Northwest hit of the game.
There
were an impressive number of defensive gems during the 7:30 pm games
Tuesday night. EvoShield Canes SS D.J.
Burt,
Arizona Baseball Club Dodgers SS Ryan Peep
and NorCal 2B Dakota
Conners
both made full out diving stops off line drives, and AZ Baseball
Club-Dodgers 2B Addam Stebbins
made a Dominican-style glove only double play feed that was sweet.
But
the defensive play of the night was made by Tri-State Arsenal C
Matthew Thaiss.
In between hitters, Thaiss heard the shouts of “Heads, Field” and
turned around to see a foul ball from an adjoining field heading
straight towards the back of the home plate umpire. He leapt out of
his crouch and jumped, fully twisting around the unsuspecting umpire
to cleanly catch the ball right before it hit him in the back of the
head.
It
was noted earlier in the 17u PG World Series notes how sound a brand
of fundamental baseball the Florida Burn play and how important that
is to their success. It works by the numbers, too. In advancing their
record to 3-0-2 Tuesday night, the Burn have only made seven errors
in five games on defense, are 14-for-14 on stolen base attempts, have
thrown out six out of 12 opposing runners, have six sacrifice bunts
and have collected 15 walks and five hit by pitches to contribute to
their .435 team on-base percentage.