LATEST PG SHOWCASE REPORT
2004 Underclass National Showcase
John Jakob -- Jakob is a junior first baseman from Florida and one huge young man. 6-4, 250 lb. looks very big on the baseball field and if he’d listed his size as 6-5, 265, we wouldn’t question that either. Despite his size and young age, Jakob looks like a very good athlete. He ran pretty well in the 60 and showed very nice arm strength across the diamond. A first baseman, he is obviously going to make it based on his bat. Jakob’s a hard player to quantify. He swings as hard as he can on just about every pitch and that means he’s creating a lot of bat speed and huge home run potential. But Jakob has one of the most all or nothing approaches you will ever see. He breaks down his back side early and has a huge drop hand hitch, so he’s starting his swing from very, very low and has a severe upper cut. Against mediocre pitching he’ll wander into a few balls and hit the ball a long, long way, but this approach just won’t work against better pitching. Jakob has the natural talent and athleticism to play at the highest levels but he’s going to have to revamp his hitting style a bit to get there. John is a good student.