Daily
Recaps: Day 1
| Day 2
| Day 3
The
day started as a continuation of the CBA Marucci Show. Then Orlando
Scorpions outfielder Carlos Cortes decided that the 2015 17u
PG World Series was his show. Then CBA and the Scorpions decided
their side of the bracket in one of the more bizarre games this scout
has seen in a long time.
When
the Arizona dust settled late in the evening with a Tyler Baum
94 mph fastball, the Scorpions had ended CBA's incredible 16-game win
streak in extra innings and advanced to Tuesday's championship game.
The
other side of the bracket saw GBG Marucci do what they almost always
do in Arizona tournaments; calmly execute with little drama and
emerge with victories over a emotional and confident Dallas Patriots
team (6-5) and a previously hot Elite Squad Prime (10-2).
Cortes
has already been mentioned a couple of times both the daily recaps
and by PG writer Jeff Dahn since getting to Arizona, but his
performance yesterday, considering the level of competition, was
extraordinary. He went 2-for-2 with a walk and a sacrifice fly to
the right field warning track in the Scorpions 10-0 quarterfinal
victory over the Southern California Bombers, then came back to go
3-for-5 with a home run and four RBI in the Scorpions eight inning
8-7 nail-biter over CBA Marucci in the semifinals. Cortes is now
8-for-17 in six games with a pair of doubles, three home runs and
nine RBI. He has walked twice and has yet to strike out. He's owning
at-bats, making early count square contact against any type of pitch
and hitting with incredible confidence.
Playoff
Scouting Impressions
• The
Scorpions were probably saving Baum for the championship game once
they took an early lead against CBA but needed him to close out the
game in the eighth inning after CBA scored three runs in the seventh
to tie the game before a Orlando run in the top of the eighth. Baum
closed the game in rapid fashion, pumping 93-94 mph fastballs into
the zone and retiring the side on 10 pitches, all of them strikes.
The Florida righthander has shown the stuff this summer to make a big
jump up the national rankings.
• Orlando
lefthander Cole Ragans had outstanding raw stuff in his three
innings of work, pitching in the 90-93 mph zone, but struggled with
command while allowing four runs. Ragans has made delivery changes
over the past year that has him throwing from a higher arm slot from
a more directional delivery and that has caused some vertical control
issues that he's still working through. When he's in the zone he
looks like a young Jon Lester.
• CBA
righthander Reggie Lawson, a PG All-American like Ragans, was
outstanding in the semifinals, throwing five innings out of the
bullpen and allowing only three hits and an unearned run while giving
CBA a chance to get back into the ball game. Lawson sat at 90-93 for
the entire outing and his curveball was big and well commanded.
Scouts can dream on his 6-foot-4 long-armed build and his smooth arm
action and mechanics.
• PG
All-American catcher Blake Sabol of CBA swung the bat better
and better as the tournament progressed and has picked up a pair of
doubles and a triple the past two days and hit numerous other line
drives. The Scorpions showed their respect for him with the highly
unusual move of walking him intentionally with runners at first and
second base in a tie ballgame in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The move ended up working but the two coaches this scout was standing
with admitted to have never seeing that done before.
• GBG
lefty Chaz Montoya was the key performer in his team's win
over Elite Squad, going five strong innings after GBG jumped on the
board for seven early runs. Montoya has a deceptive delivery that
produced a 85-90 mph fastball and a sweeping 77 mph curveball. His
performance was especially noteworthy against an Elite Prime lineup
that has hitting .322 in the first five games of the championship.
Montoya also threw four pitches to get a one-batter save in the
quarterfinal game.
• GBG's
offense has been firing on all cylinders. Third baseman Spencer
Steer should just move to Arizona or at least attend college here
(he's an Oregon commit) the way he hits; he went 3-for-3 with a pair
of walks in the semifinal and is 7-for-16 (.438) with six walks in
six games. Second baseman Ben Baird has been outstanding
defensively and picked up two hits and scored twice in the
semifinals. Shortstop Will Proctor has added noticeable bat
speed over the last year and is really driving the ball hard, which
resulted in five RBI over Monday's two playoff games.
• Dallas
Patriots third baseman Braden Shewmake impressed at the 17u
WWBA National Championship and has continued to leave quite an
impression on scouts here in Arizona. He's a very projectable
6-foot-4, 175-pound athlete with outstanding actions and tools on
defense at third base. His lefthanded swing is quick and fluid and he
hit 7-for-17 here with a pair of doubles and no strikeouts.
Shewmake's father, Shane, is the head coach at Division III
University of Texas at Dallas and his son's baseball grounding and
fundamentals are obvious.
Consolation
Game Quick Hits
• The
EvoShield Canes unleashed a number of hard throwers over two
consolation games that they had been hoping to use in the playoffs.
PG All-American righthander Josh Lowe threw two scoreless
innings, living comfortably at 90-92 mph with his fastball and
flashing his power low-80s breaking ball. Lefthander Rian Haire
continues to have a strong summer and showed his elite level southpaw
velocity by sitting between 91 and 93 during his one inning of work.
Reid Schaller, Anthony Holubecki, Henry Ryan and Michael
Bienlien also showed low-90s stuff in short outings.
• Continuing
the EvoShield summary on the hitters side, outfielder Avery Tuck
had his best game of the event, going 2-for-3, including a rocket up
the left-center field gap for a double. Shortstop Nicholas
Quintana continued to show his big power, blasting a no-doubt
home run to left field over an extra tall fence. Third baseman Joe
Rizzo did his usual high-level execution, going 3-for-3 over two
games with a pair of walks, four runs scored and three RBI. EvoShield
finished with a 4-2 overall record.
• Baseball
Northwest moved their record to 3-2 with a 5-4 win over the Houston
Banditos and has been an enjoyable and talented team to watch play.
Hard-throwing righthander Mitchell Verburg picked up a
save on Monday and is definitely on the prospect map after his
earlier performance. First baseman Easton Bents hit 7-for-14
(.500) with two doubles and a triple and a couple of other hard hit
balls for the event and has lots of bat speed and strength in his
swing.
• Triple
plays are rare at any level but this scout happened to be watching
the Elite Baseball Training Chicago versus Baseball Northwest game
when Bents lifted a jam shot pop up into shallow right-center field
with runners at first and second and no one out. Elite Baseball
second baseman Nick Neville made the over-the-shoulder catch,
threw to shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald at second to double the
runner there and Fitzgerald threw to first baseman Sam Ferri
for an easy third out at first base.
• Ferri
has been mentioned earlier as a 2016 top catching prospect but he's
also pretty good off the mound. He threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings,
striking out four without issuing a walk while throwing 87-90 with a
hard-spinning 77 mph curveball.
• Elite
Baseball Training Chicago righthander Cameron Junker bounced
back from a tough earlier outing against CBA Marucci to throw four
shutout innings against SGV Arsenal. Junker relies mostly on an
upper-80s fastball that will touch 90-91 on occasion and still has
some projection moving forward. Elite Baseball's leadoff hitter,
second baseman Michael Ruffolo, went 2-for-2 and finished the
tournament 7-for-14 (.500) at the plate.
• Righthander
Radd Thomas from NorCal is an interesting 6-foot-2, 185-pound
2016 arm with no college commitment. He threw four nice innings this
afternoon, working at 86-90 mph and only allowed two hits while
striking out five. NorCal finished the tournament with a 4-2 record
and impressed with their sound fundamental play and pitching staff
that pounded the zone consistently with quality stuff.