Day 1 Notes | Day 2 Notes
PG All-American first baseman Alex Toral (Davie, Fla.) has had a somewhat frustrating summer. He's very well known by the pitchers he's been facing, who often approach his powerful lefthanded swing tentatively. Toral has done a good job not expanding the strike zone and has taken some good cuts in the 25-30 at-bats this scout has observed over the last two months. But he's had very little to show for those at-bats. In fact, it seems about 20 have ended in simple fly balls.
That changed in one plate appearance on Wednesday. Facing fellow All-American lefthander D.L. Hall (Valdosta, Ga.), Toral took a fastball for strike one, then laid off two curveballs that bent outside. Faced with an obvious fastball count, Toral lined an absolute rocket home run off a 93 mph Hall fastball into the right field seats, perhaps the hardest ball I've seen hit all summer. If he'd even put a bit of loft or backspin on the ball it would have gone all the way out of Steinbrenner Field. It was vintage Alex Toral from the past two summers and nice to see.
Except for that loud blip, Hall was outstanding as well, never dipping below 92 mph on his fastball for three innings and overmatching quality hitters with his curveball, which showed increased power over the past few times I've seen him, consistently sitting 78-79 with tight late-breaking action. Hall also picked up two strikeouts on a low-80s changeup, which was very nice to see considering he already has one of the best fastball/curveball combinations in the 2017 class.
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