One of the first matchups of the tournament showcased two extremely talented teams in FTB Select 2020 and the MVP Banditos. A pair hard-hitting righthanders showed impressive skills for FTB: Anthony Shaver (2020, Clermont, Fla.) and Connor Morgan (2020, Brooksville, Fla.) showed a collection of tools over the course of the entire tournament.
Shaver has shown out at previous Perfect Game events and he continues to profile as a strong, righthanded offensive threat. The Florida native has a projectable frame with present athleticism and some speed; he was timed at 4.5 seconds from home to first base from the right side. He stands slightly open at the plate with a high hand set and back elbow. Shaver has strong wrists and quick hands which help him cover a lot of the plate and turn well on inside pitches. He has good present bat speed and swings with intent to drive the baseball. He profiles well for power both in the future and presently. He barely missed a homerun deep to left centerfield on Saturday and he transfers his weight well into the point of contact.
His teammate Connor Morgan (2020, Brooksville, Fla.) did a little bit of everything over the course of the weekend. Morgan began the tournament as the starting pitcher for game one. He throws from a high three-quarter arm slot with a shorter arm action and some effort in his delivery. The delivery is a bit imbalanced but he was effective at repeating the delivery consistently. He hid the ball well and added some deception with mixing up the overall timing of his delivery and leaving hitters off balanced. The fastball sat from 80-83 mph and topped out at 85 mph on the day and he mixed in a curveball that flashed sharpness and depth. Morgan is also an advanced overall player showing skills on both sides of the ball. Offensively, he has an inside hand path with the ability to turn on inside pitches. When his timing is in sync he does a good job with a line drive approach and laces hard hit balls with backspin. Morgan is a very clean defender with sure hands and a strong arm. He made a very impressive diving play to his left with enough arm strength to nail the runner.
Two of the top arms of the 2021 class were on display for the Banditos in that game as righthanders Alejandro Rosario (2021, Miami, Fla.) and Carlos Rodriguez (2021, Miami, Fla.) showed interesting tools on the mound.
Rosario has a lean, projectable frame and throws from a low three-quarters arm slot. His arm is a bit rigid but he has plenty of present arm speed which allows him to maintain a consistent velocity. Rosario hides the ball well in his delivery and he coils up and fires to the plate with an element of explosiveness. He lands online and balanced with not falling off to the side often. Rosario’s repertoire consisted of a three-pitch mix: fastball, curveball, and changeup. He was at his best when he was mixing speeds and locations with the combination of the fastball and changeup. The fastball showed some arm-side wiggle and sat comfortably between 83-86 mph and topping out at 87 mph. The changeup played extremely well off the fastball and showed similar arm speed with late, downward action. The changeup was very effective in two strike counts as the pitch caught hitters off balance. The curveball was a bit raw and inconsistent but showed 10-to-4 shape with some soft break.
The reigning 2016 PG 14u Pitcher of the Year picked up in 2017 right where he left off with an impressive outing. The Miami commit is very projectable with quick arm action. Rodriguez throws from an extended three-quarters arm slot and did a good job at getting on top of the ball to create an effective angle of release on the baseball. He got downhill occasionally with some extension toward the batter; his command of the two-pitch mix was as polished as ever over the weekend. Rodriguez effectively pitched backwards, starting hitters off with his curveball and letting his fastball play off the breaker. The curveball has 12/6 shape with good depth and spin. He threw it often early in the count and was able to throw it for called strikes and swings and misses. The fastball was heavy and sat from 85-88mph. Rodriguez pounded the lower third of the strike zone with the fastball and showed off good command of the pitch.
One of the more impressive offensive players over the course of the tournament was Roberto Moya (2020, Miami, Fla.). It seemed that every time I turned around and caught an at bat Moya barreled up a baseball extremely hard and on a line. Moya is listed at 5-foot-11, 180-pounds although he looks bigger, and stronger, than the listed line. Moya stands with a high hand set and back elbow; he has a deep, elastic hand load with enough strength to be on time. He has quick hands with a line drive approach at the plate. Moya has a very good feel for driving the baseball with the barrel of the bal. He covered the plate well and rarely made weak contact. Moya swings with intent and has a lot of power both in his frame and his swing. He added a couple of hard hit balls that one-hopped the wall during the final day of the event. Moya profiles well for in-game power in the near future and is already a polished, overall hitter. Behind the plate, Moya showed solid tools. He has good catch-and-throw skills with present arm strength and was a threat to the running game. Moya threw out two runners during the event.
Moya’s teammate, and Freshman level MVP of the tournament, Enrique A. Bradfield Jr. (2020, Hialeah, Fla.) showed off a very diverse skill set. Built like a prototypical leadoff hitter, Bradfield is very slender 5-foot-11 with a ton of speed that plays both on offense and defense. He was timed at 4.11 seconds from home to first base from the left side. On the bases he is both very quick and a smart baserunner. Bradfield often extended base hits by taking the extra base and routinely got good reads off the opposing pitcher in stolen base attempts. The swing is very even-planed with a gap-to-gap approach. Bradfield had a line drive-heavy tournament and showed some pop in his swing with balls to the gap that had good carry on them. Defensively, Bradfield showed excellent range in centerfield. He made good reads on fly balls and was often waiting in the gap for an easy catch on a ball that is ordinarily an extra base hit. Bradfield’s overall collection of tools make him an interesting player to monitor, especially as he continues to add physicality to his frame.
A 14u PG Select Baseball Festival alum participating this weekend was catcher Jackson Miller (2020, Trinity, Fla.). Miller is tall, perhaps a bit taller than his listed 5-foot-10, with a projectable frame and swing at the plate. He has a closed stance at the plate with the bat head pointing toward the pitcher. The load is elastic as he coils up with a deep hand load and explodes toward the point of contact. The swing is very smooth with present bat speed. Miller has a small leg lift trigger that helps with his timing and when he is in time does a very good job at impacting the ball out in front and getting good extension. He also has good strength in his swing and can drive the ball to all fields but showed in-game power to the pull side of the field. A primary catcher, Miller played all over the field seeing time at, at least, left field and third base as well. Positional flexibility could be a great way of getting his bat into the lineup if he needed a break from catching for a game or two.
An intriguing two-way prospect for the 2020 class, Lukas Cook (Knoxville, Tenn.) showed tools both from the mound and at the plate. Cook has an ideal frame for a pitcher with a listed height and weight of 6-foot-2, 180-pounds with a good amount of physical projection still on his frame. The Mississippi State commit stands slightly open at the plate with a high hand set and back elbow. He stays inside the ball with quick hands and has a natural lift to his swing. Cook showed the ability to recognize pitches and could adjust depending on the location and pitch type. He had a strong start on the mound throwing from a three-quarter arm slot with a shorter arm action. Cook had a crossfire element to his landing with a bit of hip coil near the top of his delivery. He threw with some effort but showed good command of his fastball, particularly to the glove side. If he missed with the pitch it wasn’t near the middle of the plate and filled up the lower third and glove side of the plate. The fastball sat from 80-84 mph and topped out at 86 mph. Cook mixed in a breaking pitch in the mid to high-60s with short, late break to the pitch.
David Castillo (2020, Miami, Fla.) has a large and strong 6-foot-1, 200-pound frame which helps him generate some pop from the right side. Castillo stands slight open at the plate with a high hand set and high back elbow. He has good present bat speed and swings with intent to drive the baseball. The swing path is a bit longer but his swing has natural lift in it. Castillo has an advanced lower half with on time weight transfers and generates good hip torque. He crushed a triple to the left centerfield gap at Terry Park’s Stadium which is not an easy place to hit a baseball. With present power, and fitting a power profile, Castillo was a bit of a pop-up bat who already has strong tools at the plate.
A pair of Elite Squad arms impressed during their quarterfinal game on Sunday morning. Both Jordan Carrion (2020, Miami, Fla.) and Jamar Fairweather (2020, Westminster, Fla.) showed interesting tools on the mound.
Carrion has a medium, skinny frame with present quick twitch movements and overall athleticism. The Florida commit has a short, compact arm action and throws from a high three-quarters arm slot. Carrion’s delivery is simple with a short leg lift just at the belt and very little effort to the motion. He adds a bit of deception with a crossfire element upon his landing. The lower half showed momentum towards the plate with a decent follow through. Carrion worked mostly with a two pitch mix of fastball and curveball. He maintained his velocity throughout his outing and worked mostly 82-85 mph with his fastball and the pitch had some arm-side wiggle to it as well. Carrion showed good command of the pitch to his glove side and wore out that side of the plate during his performance. The curveball had 11-to-5 with short, tight break. He worked the corners well with the pitch and the late break worked well against opposing hitters.
A recent Florida International commit, Fairweather has a large presence on the mound with a very physical 6-foot-1, 210-pound frame. He throws from a three-quarters arm slot with a longer arm action. He has a soft stab in the back of his delivery but does a good job at repeating the mechanics of his delivery. Fairweather gets downhill well with solid extension. His pitches enter the strike zone at a tough angle and he gets some lower half drive in his delivery. The fastball sat from 84-86 mph topping out on the day at 88 mph. He commanded the pitch well and worked both sides of the plate with the pitch. The curveball was a bit soft with good break on the pitch although the pitch was a bit inconsistent. Fairweather closed out the quarterfinal and showed good overall poise and command on the mound.
The team that fell to Elite Squad was the Texas Bombers Elite who had a number of talented players on their team. With a loud offense, the top of the order that included Jorge Figueroa (2020, Southlake, Texas) and Yanluis Ortiz (2020, Grapevine, Texas) produced well over the course of the event.
Figueroa was the leadoff hitter for the Bombers and he was on base often for the team. He has a medium frame with good speed and overall athleticism. Figueroa stands slightly open with a medium hand set. The swing path is compact and he generates quickness through the path. He hit a lot of line drives and primarily went gap-to-gap in his approach. The speed proved to be a useful weapon on offense as he would extend softly hit singles into doubles thanks to his legs and baserunning instincts. Figueroa coils up before exploding towards the ball and stays inside the ball on his swings through the point of contact. With good athleticism and a sound approach at the plate Figueroa showed off solid offensive tools throughout.
Already known as perhaps the biggest power bat of the class, Ortiz has a large 6-foot-1, 179-pound frame with present physicality. The Miami commit has a high hand set with a high back elbow and has a fly ball approach at the plate. He looks to lift the ball through the point of contact and drive the ball deep in the outfield. Ortiz has a violent swing and hit a couple of fly balls that stayed in the air for over 6.0 seconds. He showed good use of his lower half to generate power and covered all parts of the plate well. Ortiz showed good feel for contacting the ball with the barrel of the bat regardless of where the ball was pitched at. The contact he made was consistently loud and his overall collection of tools and offensive presence make him a top hitter in the class.
Another Bomber, Masyn Winn (2020, Kingwood, Texas) turned in a strong outing on the mound Saturday afternoon. Winn has a smaller frame, 5-foot-7 and 145-pounds, but with a very athletic build. Winn has a tighter arm action with a very quick delivery. He throws with some effort but landed online with good extension towards the plate. He showed solid arm speed with some deception to his overall delivery. Winn drops and drives from the pound and pushes off toward the hitter. He threw a lot of strikes and gathered a lot of swings and misses on fastballs up in the strike zone. The fastball had late, cutting life to it with good velocity in the 83-85 mph range while topping out at 87 mph. The pitch dominated his arsenal and he moved the pitch around the strike zone a lot. Winn mixed in a shorter curveball in the upper-60s that played well off the fastball. Winn showed a good presence on the mound and is a talented arm to monitor as he continues to develop.
Perhaps the most impressive pitching performance of the entire event came from the right arm of Victor Mederos (2020, Miami, Fla.). He has an extremely projectable 6-foot-1, 175-pound frame which is scary to think about given his current velocity. Mederos has a long, loose arm action with a very clean overall delivery. His front side opens up early at times but he throws with little effort on the mound and showed excellent arm speed. The Miami commit gets a downhill angle upon release and lands online toward the plate. Mederos attacked hitters with his very live fastball. The pitch sat from 91-94 mph early on and he used it as a weapon for strikes early in the count and out of the zone for chases on a strikeout. He showed a strong approach and mixed his fastball and curveball well. The curveball sat in the upper-60s to low-70s and showed good depth and spin. He would throw the pitch for strikes early in the count and the pitch was deadly with two strikes. Mederos continues to improve on the mound and he remains one of the most talented arms in the class.
Mederos’ teammate Albert Hernandez (2020, Davie, Fla.) also showed impressive tools on the pitching mound. Hernandez has a solid frame with a very projectable 6-foot-1, 185-pounds. He throws from a three-quarter arm slot with a clean arm action that whips across his body at times. The Miami commit has a live fastball that sits from 87-89 mph and touches 90-91 mph at times. The fastball has late, arm-side run and he can work the pitch on both sides of the plate. The pitch that most dictates the direction of his outing is the slider. Earlier in the tournament Hernandez lost the feel for the pitch in an inning and had to rely on his fastball. When the pitch is on it is a true wipeout slider with late break and is nearly impossible to hit. He closed out the championship game and over those two innings he mixed his fastball and slider effectively, throwing both pitches for strikes and getting swings and misses. The slider is also a weapon he uses to freeze lefties by backdoor-ing them over the outside corner. Hernandez has all the physical tools to be a top-level pitcher and his performance over the weekend continued to prove that fact.
The battery-mate for the previously mentioned pitchers was Carlos Perez (2020, Miami, Fla.) and he continued to show the height of his overall tools. Perez’ bat has very good upside with a naturally lifted swing and power in the bat. He has quick bat speed and makes loud contact with advanced barrel feel. However, the Miami commit has shown outstanding potential behind the plate. He is a good receiver and shows quick, nimble footwork on throws. The arm strength is excellent for his age and he routinely posted in-game pop times in the low 2.0’s. He threw out two runners with a pop time of 2.01 and 2.03 respectively and both throws were on a line. Perez has shown very good actions behind the plate and coupled with his current offensive prowess remains a top prospect on both offense and defense.
Another Bandito who showed a very impressive overall skill set was Brandon Fields (2020, Orlando, Fla.). Fields has a very projectable, athletic frame and stands at a physical 5-foot-11, 185-pounds. He has shown quick twitch movements and actions with impressive overall athleticism. At the plate Fields has good bat speed with present and future power. When he is on time he hits the ball well out in front and transfers his weight well into the swing. The swing path gets muddled at times but he has shown he can impact the ball hard and generate loud contact. His speed helps both on the bases and in the field. Fields was timed at a solid 4.35 seconds to first from the right side and, along with his good baserunning instincts, is a threat on the basepaths. He covers a lot of ground in the outfield with a strong arm from the outfield as well. Fields was aggressive with his throws in an attempt to limit baserunners taking extra bases. He has shown advanced tools in nearly every facet of the game and the sky continues to be the limit for him as an athlete and a player.
The two pitchers who combined to close the championship game out for Elite Squad were Timothy Manning (2020, Coral Springs, Fla.) and Adonis Perez (2020, Perth Amboy, N.J.).
Manning pitched earlier in the tournament for an inning and was called upon to start the final game of the event. The Florida commit has a very lean, projectable frame and stands at 6-foot-1, 170-pounds. Manning showed a clean arm action with an easy overall delivery. He has clean glove side mechanics and showed good arm speed. Manning threw with little effort and battled against hitters. He showed some drop and drive with his lower half to explode forward and also had a good pickoff move to first base. He turned in a gutsy performance in the championship and remained poised even with runners threatening. He worked his fastball in the upper-80s topping out at 85 mph for the event and mixed speeds well with his curveball. The pitch has tight spin with late break and 1-to-7 shape.
Perez closed out the tournament and also threw earlier in the event. He stands at a tall 6-foot-3, 180-pounds and projects well on the mound. He has a very long, slight rigid arm action and releases from a high three-quarters arm slot. The delivery is very deceptive and he offers a tough angle of release on his pitches. Perez throws with some effort but did a good job at locating and having a feel for his repertoire. The arm falls behind at times but when he is on time the pitches are extremely tough to square up. He worked with a two-pitch mix of fastball and breaking ball. The fastball sat in the mid-80s, topping out at 85 mph, and had some sink to it. He worked the pitch low in the zone and spotted it well. The breaking ball had short, quick break to it and played off his fastball well. Perez showed good ability on the mound and will be intriguing to monitor going forward.
Perhaps the most surprising performance of the entire event was the pitching of Logan Forsythe (2022, Woolmarket, Miss.). The righthander is extremely young, only thirteen years old, but showed an advanced feel for pitching and advanced velocity for his age. Forsythe showed a pretty loose arm action with good synchronization of his upper half. He threw with little effort and showed the ability to get downhill. The lower half was a bit raw but his fastball command and velocity were impressive. The fastball sat from 80-83 mph and topped out at 85 mph with some arm-side wiggle. He mixed in a soft curveball in the mid-60s with 11-to-5 shape. Forsythe is very young but showed promising tools and will be fun to monitor in the future.