As
part of Perfect Game's recurring 'Before They Were Pros' series David
Rawnsley will take a look at some of the top prospects in minor
league baseball and their impact on the sport prior to their
professional careers. This will be done in a six-part series, one
feature for each division in Major League Baseball while identifying
one of the top prospects for each team. Links are provided below to
past installments of the 'Before They Were Pros' series for other
reports on prospects, both past and present.
Chicago
White Sox
Before
They Were Pros, 2013-14 –
Erik Johnson, Courtney Hawkins, Tyler Danish
Before They Were Pros, 2014-15 –
Chris Beck, Micah Johnson, Jacob May
Tim
Anderson, SS
Alabama
and Mississippi area scouts can talk and wring their hands behind
backstops for as long as they want, but the fact remains that
Anderson was eligible for two drafts, first as a senior at Hillcrest
High School in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and then as a freshman at East
Central Community College in Mississippi, and was not drafted.
Not
being drafted out of high school wasn't a big surprise.
Anderson didn't even start playing baseball until he was a junior and
starred on the basketball court instead, leading Hillcrest to a 32-3
record and the 2011 Alabama State 6A title. He received only
one scholarship offer in baseball, to East Central.
Committed
full-time to baseball for the first time as a freshman, Anderson hit
.340-4-37 and was a perfect 30-for-30 on stolen bases. He spent
the summer in the Jayhawk League and was named that collegiate league's second best prospect by Perfect Game. Here is Allan
Simpson's report on Anderson from that summer:
Virtual
unknown entering Jayhawk season, opened plenty of eyes with range of
projectable tools; serious juice in bat (.360-4-37 as JC FR,
.352-8-39 for A’s), superior speed on bases (30-of-30 SB in JC, 31
SB on summer); capable of playing SS with plus range/hands/arm
strength, but prone to making errors, may settle into CF, where speed
a significant asset; still figuring it out in all phases, just needs
to play.
By
mid-way through the next spring, though, scouts had found Anderson
and his 70 grade speed and dynamic athletic ability. Anderson
hit .495 with 10 home runs and 41 stolen bases and his stock rose
weekly as more and more cross checkers saw him play. There was
discussion about whether Anderson, who was understandably raw
defensively at shortstop, could stay there or eventually move to
centerfield, but that talk didn't seem to hurt his overall evaluation
at all.
Anderson
had signed with Alabama Birmingham but the White Sox drafted him with
the 17th overall pick and signed him quickly for a $2,165,000 bonus.
Cleveland
Indians
Before
They Were Pros, 2013-14 –
Francisco Lindor
Before
They Were Pros, 2014-15 –
Clint Frazier, Tyler Naquin, Mitch Brown
Bobby
Bradley, 1B
Bradley
was a third baseman and catcher in high school down in Gulfport,
Miss. While he had a loose arm action and a strong arm,
measuring 89 mph across the diamond at the 2013 Perfect Game National
Showcase, it was considered a stretch for him to be able to continue
at third base in the long term and he did occasionally play first
base even in high school. His big body – he was listed at
6-foot-2, 220-pounds as a high school junior – and relative lack of
agility made that stand out.
What
also stood out, fortunately, the was big power in Bradley's
lefthanded bat. He had easy plus bat speed with a long and
fluid swing that had outstanding extension out front. The ball
exploded off the barrel when he squared it up.
That
type of power and profile made Bradley a focus of the national
scouting community during the 2013 summer circuit, including the PG
National Showcase. It seemed evident over the course of the
summer, however, that Bradley was trying too hard to impress scouts
and show his power, as he consistently struggled to make solid
contact against good pitching and especially struggled with off-speed
pitches and lefthanders. His swing, which had previously been
level and adept at driving the ball hard to all fields, turned into
an uphill, pull and lift swing that usually came up empty.
One
can see the same type of increasingly all-or-nothing approach in
Bradley's high school numbers at Harrison Central High School.
As a sophomore, Bradley hit .426-9-32 and upped that as a junior,
hitting .567-8-32. As the local pitchers figured out that they
couldn't get him out, Bradley started to get himself out, hitting
only .340-6-11 with 29 walks as a senior.
Still,
the enormous power potential won out in the end. Bradley was a
good high school student with very favorable work habits and had a
scholarship to Louisiana State as the draft approached. He
reportedly told teams that he would only sign in the top two rounds.
The Indians picked him in the third round with the 97th overall pick
but gave him second round money, $912,000, to get him signed.
Detroit
Tigers
Before
They Were Pros, 2013-14 –
Nick Castellanos, Jake Thompson, James McCann
Before
They Were Pros, 2014-15 –
Buck Farmer, Kevin Ziomek, Joe Jimenez
Derek
Hill, OF
Hill's
father, Orsino Hill, was a first round draft pick by the Cincinnati
Reds in the January Secondary Phase of the 1982 draft out of
Nebraska. He spent 12 years in the minor leagues, including
parts of eight seasons in AAA, without a big league callup but has
continued his baseball career as a scout since and is currently with
the Dodgers.
Hill
was raised and played his early high school baseball in Iowa but
moved to the Sacramento area as a sophomore when his father changed
scouting jobs.
Hill's
defensive ability in center field and knack for making the
spectacular play was already talked about and posted all over the
Internet before he came to the 2013 PG National Showcase. As so
often happens, Hill was a given a chance to showcase that ability on
the big stage and did so with one of the best catches ever seen at a
PG event. He was named a Perfect Game All-American after the
National.
With
his 6.44 speed, instincts and range, not to mention a plus throwing
arm, Hill looked every bit like a future Gold Glove candidate
defensively. His bat and offensive ceiling were not nearly as
high, though, and scouts carefully watched and broke down his swing
until draft time. Hill had always shown good barrel skills.
But at 6-foot-2, 170-pounds he wasn't strong enough yet to generate
big bat speed and his extra-base power was gap-to-gap oriented and
driven by his running speed as much as impact contact. Hill hit
.458 for his high school career and .500 as a senior with 29 stolen
bases but only hit one home run in 62 games his final two high school
seasons.
The
Tigers selected Hill with the 23rd overall pick in 2014 and signed
him out of his Oregon scholarship for a $2 million bonus.
Detroit scouting director David Chadd was quoted after the signing as
comparing Hill with Torii Hunter at the same stage, along with Austin
Jackson.
Kansas
City Royals
Before
They Were Pros, 2013-14 –
Sean Manaea, Bubba Starling
Before
They Were Pros, 2014-15 –
Hunter Dozier, Kyle Zimmer
Chase
Vallot, C
Vallot
wasn't a national name when he came to the 2013 Perfect Game National
Showcase as a very young 16-year old senior-to-be. He had played the
previous summer at tournaments with Dulins Dodgers and there was talk
about a young catcher who was hitting mammoth home runs down in
Louisiana, however, so scouts were beginning to listen.
Vallot
quickly showed in Minneapolis that he had perhaps the best raw tools
of any catcher in the 2014 class. He threw an eye opening 89 mph in
drills behind the plate, one of the top marks in PG showcase history,
and launched bombs into the Metrodome's left field seats during
batting practice. Vallot even ran a 7.03 60-yard dash to
highlight his overall athleticism. He was an easy choice to be
a PG All-American.
The
game notes from that event were not especially kind to Vallot's
defensive skills and polish, however, giving rise to much speculation
about whether he would be able to stay behind the plate. While
Vallot's athleticism was outstanding, his footwork throwing and
blocking and his hand positioning receiving the ball needed lots of
work. Scouts would follow this closely through the summer and
into the next spring.
There
wasn't really much question about Vallot offensively except for an
occasional tendency to over swing. He had a strong summer
overall and came back in the spring to hit .545-13-62 with 29 walks
in 36 games at St. Thomas More High School. St. Thomas More won the
Louisiana state 4A title and Vallot was named the state's Mr.
Baseball.
Vallot,
who was signed with Mississippi State, was the second high school
catcher and 40th overall pick in the 2014 draft. He signed quickly
with the Royals for a $1,350,000 bonus.
Minnesota
Twins
Before
They Were Pros, 2013-14 –
Byron Buxton, Alex Meyer, Jose Berrios
Before
They Were Pros, 2014-15 –
Kohl Stewart, Stephen Gonsalves
Max
Kepler, OF
Kepler
has one of the most unique backgrounds of any player in baseball. He was born in Berlin, Germany to an American mother and a Polish
father, both of whom were professional ballet dancers. Growing
up in soccer crazed Germany, Kepler was a high level goalie in a
prestigious youth league and also received a scholarship offer to
attend the Steffi Graf Tennis Foundation. But Kepler decided
that he liked baseball more and dropped the other sports to
concentrate on baseball. He was playing in Germany's highest
baseball league by age 14.
Twins
international scout Andy Johnson saw Kepler playing at a national
junior tournament that year and started following him, eventually
signing Kepler in 2009 for $800,000, a record for a European player.
Kepler was still in high school at the time and part of his agreement
with the Twins was that he be able to finish his high school
education at a Fort Myers, Fla. high school near the Twins minor
league complex while he played in the Gulf Coast League to begin his
career.