I?€™ve titled this ?€?From the Tower?€? because that?€™s my vantage point during the entire event, sitting in the tower on the Blue Quad organizing information from the 175 games. The great thing about this is that a huge amount of information passes in front of me. The bad thing is that I had limited opportunity to wander around, talk to friends and to see games outside the Blue Quad.

And then my wife wonders why I?€™ve been in 85 degree Florida for 5 days watching baseball games and I?€™m more pale than when I left chilly Nebraska .

Here are some behind the scenes things ?€?From the Tower?€?

-- Easily the biggest buzz coming up from the fields was about two players, RHP Rick Porcello and SS Ryan Dent. I wouldn?€™t be at all surprised if Jerry Ford doesn?€™t move Porcello up to the #1 slot on the 2007 Top Prospect list. His performance on the mound was flawless and showed the continued improvement the big right hander has made over not only the last year, when we first saw him, but over the last few months.

A West Coast scout who I respect very much told me at the start of the event, ?€?Watch Dent, he?€™s the best player in California and maybe in the country.?€? I was a bit surprised but that seemed to be the message that we kept hearing and that Dent kept trying to prove out through the 5 days. He plays the game with Big League speed now but plays it easily and fluidly.

-- It?€™s hard to feel sorry for a team that finishes third at seemingly every event but you have to feel a bit for the Dirtbags. Andy Partin?€™s team from North Carolina has an incredible record all the way up to the semi-final game of events. What that sometimes overshadows is this fact about the Dirtbags roster: Every 2007 player except one had made a verbal commitment to a Division I school prior to the event. And that player, RHP Zach Woodley, was 87-89 mph and probably has plenty of schools at his doorstep now. Plus, many of the Dirtbags best players, such as SS Garrison Lassiter, OF R.J. Hoes and 2B Tyler Hanover, are 2008 prospects. It will be hard to replace the Dirtbags core of 2007 pitchers (Trent Rothlin, Patrick Johnson, Tyler Leach, Greg Holt, Justin Poovey, Vance Williams, Wes McBride, etc.) but in 2008?€™s Tyler Hibbs and Chad O?€™Connor, Partin has a good start.

-- Speaking of Hanover , he made a play in the Dirtbags semi-final loss that Jerry Ford talked about in the tower for a couple of innings after. The 5-6 Hanover ranged far behind the second base bag on a ground ball, jumped up from on the grass in shallow centerfield while drifting into left field, and still threw the runner out at first base.

-- The neck injury to All American Prospects outfielder D.J. Leonard was scary. How many times have we seen on TV or even in person an athlete immobilized and taken off the field? This was a circumstance if that hadn?€™t have happened we could have had a tragedy. Special mention should go to Jeff Eubank, father of All American Prospects OF Jeff Eubank. Eubank Sr. is a firefighter/paramedic who quickly took control of the situation and made sure that his son?€™s teammate was taken care of with the utmost caution and care. I?€™m sure Eubank would just say he was doing what he?€™s been trained to do if you asked him, but all our thanks go out to him and the others who helped Leonard.

-- The 2007 class is getting a lot of well deserved attention for the high quality of its pitching prospects, and with good reason. But that might be overshadowing an equally special group of 2007 shortstop prospects.

Some people in baseball almost seem to resign the shortstop position to players from Latin America . 24 shortstops started at least 110 games for their team in 2006, only 10 of those were born in the United States .

(If you think you know your MLB stuff, try and guess the 10. The answer is at the bottom of the story.)

Ryan Acosta (Winning Inning), Kevin Ahrens (Houston Heat), Carmen Angelini (Midwest Blazers), Manny Barreda (Black Sox), Taylor Cole (Ohio Warhawks), Christian Colon (Ohio Warhawks), Ryan Dent (Reds Scout Team), Phil Gosselin (All Star Baseball Academy), Justin Jackson (Reds Scout Team), Peter Kozma (Sandlot/Midwest Scout Team), B.J. LeMahieu (South FL Bandits), J.C. Menna (NJ Twins), Reynaldo Navarro (PRBBA), Nick Noonan (ABD), Jonathan Roof (Black Sox), John Tolisano (SW Florida Baseball), Matt West (Bellaire) and Marc Zecchino (Tri-State) are all 2007 shortstops that played in Jupiter and who have legitimate draftable tools as shortstops.

Colon , Dent, Jackson , Kozma, Noonan and Tolisano are frequently mentioned as potential high round draft picks but many of the others could come on and surprise the evaluators as well. It?€™s a great year for shortstops!

-- A new record for most scouts watching a single game at Jupiter might have been set on Friday night. With the only games being held on the four Blue Quad fields with lights, everyone congregated in that area. Most it seemed were watching the eventual champion Reds Scout Team play Bellaire on field Blue 6, where scouts were literally lined up in the ubiquitous golf carts all the way down both foul lines in addition to being lined up deep behind the backstop. If the scouts/coaches had seen enough on Blue 6, they could have stepped over to Blue 5 to watch the Orlando Braves John Gast strike out 17 against Team California, looked to their right to Blue 7 to see the very talented Winning Inning team play, or wandered over to the other side of the Tower to see ABD and their 4 Aflac All Americans on that field.

-- One of the side lists we keep in the Tower as the score/scouting sheets come in is the list of all pitchers who throw 88 mph or above. That unofficial number reached the incredible level of 268 pitchers by the end of play on Sunday. The complete list will be published later on the PG web site.

Some of the raw breakdowns of the 268 include:

98 mph: 1 (Rich Porcello)
97 mph: 1 (Michael Main)
95 mph: 1 (Seth Blair)
94 mph: 9
93 mph: 13
92 mph: 35
91 mph: 35
90 mph: 42
89 mph: 75
88 mph: 55

RHP?€™s: 220
LHP?€™s: 48

2007?€™s: 212
2008?€™s: 49
2009?€™s: 4
FA?€™s: 1

-- Something to remember about the velocity list is that all of those 268 hard throwers aren?€™t primary pitchers. Many are position players who fall into one of three: a) position prospects who will stay at a position, often shortstop, because they are better there, b) present position players who project better on the mound and will likely make that switch in the future; c) potential college two-way standouts, if they go the college route.

Here are some of the top players in each of those 3 categories from Jupiter, each of whom threw 91 mph or above:

a) SS Taylor Cole (Ohio Warhawks), SS Michael Givens (Winning Inning), C Jordan Swagerty (Dallas Tigers), C Robert Bono (PG Crosschecker), SS Marc Zecchino (Tri-State)

b) OF Greg Holle (South Troy), OF Brett Eibner (Houston Heat), 3B Zach Cox (Midland Scout Team), OF Steven Neff (Diamond Devils), OF Jordan Siversten (Cangelosi Orioles)

c) SS Matt West (Bellaire), SS Manny Barreda (Black Sox), 1B Iden Nazario, 3B Derek Dietrich (Reds Scout Team), SS Matt McGee (Florida Bombers), Jordan Rasinski (Central FL Renegades)

-- The professional scouts are in Jupiter to see the top 2007 prospects. Increasingly, the college coaches/recruiters, especially from the high level programs, are in Jupiter to get a hold on the 2008 class, since many of the better 2007 prospects have already verbally committed. Yet, there were even a couple of top 2009 and 2010 players who showed they could compete with the older prospects.

Among the youngsters who stood out were:

2009: SS/RHP Michael Givens (Tampa, FL/Winning Inning), C Michael Zunino (Cape Coral, FL/SW Florida), RHP Tyler Duffey (Bellaire, TX/Bellaire Off-Season), SS Devin Marrero (Davie, FL/All American Prospects), OF Daniel Aldrich (Mt. Pleasant, SC/Diamond Devils), SS Darnell Sweeney (Miramar, FL/Florida Pokers), RHP Danny Healy (Cooper City, FL/Florida Bombers), RHP Nick Cunningham (Indianapolis, IN/Indiana Scout Team), C Mike Lubanski (Collegeville, PA/Mid Atlantic All-Stars), IF/RHP Brent Zimmerman (Cooper City, FL/Reds Scout Team), 1B Jacob Mayers (Hanover, VA/Richmond Braves), SS Tommy Winegardner (St. Leonard, MD/Team Connecticut)

2010: C Jeff Jackson (Lake Zurich, IL /Midwest Blazers), LHP Evan Grills (Whitby, ON /Ontario Blue Jays), IF/RHP Tyler Dial (PG Orange/Phenix City, AL )

-- The pitching match up everyone would look up to: RHP Scott Moviel (Ohio Warhawks) vs RHP Matt Skipper (Colorado Slammers). The 6-10, 255 lb Moviel is well known to scouts and didn?€™t nothing to hurt his standing, throwing twice in relief for the Warhawks and topping out at 93 mph. The 6-9, 225 lb Skipper is a 2008 prospect who could be something special, as well. He topped out at 88 on the mound but is a good enough athlete to play corner infield and bat in the middle of the Slammer?€™s line up.

ANSWER: The 10 shortstops who were born in the USA and started at least 110 games in 2006 were: Clint Barmes (Col), Royce Clayton (Wash), David Eckstein (STL), Adam Everett (Hou), Khalil Greene (SD), Bill Hall (Mil), Derek Jeter (NYY), Jimmy Rollins (Phil), Jack Wilson (Pitt) and , Jack Wilson(Tex)