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.
Cincinnati
Reds
Before
They Were Pros, 2013-14
– Robert Stephenson, Billy Hamilton, Jesse Winker
Before
They Were Pros, 2014-15 –
Michael Lorenzen, Ben Lively, Nick Travieso, Phil Ervin
Amir
Garrett, LHP
The
vast majority of the time a baseball player is referred to as a
dual-sport or two-sport athlete the other sport is football.
Occasionally there is a prospect such as the White Sox shortstop Tim
Anderson, who was profiled earlier in this series, or top 2016 PG
All-American pitcher Matt Manning who also excels at basketball.
In
high school, Garrett barely qualified as a two-sport athlete because
he hardly played baseball.
The
6-foot-6 Garrett attended high school for two years at Sierra Vista
High School in Nevada before moving to California and attending
Leuzinger High School as a junior. He pitched in five varsity games
that year for Leuzinger, going 0-3, 5.83 with 16 walks in 18 innings.
He transferred to Findlay College Prep in Nevada for his senior year,
a school that did not have a baseball team. During this time Garrett
had established himself as a four-star basketball prospect with a
commitment to play at St. John's.
Garrett
still tossed a baseball around and was convinced to participate in a
workout in front of some local Nevada scouts during the spring of his
senior year. Imagine their surprise when a 6-foot-6 lefthander
stepped to the mound and started throwing 96 mph. Garrett's
commitment to play basketball was strong, though, and most teams were
intrigued but decided not to take the risk. The Reds, however, picked
Garrett in the 22nd round of the 2011 draft and gave him a $1 million
signing bonus to play professional baseball in the summers while he
continued his college basketball career.
Garrett
played for two seasons at St. John's, averaging 5.4 points and 4.3
rebounds a game as a part-time starter as a sophomore. He left St.
John's to transfer to Cal State Northridge and sat out the 2013-14
basketball season due to transfer rules. At that time he decided to
dedicate himself to baseball full-time and has exploded as a prospect
since.
Chicago
Cubs
Before They Were Pros, 2013-14
– Javier Baez, Albert Almora, C.J. Edwards, Dan Vogelbach
Before
They Were Pros, 2014-15 –
Kris Bryant, Billy McKinney
Duane
Underwood, RHP
Underwood
was a mainstay on the East Cobb Titans and East Cobb Astros teams
from 2009 to 2011 but was initially a primary position player. His
first Perfect Game showcase was at the 2010 PG Junior National and he
was listed as a third baseman/righthanded pitcher. He ran a 6.93 at
that event, threw 91 mph from the outfield and topped out at 89 mph
on the mound. His delivery was complicated and inconsistent and he
threw mostly fastballs, causing this scout to put in his notes "might
be a better hitting prospect."
At
Underwood's second PG showcase, the 2010 National Underclass Main
Event, Underwood's mechanics and secondary pitches had taken a big
step forward and his fastball reached 92 mph. Although he was now
officially listed as an outfielder/righthanded pitcher, it was clear
his future was on the mound.
By
the summer before his senior year, Underwood had clearly solidified
his standing as one of the best pitching prospects in the 2012 class.
He topped out at 95 mph or above at four Perfect Game events that
summer, including the All-American Classic, and hit 98 mph at the
East Coast Professional Showcase. Underwood also had developed a
sharp diving mid-80s changeup that was a plus pitch at times. His
curveball showed improvement but he tended to cast the pitch at times
and it was usually in the 72-74 mph area, a full 20 mph difference
from his fastball.
Perfect
Game had Underwood ranked 14th in the high school class going into
the 2012 draft but he slid a bit past that, going 67th overall to the
Cubs, who signed him out of a Georgia scholarship for a $1,050,000
bonus.
Milwaukee
Brewers
Before They Were Pros, 2013-14
– Tyrone Taylor, Jimmy Nelson, Taylor Jungmann
Before They Were Pros, 2014-15 –
Devin Williams, Jorge Lopez, Tyler Wagner
Kodi
Medeiros, LHP
Medeiros
had never pitched at a Perfect Game event before the 2013 National
Showcase and followup discovered that he had only rarely ever made
the trip to the mainland from his native Hawaii. Perfect Game
received a recommendation to consider him, followed up on it and
invited him to the National sight unseen, a very rare occurrence.
Along
with being a new prospect on the PG map, Medeiros also happened to be
the starting pitcher in the first game of the showcase, so the
assembled scouts were just getting settled in. They had to snap to
attention quickly, as Medeiros opened up throwing 93-94 mph from a
low three-quarters arm slot with a huge slider that looked like it
defied gravity. It was definitely a wow moment behind the back stop
at the Metrodome.
Here
are the raw notes from the two PG scouts covering that game:
Loose,
whippy arm. Big SL tilt, FB has big life, lots of 93s, FB a 2-seamer,
consistent down in zone, nasty angle. 3/4 arm slot, long, easy arm
action, pounded the zone, down. Deceptive, tough on LHH … FB just
leaps on hitters, hard to square up, located CH, sold it, didn't use
a lot. Athletic build, looks bigger than listed, long limbs for
height. Pushed one CH, 10-4 slider depth, 10 … Arm action is
gorgeous! ball zips out of his hand with + life effortlessly, +
tailing life, + frisbee SL that takes a sharp right turn, flashed
quality CH, one heck of a first impression.
As
if to put an exclamation mark on his performance, Medeiros later hit
a ball into the upper deck in batting practice just to keep
everyone's attention on him.
Medeiros
went on to become perhaps the most controversial and talked about
member of the 2014 high school class, both for the rest of the summer
and through the following spring. Many scouts saw an arm action and
release slot that only profiled him as a future reliever and thus not
worthy of a high-round pick. Some scouts even believed that he should
go to college as a primary position player. Others saw a very
athletic southpaw who would flash three plus pitches with feel and
resisted the "reliever only" tag that many had already
placed.
The
Brewers belonged strongly in latter camp and selected Medeiros, a
Pepperdine signee, with the 12th overall pick and gave him a $2.5
million signing bonus.
Pittsburgh
Pirates
Before They Were Pros, 2013-14
– Jameson Taillon, Nick Kingham, Josh Bell
Before They Were Pros, 2014-15 –
Reese McGuire, Austin Meadows
Tyler
Glasnow, RHP
Glasnow's
background story is very similar to the Mets' Noah Syndergaard's in
that there isn't much of a background story. Both grew up in the
middle of prominent baseball areas, in Syndergaard's case the Dallas
Metroplex, in Glasnow's case Los Angeles. Neither was recognized as a
prospect prior to their senior year.
In
fact, Glasnow was 5-foot-7 when he was a freshman in high school (he
is now 6-foot-8, 225-pounds). He was still throwing in the upper-70s
and topping out in the low-80s according to published reports after
his sophomore season. As a junior at Hart High School, Glasnow went
1-2, 4.00, allowing 37 base runners in 21 innings.
It
wasn't until his senior year in 2011 when Glasnow's coordination
finally caught up with his then 6-foot-7, 195-pound frame. He never
played in a Perfect Game event, nor was he selected by scouts to play
in the Area Code Games – which is usually a catch-all net for
California prospects – the August before his senior year.
Glasnow
went 8-2, 1.25, with 99 strikeouts in 67 innings as a senior. He
wasn't a finished product by any means, as he walked 40 hitters and
continued to struggle with command early in his professional career,
but his fastball was now regularly in the low-90s and peaking higher.
There was some scout talk about Glasnow during the spring but he
wasn't a hot cross-check target even leading up to the draft.
Even
the Southern California colleges missed out on Glasnow, as he signed
with the University of Portland. The Pirates didn't miss out, though,
speculating a fifth round pick and $600,000 on Glasnow in the 2011
draft, thus depriving Portland of a likely top of the 2014 draft
pitcher for three years.
St.
Louis Cardinals
Before They Were Pros, 2013-14
– Kolten Wong, Carson Kelly, Tim Cooney, Randal Grichuk
Before They Were Pros, 2014-15 – Rob
Kaminsky, Charles Tilson
Luke
Weaver, RHP
Weaver
was a regular on the Perfect Game circuit in 2010, throwing in six
tournaments with Chet Lemon's Juice, including helping them to a
co-championship at the WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, and
pitching at the 2010 PG National Showcase. He was extremely
consistent throughout the summer and fall, pounding the strike zone
with a very lively 88-91 mph fastball at every event and always
performing at a high level.
This
scout's notes from the National read: side
step slow paced leg raise delivery, long loose arm action, good arm
speed, leverage at release, fair CB spin, CB is loose, rare nice
change with + arm speed/sink, throws easy, occ run on FB, strike
thrower, maintained velo, will come fast with better breaking ball.
Between
the National in June and Jupiter in October, Weaver ditched the soft
curveball and started using an upper-70s slider that was a much
better pitch for him.
At
6-foot-2, 167-pounds with only an average fastball, the scouting
community was willing to wait another three years for Weaver to gain
strength and physically mature, although the Blue Jays did draft him
in the 19th round.
After
uncharacteristically struggling to throw strikes as a freshman at
Florida State, Weaver recovered to have strong sophomore and junior
seasons, going a combined 15-6 with a 2.47 ERA. But his strongest
moments came pitching for the USA Collegiate National Team during the
summer of 2013.
I
saw Weaver throw six innings in mid-July that summer against a very
strong Cuban National Team. He allowed five hits and a pair of
unearned runs in what ended up being a 3-2 extra inning win for the
USA. Weaver was consistently in the 93-95 mph range with his
fastball, topping out at 96 mph, and showed feel and command of both
his slider and changeup. It was clearly a top half of the first round
performance for Weaver and not the only time he threw like that
during the summer.
During
his junior college season, that mid-90s velocity that all the scouts
had seen before didn't reappear, however, as Weaver worked more in
the 88-92 mph range. There was even some feeling that he might drop
out of the first round entirely but the Cardinals picked him with the
27th overall pick and signed him for a $1,843,000 bonus.