2016 Perfect Game/Rawlings Finest in the Field, Class of 2017
Pitcher: Hunter Greene (Stevenson Ranch, Calif.)
Hunter Greene could have quite easily been considered for any of the infield positions listed below, considering how talented he is as a defender at the shortstop position. With silky smooth actions and good athleticism throughout his body, he could pretty easily be the next in the line of bigger shortstops to make the jump to professional baseball with a good chance to stick at the shortstop position long term. As it sits, he’s the No. 1 prospect on both our high school class of 2017 rankings and our overall top 250 draft prospect list based on the strength of his prowess as a pitcher, but make no mistake, his defensive abilities serve him well there as well, and the double-plus throwing arm helps in a variety of ways.
Catcher: M.J. Melendez (Cutler Bay, Fla.)
M.J. Melendez, the son of Florida International Head Coach Mervyl Melendez, has been a longtime Perfect Game favorite due to his defensive abilities behind the plate. He’s likely the best defensive catcher in the high school class, and he achieves this honor through a combination of athleticism, framing abilities, blocking abilities and arm strength. He has been clocked up to 86 mph on throws down to second base as well as up to 89 mph on the mound in past PG events. The arm strength is helped by a quick release, a release that, as a part of his other finely-tuned and efficient mechanics, make him able to shut down opposing running games at a high level. He’s an adept receiver as well, capable of framing pitches and stealing strikes, something that has become an emphasis of importance by player development systems in recent years. He caps it all off by being a well above average athlete for the catcher position, allowing him to block and move laterally as well as anyone else in the class.
First Base: Alejandro Toral (Davie, Fla.)
Traditionally, although it has changed in recent years, emphasis placed on defensive value at the first base position has been a bit of an afterthought. Traditionally, the idea is as long as a first baseman hits and hits for power, coaches and scouts don’t care how he defends. There has been a bit of a trend recently, however, of placing a greater emphasis on developing first basemen who are also good defenders as a part of getting maximum value out of the position. This is where Alejandro Toral fits in. In addition to being arguably the best hitter in the ’17 class along with having the best lefthanded power, Toral is a very good defensive first baseman. He has solid lateral agility for the position, a well above average throwing arm (which is often hidden at first base) and extremely soft hands, which allows him to both field anything hit at him cleanly while also picking errant throws in the dirt from his infielders. That in particular is a skill that can add significant value to a first baseman’s output over the course of a season.
Middle Infield: Nick Allen (San Diego, Calif.)
Without question the best defensive player in the prep class of 2017, regardless of position, Nick Allen has been putting on jaw-dropping defensive displays for years now. His athletic gifts are very good, to be fair, seeing as he’s an above average athlete with good speed, lots of twitch and excellent lateral agility. However, what sets him apart from all the rest are his instincts and overall feel for the game of baseball. He’s almost able to discern where the ball will go before the hitter even swings, allowing him to get that much of a head start in one way or another, giving him a built-in edge over his competition in terms of defensive prowess. His feet are extremely light and quick regardless of which direction he’s moving in, and his hands are of the major league plus variety already. He can field any batted ball cleanly, regardless of last second hop direction or spin, and he’s as close to a sure thing as a defender that we’ve seen at Perfect Game in quite some time. His arm strength also draws above average grades from scouts and is more than enough to allow him to profile on the left side of the infield for a long time to come.
Middle Infield: Ricardo De La Torre (Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico)
Despite having waxed poetic about Nick Allen’s glove just above, Ricardo De La Torre isn’t far behind him in terms of glove work in the middle infield. In fact, De La Torre is likely the more toolsy of the two, with extremely high-end athleticism, agility, speed and arm strength all rolled into the fact that De La Torre is also a high-end switch-hitting prospect with power. He’s extremely quick to the ball to either side, using the aforementioned elite agility to his advantage as much as possible, and he’s smooth as silk with the ball in his hands leading up to what might be the star of his defensive show: his arm strength. Having been clocked up to as high as 95 mph across the diamond, De La Torre’s arm is undoubtedly plus, and it’s quite a sight to see him unleashing clothesline after clothesline across the diamond, with good accuracy.
Infield: Tyler Freeman (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.)
The case of Tyler Freeman is a curious one. The 2016 PG All-American is a high-end shortstop and overall infield defender who profiles extremely well at the shortstop position both at TCU and into professional baseball. However, he didn’t often play shortstop during his travel ball career at PG events. This was, of course, due to the fact that Freeman played for CBA Marucci, which meant, of course, that he was playing on the same team as Nick Allen, which allowed Freeman to play second base forming a keystone combination of high-end defensive talent that isn’t often seen at the collegiate level, let alone the travel baseball level. Freeman is extremely talented in his own right, with the necessary athleticism and quickness to profile in the middle infield, along with extremely smooth actions with soft hands and very good agility. The arm plays very well at second base but would also be very good from shortstop, and having played several infield spots already, gives him the added value of having a history of positional versatility.
Outfield: Drew Waters (Woodstock, Ga.)
Waters made quite a name for himself over the course of the summer as a switch-hitting outfielder with plus speed, natural feel to hit and excellent defense at a premium position in center field. The plus speed helps him out there, where he’s able to chase down balls in both gaps at a higher level than many of his peers, and he’s done a very good job of improving his instincts and reads off the bat which allows that speed to play even better, widening the range he can cover and pushing him closer and closer to his ceiling of a plus defender in center field. He’s also got another weapon in his defensive toolkit, that of his excellent throwing arm. Generally speaking, the strongest outfield arms play in right field, but it’s always a weapon when a center fielder has a cannon of an arm as well, as Waters does. He’s been clocked up to 95 mph and it plays well in game action, delivering strikes to all bases when necessary.
Outfield: Quentin Holmes (East Elmhurst, N.Y.)
Holmes is one of the fastest players in the country, perhaps regardless of age or level, as he’s been clocked in the 60-yard dash as low as a blistering 6.15 seconds (at the 2016 PG National Showcase). The rangy, physically projectable Holmes definitely has the look of a supremely athletic center fielder, and the Mississippi State commit has done well to make his mark as a premium defender in the middle of the field. His speed, as one would imagine, helps him exponentially in the outfield where he’s able to chase down fly balls at speeds nearly unmatched by his peers. As he continues to refine his reads, routes and jumps his speed allows him to have the potential of a truly impact defender at the next level, be it in the SEC at Mississippi State or in professional baseball with whomever his lucky drafting team may be.
Outfield: Garrett Mitchell (Orange, Calif.)
Mitchell, the star prospect of a loaded Orange Lutheran High School team, has a case for being one of the overall more toolsy and athletic players in the country. He has great size at 6-foot-2, 200-pounds and also boasts plus or better tools in his arm strength and speed. He’s been clocked as low as 6.35 seconds in the 60-yard dash, a speed not often seen from a player of his size, and has thrown as high as 94 mph from the outfield at PG events. His size and arm strength (and power when hitting) usually speak to a prototypical right field profile, but his speed and athleticism allow him to profile in center field, giving him one of the higher upsides in the class of 2017. His instincts in the outfield are also very strong, allowing his plus speed to play up to a whole new level. Speed does not always necessarily equate to good defense in the outfield, but when the instincts, reads and routes are there speed can easily be the separator between an average defender and a plus defender. Garrett Mitchell certainly profiles as an impact outfield defender.
Utility: Royce Lewis (Aliso Viejo, Calif.)
Royce Lewis’ presence forced our hand into creating the utility category, something we hadn’t done in the past, simply because he has a case for infield spots and outfield spots, and is such a high-end player that he needed to be mentioned. He’s the shortstop at perennial powerhouse JSerra High School in California, and he’s a very good one. He has the athleticism and twitch necessary to the play the middle infield at a high level, which he has done for years. However, he also has the positional versatility of flexing out to center field, and in fact was listed on the Team USA roster as both an infielder and an outfielder, the only member of that team who can claim that. He has a chance to be an impact defender in center field with lots of range, easy actions, plus speed and enough arm strength to play the position, and some prognosticators have gone so far as to say that if/when Lewis makes the switch full-time to center field he could be the best outfield defender of the class.