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College  | Story | 4/18/2018

College Notebook: April 18

Steve Fiorindo
Photo: Andre Pallante (Steve Fiorindo)



College Top 25 | College Player Database

During the season Perfect Game scouts will be traveling to some of the top series to watch the very best players in college baseball. Those observations, captured with both written notes and video, will be shared in the College Player Database as linked above, notes that can also be accessed on the players' individual PG profile pages. Throughout the season select reports will be shared in feature format to promote the players, the teams and college baseball as a whole.

Contributing: J.A. Cordts


Andre Pallante, RHP, UC Irvine



UC Irvine sophomore righthander Andre Pallante is quietly enjoying a very successful season.  Although he’s a little undersized height-wise, at a listed 6-foot, 203-pounds, Pallante has a strong, durable frame that should be able to withstand the rigors of starting every fifth day at the next level. He profiles as an innings eater, with a strong and powerful lower half. He has made some mechanical adjustments since his high school years, and even his freshman season, visibly using less effort and exhibiting better command, as shown by his 73-to-14 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 61 1/3 innings so far this spring.

Pallante works in the middle of the pitching rubber with a slight stride towards righthanded batters. He gets pretty long in the back with a strong finish over his front side. His fastball worked in the 89-92 mph range consistently during his seven innings of work, peaking at 93-94 in the early frames. Pallante showed better command of his fastball when thrown to the arm-side half of the plate, but the pitch had more natural cutting action when thrown to the outer half.

A slider was Pallante’s primary secondary pitch, thrown at 79-82 mph with varying action. Some had sharper and more true slider break with others looking softer and taking more of a curveball break. He did throw a distinct low-70s curveball, but he should continue to develop more feel for his slider as he throws it more. His 79-80 mph changeup gave him a solid fourth pitch, an offering that had solid downward break.

As a result of Pallante’s transformation from a thrower into a pitcher he has more pitchability and should continue to improve with more experience.  In this game against UC Santa Barbara Pallante picked up the win, moving to 5-0 on the year, by allowing just one run on three hits and three walks while striking out 10.


Ryan Fitzpatrick, 1B, UC Irvine

Fitzpatrick is enjoying a huge season for the Anteaters, with a .339/.480/.635 triple slash line to go along with 18 extra-base hits that includes seven home runs as well as 34 RBI. He’s a physical first baseman, listed at 6-foot-3, 225 pounds, and is best suited to play first base moving forward after beginning his college career as a third baseman. He as a selective approach and is willing to take a walk while waiting for a pitch he can drive. Fitzpatrick uses his lower half well with a gap-to-gap approach and plenty of power, especially to his pull side.

He holds his hands at shoulder height, with a wide base and a short stride into contact. He has a good swing plane that generates loft as a righthanded hitter, and his power showed up in this look, hitting a long home run to left-centerfield against UC Santa Barbara. He added another base hit to left-center and also drew a pair of walks, driving in four of UC Irvine’s 10 runs in a 10-2 win. Fitzpatrick is an interesting senior sign prospect with an approach that could translate to immediate success at the next level.


Marcos Castanon, SS, UC Santa Barbara



Castanon is a toolsy freshman shortstop that is a player to watch over the next 2-3 years at the college level. Defensively he displayed solid range to his backhand and up the middle with good arm strength while moving in either direction. Offensively he looks to elevated and drive the ball, doing so against UC Irvine starter Andre Pallanta by launching an RBI triple to the gap in left-centerfield as a righthanded hitter in UC Santa Barabara’s 10-2 loss. He also barreled up two other balls during the game, showing the ability to adjust to high velocity. He has a good stride around the basepaths, and at 6-foot, 185-pounds Castanon has a fair amount of twitch even if he isn’t an especially physical athlete.


Jonathan Engelmann, OF, Michigan 

Engelmann was a toolsy, projectable high school prospect who turned down significant draft interest in 2015 to honor his commitment to Michigan, and he's really popped in his junior season, leading the Wolverines in hitting and coming into his own in the process. He's slashing .344/.423/.528 thus far with 13 extra-base hits and 12 stolen bases, showcasing that potential power/speed combo that had NorCal scouts enamored three years ago. 

Engelmann is an athletically built 6-foot-3, 200-pound center fielder who should be able to stay there for the foreseeable future, as he has average instincts and closing speed, though long term he may end up moving to a corner spot. The arm is an average tool as well for the most part. 

Offensively, everything is very quiet and simplistic. Despite a somewhat elevated strikeout rate (18 percent), Engelmann's approach is very calm and relaxed, with a good idea of the strike zone and the ability to recognize spin. It's a streamlined swing as well, with leverage off the front side and solid average bat speed, showing the ability to cover the plate and make firm contact to all fields. He's got some power there, probably average raw power on the 20-80 scale, and he's doing a better job tapping into that power in 2018 than he has before in his career. 

There's a pretty solid profile of average-ish tools here, and those tools are playing together on the field perhaps better than any other point in Engelmann's career, a testament to the development he's undergone as well as to the coaching staff at Michigan. There's nothing super loud or sexy to his profile, however, so the draft outlook is still pretty moderate. Engelmann likely slots into the round 8-12 range at this point in time while seeing how the rest of the spring shakes out, especially considering it's still snowing in Ann Arbor in mid-April.


Nick Dunn, 2B, Maryland

Maryland's leading hitter in most categories, Nick Dunn is slashing .341/.438/.568 for the Terrapins, with 16 extra-base hits, seven of which are home runs, to go along with more walks that strikeouts (21 to 12). He's really been the only dangerous hitter in the Maryland lineup thus far in 2018 with the possible exception of Kevin Biondic, as the team is slashing .230/.350/.359 as a whole. 

Dunn isn't overly physical, with solid strength throughout his build, but he's not a physical monster and he's likely limited to second base long-term due to limitations in arm strength and overall athletic twitch. He's fine at second base right now with fair hands and enough arm for the position and he does a good job playing low to the ground and positioning himself well with good instincts pre-pitch.

The draw for Dunn is his bat, as he's one of the better contact-oriented hitters in college baseball, with a swing that, while not especially aesthetically-pleasing, is in the hitting zone on a good plane for a long time, capable of covering the plate well and driving the ball on a line to all fields. The plane is a bit linear making it difficult to project much in the way of home run power with a wood bat at the next level, but he does have seven home runs this year, so there's is definitely at least some over-the-fence pop there. 

Dunn has a good track record of success, including in the Cape Cod League, with wood bats, so he's likely to be drafted on Day 2 this June based on the strength of his hit tool to go along with that performance history. We could see him taken somewhere in rounds 5-7 right now, though those performance metrics that some teams use heavily cannot be understated, and Dunn could climb even higher by the time June rolls around.


Scott Schreiber, 1B/OF, Nebraska



Schreiber offers a physical presence in the batter’s box with a listed 6-foot-3, 225-pound stature. A righthanded hitter with long and powerful limbs, Schreiber hits with an open stance and employs a big hand load and stride into contact. He also has a long swing and tends to chase breaking balls out of the zone, and area he’ll need to shore up at the next level. His impressive power is more strength based than bat speed base, and he has enough speed to be effective on the basepaths. His bat, and more specifically, his power, is his greatest tool, and while he can play left field his arm and mobility are better suite for first base, where he displays sound actions and soft hands. He slipped to the 26th round of the draft last year after his production slipped from his impressive sophomore season in 2016 when he hit 16 home runs, but he has bounced back, and then some, this year with a .406/.481/.737 slash line through 33 games and likely will be one of the first college seniors drafted as a result.
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