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High School  | General  | 5/23/2019

High School Notebook: May 23

Steve Fiorindo      Connor Spencer     
Photo: Jared Jones (Steve Fiorindo)

The high school notebook is designed to share notes and video on players that stand out during the high school season and new features will be released regularly. This will include in-game looks, reports, analysis and video from Perfect Game's scouting staff. If you have news on a player in your area that is performing at a high level that we should have eyes on please reach out to Vinnie Cervino at vincent@perfectgame.org. Also feel free to share your video highlights on Twitter @vcervinopg.

High School Notebooks: March 1 | March 5 | March 15 | March 22 | April 5 | April 16 | April 19 | April 29 | May 3 | May 14

Joey Estes, RHP, Paraclete HS (Calif.)
Long Beach State commit Joey Estes has filled out, adding a good 15 pounds or so since the Area Code Games, mostly noticeable in the lower half, as his legs now are much more defined. Known for mixing up his delivery, Estes showed multiple looks right away to the first hitter with a hesitation at the top of the leg kick and also had a quick pitch look, virtually eliminating the leg kick all together. Generally he maintains the same velocity on pitches out of the other looks. Working from the extreme first base side, Estes uses a minimal step to the side that gets his delivery started. He uses a medium leg kick above his belt and drives down the hill with a pretty direct stride toward home plate. His stride appears a bit on the shorter side relative to height and his arm works well. Estes' fastball worked 90-92, touching 95, and maintained his velocity well working 90-92 in seventh inning of work. He came out for the eighth and was slightly down approaching 110 pitches. Estes throws three off-speed pitches, with the slider looking the best of the three, working at 78-81 mph with short and tight break. His curveball ranged from 73-76 mph and he had some overlap on the two pitches where he’d get more lateral break at less velocity than his normal sliders. Estes also mixed in an occasional changeup at 79-82 with a little downward action. He competed on the mound, wanted the ball and gutted through a few innings.




Tony Jacob, LHP, Saugus HS (Calif.)
On the smaller side at 5-foot-11 with an athletic build, Jacob has an easy delivery, sits on his back leg and stays kind of low. He showed a very good feel for pitching, as the umpire showed he would give him the corner and Jacob took advantage of it and even expanded on it. His fastball worked at 82-85 mph and he worked it around the zone well while mixing in a 67-68 mph curveball and a changeup with downward action and occasional fade, enough to keep hitters off the fastball. He's very efficient for the most part, coming out after tossing eight nnings. 




Darius Perry, C, La Mirada HS (Calif.)
PG All-American Darius Perry, a UCLA commit, had huge day at the plate against Mira Costa with three hits including a no-doubt home run to left field and a double. His receiving has improved a bit, especially handling Jared Jones, and he has very good arm strength. You don’t hear it often but he seems to throw downhill to second base at times. Perry moves well for his size and at the plate he has shown an all-field approach willing to drive ball to opposite field gap, and he can also loft balls the other way, but most of power has been to center field and to the pull side.




Jared Jones, RHP, La Mirada HS (Calif.)
One of the marquee pitchers eligible for the 2020 MLB Draft, Jones performed at very high level as a position prospect in two looks in the CIF playoffs. Against Mira Costa, Jones was a triple away from a cycle and mixed in a walk. The home run was a no-doubter to center field. He had two infield hits against Cypress running sub 4.2-seconds both times and overall he's a gifted athlete who would draw plenty of attention as a position player for the draft as well.

On the mound against a talented Mira Costa squad, he struggled with command throughout the outing, walking five and hitting three in six innings of work. He did strike out seven and allowed just four hits, but he seemed to be behind in counts often and pitching out of the stretch in nearly every inning. The fastball touched 99 in the first and settled in to mostly 92-95 mph throughout the outing. He used his slider often working mostly at 80-83 mph with long lateral action coming from a low arm slot. The slider buckled knees at times thrown at righthand hitters. While it wasn't his best outing, and he probably was a little amped on extra rest in front of a packed house at La Mirada, the USC commit still flashed the goods of one of the top arms in the country.




Brett Wozniak, LHP, Cypress HS (Calif.)
Wozniak, a crafty Nebraska commit, was dominant against a very good La Mirada team in the semifinals of CIF. Pitching like a crafty veteran, similar to the style of Tom Glavine, Woz worked 80-84 and wore out the glove-side corner with all his pitches. When hitters looked for the back-door breaking ball he buzzed the fastball in on the hands and induced weak contact. The breaking ball worked 68-73 mph with big, sweeping break. He seemed to adjust the velo on the pitch and get longer break at times. Wozniak's Delivery is pretty deceptive, working from the third base side of the rubber with a closed-off stride and some cross-fire action.  




Cameron Repetti, RHP, Cypress HS (Calif.)
One of top two-way players in Southern Section, Repetti has excelled at the plate as a third baseman and on the mound.  Long term he may show more promise on the mound where he works at 87-90 mph, touching 91. He showed good feel for a slider ranging from 73-76 mph, a bigger breaker than a traditional SL, an offering that will probably evolve into more of a power pitch. He also worked in a 74-76 changeup, forkball or split more likely with downward tumble. He came in to a jam in the sixth inning and quickly induced a double play and threw up zeros through the ninth to get the W for Cypress and advance to the finals in what was a great pitched game on both sides. 




Michael De Haro, RHP, La Mirada HS (Calif.)
De Haro has a solid build with a strong lower half, and the Long Beach State commit is reminiscent of Ryan Garcia of UCLA at a similar point of their careers with a rather deliberate delivery and a quick arm that makes the fastball play up even more.  De Haro worked 87-90, and seemed firmer as his ball has good jump to it. He went to a slider often, a pitch that was thrown at 79-82 mph early with short true slider lateral action. Later in the outing it got a little looser as it lost some velocity. He throws a full three-pitch mix with his changeup being thrown at 79-83 mph, a pitch that got more run and sink at the lower velocity.




Jonathan Guzman, RHP, Evan Adolphus, RHP, Orange Lutheran HS (Calif.)
the playoff versions of Guzman and Adolphus were on display after seeing them just a few weeks back. The script was similar with Guzman going five shutout innings and Adolphus two shutout innings. Guzman worked at 86-88 mph, moving the fastball around the zone and relying on a slurvy breaking ball at 74-77. He mixed in a split at 70-75 as a change of speeds. Adolphus, the big righty, worked 89-91 touching 93 in picking up the save. He goes to the change a lot, a very good changeup with fade and downward action at 82-85 mph and a CB at 76.




Garrett Frechette, 1B, Orange Lutheran HS (Calif.)
PG All-American and SDSU commit Garrett Frechette has shown some evolution as a hitter. As an underclassmen it was more of a pull-oriented aggressive approach and now he’s using the whole field, willing to drive the ball the other way, slashing balls to the gaps. He had a big day at the plate pulling two balls to right field for hits and lacing a double to left-center (he was thrown out at third on the play).  




Cody Freeman, SS, Etiwanda HS (Calif.)
It’s almost hard to talk about Freeman, a Baylor commit, without mentioning his brother Tyler as they share a lot of the same attributes. With similar makeup, work ethic, etc., it’s hard to find anyone who will say anything bad about the Freemans, who have held down the shortstop position for Etiwanda High School the past six years. Freeman's high motor, high energy style of play is contagious. He employs a gap-to-gap approach at the plate with a line drive swing. There's sneaky pop to the pull side, but it's more of a doubles profile. An instinctual runner, Freeman has set the tone for Etiwanda at top of the lineup the past few years. He's just fun to watch play the game and gets the most out of his tools.




Kyle Anderson, RHP, Etiwanda HS (Calif.)
A UCR commit with an athletic frame and compact delivery, Anderson ran his fastball up to 90, but really featured a big breaking curveball at 74-77 mph. It's a tight, knee-buckling hammer and is one of better breaking balls thrown by a 2020 grad this year.  

– Steve Fiorindo


CIF State Championship Notes

It was a heartbreaking loss for Norco High School in a game where neither Santa Margarita nor Norco pitching gave up an inch. Norco righthander Michael Forbes (2019, Norco, Calif.) pitched a beauty of a game, extending past the full seven inning marker while allowing no runs. Forbes has a quick motion with an over-the-top slot and shorter arm action. He doesn’t have the ability to blow his 80 mph fastball by hitters, but he spots it up well, mixes heavily and competes his heart out on the mound. Throughout his outing, he was able to miss a lot of bats with his low 11-to-4 curveball, and Santa Margarita really could not produce any kind of hard contact at the plate against him. In the fifth, Forbes ran into trouble having the bases loaded with only one out and the heart of the SM lineup due up. He then got UCLA commit Milan Tolentino (2019, Mission Viejo, Calif.) to weakly fly out to left, then finished the inning off with a momentous strike out.

Eagle junior righthander Matt McClure had an equally dominating day on the bump going toe-to-toe with Forbes. His 82-86 mph fastball was working well to both sides of the plate and his changeup was his bread-and-butter offering once again. With his high three-quarters arm slot, he really does a nice job of turning the pitch over and getting some run to it.

Norco’s demise came in the top of the 12th inning when a hard groundball slipped underneath the legs of the third baseman. With runners in scoring position, Milan Tolentino proceeded to hit a towering fly ball to the warning track in right that was spectacularly caught, but ultimately scored the winning run of the game via a sac fly. As a result Santa Margarita won the DII CIF Southern Section championship 1-0. 

– Connor Spencer
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