EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re taking a two-part look at the way that northern-based teams approach the college season in the wake of a mandated uniform starting date for Division I baseball. Today, our focus is on three of the more prominent college prospects in the 2010 draft class from traditional northern schools.
PART I
PART II
Though the turnout of scouts was substantially less this past weekend for the Coastal Carolina-hosted Caravelle Resort Invitational, which attracted mid-major northern schools such as Albany, Ball State, Pittsburgh and Toledo to Conway, S.C., there was still plenty of interest in players like Toledo shortstop Jared Hoying, Pitt third baseman Joe Leonard and Ball State second baseman/righthander Kolbrin Vitek.
None of the three garnered the hype entering the 2010 season that other elite college players enjoyed, especially those from traditional southern schools who played in the high-exposure Cape Cod League last summer, but each should factor prominently in this year’s draft. Hoying and Vitek are products of the Great Lakes League, Leonard the Cal Ripken Sr. League.
KOLBRIN VITEK, 2b-rhp, Ball State
Though Ball State, co-favorites in the Mid-American Conference, lost three of four games last weekend, including back-to-back 3-2 losses to No. 9-ranked Coastal Carolina to fall to 3-8 on the young season, Vitek was the player most in demand.
A top two-way prospect, Vitek started the first three games for the Cardinals at second base and worked the first four innings of the final, earning a no-decision as Coastal squeezed out the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning. He went just 4-for-14 for the weekend, but hit his fourth home run of the season and drove in five runs. On the season, he is hitting .391-4-11 with eight extra-base hits.
Here’s the scouting report written last summer for PG Crosschecker on the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Vitek after he was selected the No. 1 prospect in the Great Lakes League while playing for the Lake Erie Monarchs.
SCOUTING REPORT/Great Lakes League: Vitek (.400-6-38) won the triple crown in the Great Lakes League this summer and was also tops in hits (54), total bases (100) and doubles (16). It was not an altogether surprising offensive performance for Vitek, considering he hit .389-13-67 as a Ball State sophomore, leading the team in homers and RBIs. He also paced the Mid-American Conference and tied a single-season school mark for doubles with 25. He displayed excellent bat speed through the hitting zone with occasional loft power to all fields, along with good plate discipline. Some of the league’s veteran coaches said he was the most dominating righthanded hitter to play in the league in a number of years. Vitek put almost all of his focus this summer on hitting and actually spent most of the GLL season out of position at second base. Normally a pitcher and third baseman at Ball State, Vitek arrived with a fatigued shoulder after going 4-3, 5.65 in 57 innings as a weekend starter for the Cardinals, and it was determined he would spend the summer at second to rest his arm. He still managed to work three innings for Lake Erie. The versatile Vitek made only five errors at his interim position and displayed acceptable range and hands, but it was generally agreed that his superior arm strength was wasted at the position and better suited for the hot corner. Vitek has been clocked up to 92-93 mph off the mound. In addition to his superior hitting skills, Vitek has impressive foot speed and was clocked in 6.6 seconds in the 60 at the league’s all-star game. He stole 10 bases and showed advanced base-stealing skills.
While scouts would like to see Vitek at third base as he most closely fits the profile for that position, he has continued to play only second base in the field for Ball State.
Cardinals coach Greg Beals says he has no plans to play Vitek at third this season, though he openly acknowledges that defense is the only obvious part of his game that may need touching up.
“The main reason we’ll keep him at second is to help him become a better all-around defender, and ease the wear and tear on his arm,” Beals said. “He played third base for us last year, but wasn’t getting the reps on defense that he needs or the chance to finish plays like he can at second. Quite frankly, his body profiles a little better at third, but his speed and actions may be suited for second.”
Vitek’s strength is his combination of speed and power. But his best tool might be his natural hitting ability, more than his raw power. He has excellent hands, balance and bat speed.
“He’s a pretty special athlete,” Beals said. “He’s gotten off on the right foot this season and done what we expected him to do. We’re asking a lot from him and he expects a lot from himself, so we’ve had to caution him not to try to do too much, to try and play within himself.”
Though Vitek has the talent to warrant being drafted as high as the second or third round, or possibly even the sandwich round with a very productive 2010 season, he also has significant ability on the mound and could command fifth- to sixth-round interest if a team wanted to pursue him at that position.
“He’s not fully prepared to be a pitcher with everything else he does, but he’s got the best arm on our staff and would be our ace in a different situation,” Beals said. “He has touched 91 this spring, though has generally been anywhere from 87-91. His secondary stuff is also special, and he’ll show you command of four pitches from two different arm angles.
“He didn’t have a full tank in his start Monday after playing in the field the previous three days, so he went only four innings. We’ll play it by ear all year how much we use him.”
Through his first three starts, Vitek is 0-1, 4.15 with three walks and seven strikeouts in 13 innings.
JOE LEONARD, 3b, Pittsburgh
The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Leonard had the most productive weekend among the players scouts paid the closest attention to. He went 6-for-18 with two doubles and a home run, and drove in eight runs to push his season total to 26 in 10 games (compared to 35 in the entire 2009 season). He left Coastal Carolina batting .417, along with eight doubles and two homers.
Here’s the PG Crosschecker scouting report written on Leonard last summer after he was selected the fourth-best prospect in the Cal Ripken Sr. League while playing for Youse’s Maryland Orioles.
SCOUTING REPORT/Cal Ripken Sr. League: Most times when scouts look at a 6-foot-5, 220-pound third baseman, they are going to think, “This guy has power, I hope the rest of his game is playable.” With Leonard, the opposite is true. The righthanded hitter has a smooth, crisp swing that is geared to high-contact/high-average, but doesn’t produce much lift. He hit .346-0-25 for the O’s this summer. Leonard has 12 home runs in two years as an everyday starter at Pittsburgh, so there is something there to develop. Defensively, Leonard is surprisingly quick and agile for an athlete his size. He has plus arm strength and has been clocked up to 93 mph on the mound. Some CRSL observers likened Leonard defensively to a young Cal Ripken Jr., given his size, arm strength and agile feet. The irony in that comparison is that Leonard’s father, John, was the Baltimore Orioles’ first-round pick in the secondary phase of the January 1982 draft, and pitched briefly in the organization that year – the same year that Ripken won the American League rookie-of-the-year award.
Based on this weekend, the lofty comparisons to Ripken were very appropriate, especially physically.
But it was readily apparent that Leonard also has considerable upside on both sides of the ball and should be a significant draft in June, possibly as early as the third or fourth rounds if he continues to perform as he has to date. It’s possible he could go even higher if his projectable power begins to evolve, or scouts at least buy into his power potential.
Leonard’s coach, Joe Jordano, was effusive in his praise of his young third baseman, and tempered any concern that his untapped power potential may limit him.
“Joe may be one of the best defensive third basemen in the country,” he said. “I have never had anyone better. He is a ballplayer. He is smart, tough and very even-tempered. He approaches the game like a pro. He has great hands, both offensively and defensively, and great instincts. His only weakness is foot speed, and for a corner guy he is OK.
“He has plus power and when the situation calls for it, he can go yard with the best of them. He has hit some monstrous home runs, but our offensive philosophy is geared more towards situational hitting. I am sure the pro guys will tweak his swing to increase his power numbers at the next level.”
JARED HOYING, ss, Toledo
Hoying was projected as a fourth- to sixth-round pick entering the 2010 season, but has struggled to keep pace with Leonard and Vitek in the early going. He actually improved his season average to .174 over the weekend, just by going a modest 3-for-12 with one extra-base hit. He also committed his fourth and fifth errors.
Unlike Leonard and Vitek, Hoying has been slower to reach a comfort level playing outdoors this spring after an unusually harsh winter in Ohio and the northern states. Prior to Toledo’s opening weekend in Millington, Tenn., all of Hoying’s pre-season preparation was confined to indoor workouts.
“He just wasn’t comfortable his first time outside,” Toledo coach Cory Mee said. “He took better at-bats this weekend, and though he didn’t get the results, he hit balls hard at people. You can also attribute the errors to not being outside, to just not being comfortable yet in the field.”
Hoying graded out as the fourth-best prospect in the Great Lakes League last summer, and even then it was evident he was not as far along as Leonard or Vitek in his development curve. Here’s the scouting report on Hoying that was written for PG Crosschecker, based on his play for the Grand Lake Mariners.
SCOUTING REPORT/Great Lakes League: Hoying has intriguing tools on both sides of the ball, but he’s not overly pretty in his approach and may be the farthest away from refining them of any top position player in the Great Lakes League. He has excellent offensive potential with superior bat speed and a controlled uppercut swing that enabled him to produce a .293-11-50 sophomore campaign at Toledo and a .375-4-29 follow-up with a league-high eight triples this summer at Grand Lake. But his college coaches took out the stride in his swing in the spring, and he used predominantly his hands to generate his bat speed this summer. While his hands are unusually strong and quick, he’ll need to adjust his swing mechanics and generally do a much better job of incorporating his lower half better as he progresses. Still, he has good plate coverage and the ball jumps off his bat. Hoying also has above-average big league speed and arm strength. He’s been clocked in the 60 in 6.6 seconds, and his throws across the diamond are a steady 91-92 mph. He committed 38 errors as Toledo’s shortstop in the spring and even though he cut his error total to just eight this summer, his actions in the field can often be a little rough. His hands are acceptable, but he needs to refine his overall actions, particularly his footwork, a potentially daunting proposition as Hoying wears size 16 shoes. It’s possible Hoying will end up at third base down the road, or he could even be an offensive second baseman.
Hoying’s early-season play suggests he’s still at an early stage of refining his game, both offensively and defensively, but Mee believes his struggles are more a factor of just not having a fair chance to get his feet on the ground this spring. He’s seen subtle improvements.
“He’s walked nine times already,” Mee said. “That may be partly a factor that more people know him because of some of the success he’s had and are showing respect, but he’s also become more disciplined as far as staying in the zone, and taking a walk. He was chasing pitches out of the zone on the first weekend, and got himself out, but he didn’t do that this weekend.
“He’s also made significant improvement defensively. That was our biggest concern a year ago, but he was much better in the summer and fall. He just needs a little more time to get comfortable.”