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Draft  | Story | 4/22/2010

Crack of the Bat: Primetime Marquee Matchup

Patrick Ebert
I’ve long wished one of the major sporting networks would start carrying Friday night college baseball games. There is enough interest in the game of baseball to make it worthwhile, particularly to those of us who spend Friday nights in the comforts of our own homes. Friday nights are obviously reserved for the best pitchers in the college game, and every conference every year has a handful of exciting aces who are projected to be future MLB stars.

ESPN has stepped up to the plate this year, covering a game, in high definition, each of the past three Fridays. Justin Grimm and the Georgia Bulldogs have been one of the teams featured in each of those games. As noted last week, Grimm has faced some tough competition in LSU’s Anthony Ranaudo, Ole Miss’ Drew Pomeranz and Arkansas’ Drew Smyly in these games.

This Friday’s game on ESPNU is arguably the best matchup of draft eligible pitchers, as Ranaudo is set to start opposite Pomeranz in Oxford, Miss. Not only is this a great matchup between pitchers, but it is also a great matchup between perennial college powerhouses and long-time rivals in the SEC West.

I circled this game on my calendar when the schedules were announced six months ago. Ranaudo, of course, entered the spring as the top college player in the nation, and although a stress reaction in his pitching elbow caused him to miss a few weeks this season, he is starting to stretch out his arm and was allowed to throw nearly 100 pitches in his most recent game against Alabama.

Pomeranz, the subject of my column last week, has been nothing short of dominant this season. He continues to lead the nation in punchouts, coming off another strong performance against South Carolina in which he struck out 10 Gamecocks. I also hypothesized last week that Pomeranz makes a ton of sense for the Pirates with the second overall pick, and Ranaudo also should factor among the top three to five overall selections. Despite his injury, only money will cause him to fall out of this range.

Be sure to tune in to ESPNU on Friday night, even if you are flipping between this game and ESPN’s coverage of the NFL draft. You will be glad you did, and you’ll get a look at two pitchers you likely will be hearing more and more about over the next two to three years as they ascend and make their presence known at the big-league level.

Taillon, then who?
I’ve seen the question asked on at least three draft-related web sites over the past week or two: Who is the top draft-eligible high school pitcher after Jameson Taillon? It’s a very good question, and also points to the overall talent and depth that is available from the prep ranks.

After seeing several of the top high school right-handers pitch last summer, I thought the debate that would carry into the spring would be one between Taillon and A.J. Cole. Cole didn’t finish the summer showcase season as strongly as Taillon did (no one did). Taillon capped his summer with a dominating 16-strikeout performance over Cuba in the Pan Am games.

Up until recently Karsten Whitson and Dylan Covey were more popular answers to the question than Cole, who started the season throwing in the upper-80s to low-90s.

However, Cole is starting to light up radar guns again like he did to finish last spring and open the summer. His velocity has crept back up to the mid-90s, and that late surge may help his stock, reclaiming his spot as the nation’s second-best prep pitcher. As we’ve seen every year as the draft approaches, it is always better to finish strong, as Cole has picked a good time to get back on track.

Cole, as well as Kevin Gausman of Aurora, Colo., define projectability, more so than any other pitcher in this class. They are both built tall and lean and show the ability to throw three quality pitches for strikes. As Cole creeps back up to early first-round consideration, Gausman is considered more of a late-first or sandwich pick at this point in time.

Karsten and Covey remain in the conversation for the top-10 overall picks, and joining them in that discussion is former Aflac All-American teammate Aaron Sanchez. All of these pitchers throw the ball extremely well, with loose electric arms and equally electric breaking pitches. Both Cole and Whitson hail from Florida, with Covey and Sanchez representing the always deep Southern California crop.

As hard as these pitchers throw, they can’t match the velocity of two-way talent Stetson Allie. He continues to pump his fastball in the mid-to-upper 90s, although he also continues to draw concerns about his control and his future role: Starter or closer?

Kaleb Cowart, another two-way star and yet another former Aflac All-American, is also in the conversation for the first round, and may have the most electric arm of this group. Teams still may prefer him as a power-hitting infielder, but it would seem as though his arm is too good to develop him as anything but a pitcher.

Three more hard-throwers are adding their names to first-round consideration, depending how much the right team likes them: California’s Adam Plutko and Scott Frazier, as well as Illinois’ Mike Foltynewicz. Frazier and Foltynewicz (or Folty, if you don’t want to try and remember how to spell his last name) in particular have been very impressive this spring. Frazier opened his season with a 18-strikeout no-hitter, while Folty also didn’t allow a hit in his first appearance, although he was limited to four innings on a cold and blustery day outside of Chicago, touching 96 in that outing.

Outside of Plutko, the common bond all these pitchers share (outside of being right-handed) is the fact that they were all in attendance at last summer’s Perfect Game National Showcase in mid-June. The average peak velocity of these pitchers at the National (not counting Covey, who didn’t pitch at the event) was 94 mph, highlighted by Allie’s 98. All the more reason not to miss the event this year, scheduled to be held at Tropicana Field June 17-20, to get a taste for the players we’ll be talking about at this time next year.

Stack this group with the likes of Anthony Ranaudo, Drew Pomeranz, Chris Sale and Brandon Workman from the college ranks and you have a pretty special draft class of arms.

Non-Traditional Outfielders
It has been well-chronicled that this year’s draft is a little light when it comes to projected impact bats. And even those that are available from the college ranks come from non-traditional baseball powerhouses.

Outside of Cal State Fullerton’s Gary Brown, you won’t see too many of the usual schools in association with the top outfield bats available for this year’s draft. Middle Tennessee State offers Bryce Brentz. Texas-Arlington boasts Michael Choice. Todd Cunningham is at Jacksonville State, while one of the biggest risers this spring hails from the juco ranks, Connor State’s Marcus Knecht.

Brentz has been well-chronicled in this column, leading the nation in several key offensive categories with incredible numbers a year ago as a sophomore. He and Choice were two of Team USA’s leading hitters last summer, flanking centerfielder Tyler Holt on the outfield corners.

In his second start since returning from an ankle injury that sidelined him for three weeks, Brentz had a huge day against Troy. He went 3-for-5 with three runs and seven RBI, including his 10th home run of the year, serving as his team’s designated hitter as he is being eased back into regular duty. The home run was a grand slam in the sixth, adding an RBI single in the first and a two-run double in the second.

Choice is hitting .397/.567/.762 so far this year with 12 home runs. His on-base percentage is fourth-best in the nation, largely thanks to his 47 walks, as he’s currently tied with Anthony Rendon for the nation’s best. He is showing the ability to hit for average and power while working the count and getting on base, and is starting to be considered a legitimate first-rounder instead of one that could sneak into the later picks.

Leading the Cape League in hitting a year ago quickly put Todd Cunningham’s name in everyone’s mind as a potential first-round pick. He also led the circuit in on-base percentage (.458) and hits (59) while finishing second in slugging (.500) and runs (31). A career .342 hitter at Jacksonville State, he’s hitting .352 this year, and has a good, not great, collection of tools that reminds scouts a little of A.J. Pollock from a year ago. Like Pollock, Cunningham plays centerfield with the ability to steal a few bases, hit for average and offer a little bit of pop while working counts and getting on base.

Knecht is posting some Pete Incaviglia-esque numbers for Connors State (Oklahoma). His name might be more well known if he were posting similar numbers for Oklahoma State, where he attended college a year ago but received limited playing time, leading to his transfer. He’s a big part of Connors State taking over the top spot on Perfect Game’s junior college poll, hitting .472/.559/.965 with 20 doubles and 16 home runs. He has an exciting blend of power and speed, and like the other players already mentioned, could force his name into the first or sandwich round come June.

Austin Wates’ name may not have been listed above, but he definitely belongs in this conversation since Virginia Tech is better known for the players they graduate to the NFL than professional baseball. He is one of the more intriguing players in the nation, and continues to show improvement in all facets of the game. He’s hitting .404 while working counts and flashing some pop with 19 extra-base hits. He’s a premium overall athlete with five legitimate tools, and is far from the raw athlete who arrived on campus three years ago. Wates also proved that he could hit with a wood bat (.312 batting average) against some of the nation’s best pitchers on the Cape last summer. He may join teammate Jesse Hahn as a first-round selection, a rare occurrence for the Hokies.

While he doesn’t figure to factor into the first round, I also need to mention Ohio’s Gauntlett Eldemire, who has drawn as much interest for his name as he has for his pure talent. After hitting 21 home runs a year ago, he has only six this year, but he is hitting to the tune of .411 as the Bobcats’ centerfielder. Similar to Brentz, Eldemire just returned to the lineup in grand fashion, having missed a week with an injured left wrist: He had two hits, including his sixth home run of the season, against Cincinnati Tuesday.

This group may be similar to what was available in 2004, another year highlighted by big arms, when outfielders such as Richie Robnett (Fresno State), B.J. Szymanski (Princeton) and Hunter Pence (Texas-Arlington) were selected in the early rounds.

D3 Standout
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Jeff Donovan is enjoying quite the season. He was the starting quarterback for Whitewater’s football team that claimed the Division III crown from Mount Union last winter, the very same team the Warhawks lost to in the title game the year before. He threw for 3,682 yards in the process, as well as 29 touchdown strikes. Donovan was also a member of the championship team in 2007 (again, against Mount Union), although he was not the starting quarterback.

While he opted not to participate with the school’s baseball team last spring to focus on football, he was also a member of the 2008 baseball team that finished third at the Division III World Series in Grand Chute, Wis.

It’s obvious that Donovan knows what it takes to win.

This year he is back on the field, the leading hitter for a 23-2 team that’s currently first in the nation as rated by the ABCA (coaches) and second by the NCBWA (writers).

He’s currently hitting .421/.533/.779 with 11 doubles and seven home runs with 31 runs and 45 RBI in 25 games. He’s third in the nation overall in runs batted in per game, and is also helping his team on the mound. The numbers on the mound aren’t particularly pretty, but he has assumed a key weekend role and reportedly has been throwing in the mid-to-upper 80s.

The pro interest is rather limited at this point in time, as it probably didn’t help his baseball career that he took all of last year off to focus on football, but there have been a few scouts in the area that have been showing up to his games. Even if he isn’t drafted in June, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him signed as a non-drafted free agent, or possibly pursue a career with an independent league team.

And don’t be surprised to see success follow wherever he ends up.
The thoughts and opinions listed here do not necessarily reflect those of Perfect Game USA. Patrick Ebert is affiliated with both Perfect Game USA and 5 Tool Talk, and can be contacted via email at pebert@5tooltalk.com.
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