Official League Website
League
Strength: ***
Prospect League top 35 prospects (list)
The
Quincy Gems already owned the Prospects League’s best record three
weeks into the 2011 season, when an unexpected gift fell into their
laps. That’s when power-hitting first baseman Chris Serritella
joined the team.
Serritella,
a 31st-round
pick of the Kansas City Royals in this year’s draft, had missed the
entire 2011 college season at Southern Illinois after sustaining a
broken wrist just prior to the start of the campaign, and was
unimpressive in a brief stint as a temporary player in the Cape Cod
League to begin the summer.
But the
powerful lefthanded hitter took the Prospect League by storm. He went
on an immediate long-ball tear for the Gems and never stopped
hitting.
Serritella
topped the Prospect League in both homers (14) and RBIs (60), despite
playing in just 39 of Quincy’s 56 regular-season games. Teaming
with third baseman Bryan Lippincott (.345-10-57) in the middle of the
Gems lineup, Serritella led Quincy (38-18 overall) to both
half-season division titles in the West Division and the team went on
to capture its second title in the league’s three-year history by
quickly dispatching both its opponents in the playoffs. Serritella
and Lippincott finished 1-2 in the league in homers and RBIs, while
the Gems, as a team, topped the league in batting (.307) and home
runs (39).
Another
late-arriving player who missed almost all of the 2011 college season
because of injury, Terre Haute shortstop Stephen Bruno (Virginia),
also stood out among the top position-player prospects in the league,
and actually made a stronger impression on scouts than even
Serritella did.
Though
he played in just 19 games for the Rex, Bruno hit .394 with six
homers, and stood out defensively. Bruno badly injured a hamstring on
the second weekend of the college season, and not only missed the
balance of the college schedule but the first two-thirds of the
Prospect League season. He was initially scheduled to spend the
summer in the Cape Cod League.
While
Quincy dominated the league from start to finish, the Gems featured
only three players who were deemed worthy of making the accompanying
list of the league’s top prospects—Serritella, Lippincott and
all-star righthander T.J. Kendzora, the team’s ace who went 7-0.
Like most of the other arms on the Quincy staff, Kendzora didn’t
light up many radar guns with a fastball that peaked out only in the
high-80s.
The
most-dominant pitching staff in the league was at Danville. The Dans
went only 25-29 overall, yet had four arms that are ranked in the
league’s top 11 prospects. All four are rising-sophomore
righthanders at their respective colleges, and each featured an
impressive combination of raw stuff and pitchability. When the
quartet was together on the same staff before injuries struck, the
Dans were nearly invincible at 13-2.
Danville
typically dominated the prospect rankings in the Central Illinois
Collegiate League, the forerunner to the Prospect League, and
routinely did so by tapping into the best young talent at four major
baseball colleges—Louisiana State, Mississippi State, Pepperdine
and San Diego. Appropriately, the Dans’ talented pitching staff
featured one player each from those schools, led by USD’s Michael
Wagner, ranked No. 3.
The two
best pitching prospects in the league overall, meanwhile, were a pair
of somewhat unheralded lefthanders, Terre Haute’s 6-foot-5 Sean
Manaea, a local product from Indiana State whose fastball was
consistently in the 92-93 mph range, with the promise for more as he
matures, and Dubois County lefthander Clayton Schulz, who was signed
by Kansas City late in the season as a non-drafted free agent.
By
almost any measure, Schulz qualified as the league’s best
human-interest story of the summer. Though he went undrafted in June
out of North Florida, Schulz earned a pro contract with the Royals
because of the impressive way he pitched this summer for the Bombers
on his way to being selected the league’s all-star lefthander. But
no accomplishment in Schulz’ career may ever top his recovery from
a scary shark attack last summer off the Florida coast which resulted
in 400 stitches in his left foot that almost derailed his promising
baseball career.
FAST
FACTS
Year
League Established: 2009.
States
Represented in League: Illinois,
Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia.
No.
of Teams in League: 14 (15 in 2010).
Regular-Season
Champion (best overall record):
Quincy Gems.
Post-Season
Champion: Quincy Gems.
Teams,
PG CrossChecker Summer 50/Final Ranking:
No. 4 Quincy Gems, No. 33 Terre Haute Rex.
No.
1 Prospect, 2010 (per PG CrossChecker):
Navery Moore, rhp, Nashville Outlaws (Vanderbilt; Braves/14th
round).
First
2010 Player Selected, 2011 Draft:
Chris Marlowe, rhp, West Virginia Power (Oklahoma State; Blue
Jays/5th
round).
Player
of the Year: Chris Serritella, 1b,
Quincy Gems.
Pitcher
of the Year: Clayton Schulz, lhp,
Chillicothe Paints.
Top
Prospect (as selected by league):
Chris Serritella, 1b, Quincy Gems.
BATTING
LEADERS (League games only)
Batting
Average: Trent Moses, 3b, DeKalb
County Liners (.388).
Slugging
Percentage: Chris Serritella, 1b,
Quincy Gems (.705).
On-Base
Average: Trent Moses, 3b, DeKalb
County Liners (.487).
Home
Runs: Chris Serritella, 1b, Quincy
Gems (14).
RBIs:
Chris Serritella, 1b, Quincy Gems (60).
Stolen
Bases: Danny Poma, of, Dubois County
Bombers (38).
PITCHING
LEADERS (League games only)
Wins:
Zak Treece, rhp, Quincy Gems (8).
ERA:
Josh Janway, rhp, Quincy Gems (1.36).
Saves:
Chase Byerly, rhp, Slippery Rock Sliders (16).
Strikeouts:
Conor Fisk, rhp, Terre Haute Rex (71).
BEST
TOOLS
Best
Athlete: Steve Anderson, of,
Chillicothe Paints.
Best
Hitter: Trent Moses, 3b, DeKalb
County Liners.
Best
Power: Chris Serritella, 1b, Quincy
Gems.
Fastest
Base Runner: Sam Alvis, of/lhp,
Lorain County Ironmen.
Best
Defensive Player: Stephen Bruno, ss,
Terre Haute Rex.
Best
Velocity: Joey Church, rhp, West
Virginia Miners; Mark Sappington, rhp, Hannibal Cavemen.
Best
Breaking Ball: Shae Simmons, rhp,
Nashville Outlaws.
Best
Command: Casey Webber, lhp,
Chillicothe Paints.
TOP
35 PROSPECTS
1.
SEAN MANAEA, lhp, Dubois County Bombers (Indiana State/SO in 2012)
SCOUTING
PROFILE: The 6-foot-5, 215-pound
Manaea opened the eyes of scouts at the Prospect League all-star game
when he recorded the best velocity at the event, flashing 93 mph. Of
equal significance, he got good running action on his fastball and
worked with a clean, easy delivery, a pretense to his throwing even
harder as he fills out his long, lean frame and refines his
mechanics. Manaea got only better as the Prospect League season
progressed as he allowed just one hit in eight innings in his start
that preceded the all-star game, and struck out 27 in 16 innings in
his three starts after the contest. That was in contrast to his first
outing of the summer, when he allowed 10 hits and four walks, while
striking out only one, all while failing to even get out of the
fourth inning. Overall, Manaea went 2-3, 2.89 with 27 walks and 59
strikeouts in 53 innings. As a freshman at Indiana State, he went
5-5, 4.32 and walked 48 in 83 innings, though showed his considerable
potential by striking out a team-high 82. Manaea obviously has a ways
to go to refine his raw stuff, which includes a solid changeup and
merely an average slider, but is tough to square up because of the
deception he creates in his funky, though otherwise clean delivery.
He didn’t yield a single home run all season. More than anything,
Manaea just needs to learn to become a more complete pitcher as he
progresses, and that will happen by becoming more efficient with his
secondary pitches. If he can accomplish that over the next two years,
while adding another 2-3 mph to his fastball, Manaea will be squarely
in line to be a first-round draft pick in 2013.