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California Collegiate League top 35 prospects (list)
The
Santa Barbara Foresters have made the California Collegiate League
their own personal domain since the league was formed in 1993. In the
19 seasons since, they have claimed 18 league championships.
No.
18 came this season, though the Foresters had to share the title with
the San Luis Obispo Blues when they lost two of three games to Team
Vegas on the final weekend of the season. Both the Foresters and
Blues finished at 24-12. That was the closest that any CCL team had
come to dethroning the mighty Foresters since 2002.
But
if the Foresters took that as an affront to their run of near
invincibility, they quickly enacted a measure of revenge over the
next two weeks by blitzing the 32-team field at the 77th annual National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan.,
going a perfect 7-0. It was their third national title in six years.
Santa
Barbara’s recent domination of an event that is the closest thing
to a national championship among summer teams, plus their track
record of success in the CCL, has positioned it as the premier summer
college program in the nation, west of the Cape Cod League. And a
case can be made that the elite crop of pitching arms that the
Foresters assembled this summer would have enabled it to compete on
equal footing with any team on the Cape. Not only do the Foresters
again dominate the Cal Collegiate League’s list of elite-level
prospects, but four of the top six players are Foresters pitchers.
Promising
Rice righthander Austin Kubitza, who projects as a near-certain early
first-round pick in 2013, heads up the list of prospects, but fellow
Foresters righthanders Mitch Mormann and Stephen Johnson were the two
Santa Barbara arms that created the most buzz on the team’s run to
their latest NBC World Series title. As a staff, the Foresters posted
a 2.08 ERA.
Mormann,
a Wichita State product, was named the event’s top pro prospect
after touching 96 mph in a third-round Santa Barbara win, and then
justified that selection by working the first seven innings of his
team’s 1-0 win over the Alaska League’s Kenai Peninsula Oilers in
the championship game. The 6-foot-4 Johnson, a product of tiny St.
Edwards University in Texas, was consistently the hardest thrower in
the CCL most of the 2011 season, and outdid himself in a relief
appearance at the NBC tournament, when his fastball topped out at 100
mph, though it was generally acknowledged that the scoreboard radar
gun at Wichita’s Lawrence-Dumont Stadium was overly generous by 2-3
mph.
While
Foresters players, as expected, dominate the accompanying list of CCL
prospects, the list is otherwise noteworthy for the abundance of
high-school products—seven in all, including six of the first 12.
FAST
FACTS
Year
League Established: 1993.
States
Represented in League: California,
Nevada.
No.
of Teams in League: 7.
Regular-Season
Co-Champions: Santa Barbara
Foresters; San Luis Obispo Blues.
Post-Season
Champion: NONE. Santa Barbara
Foresters advanced to National Baseball Congress World Series,
Wichita, Kan. Won championship.
Teams,
PG CrossChecker Summer 50/Final Ranking:
No. 2 Santa Barbara Foresters; No. 13 San Luis Obispo Blues.
No.
1 Prospect, 2010 (per PG CrossChecker): Carson
Smith, rhp, Santa Barbara Foresters (Texas State; Mariners/8th round).
First
2010 Player Selected, 2011 Draft:
Sam Stafford, lhp, Santa Barbara Foresters (Texas; Yankees/2nd round).
Player
of the Year: Jeff McVaney, of, Santa
Barbara Foresters.
Pitcher
of the Year: J.C. Aguayo, lhp,
Conejo Oaks.
Top
Batting Prospect (as selected by league): Aaron
Brown, of, Glendale Angelenos.
Top
Pitching Prospect (as selected by league): Austin
Kubitza, rhp, Santa Barbara Foresters.
BATTING
LEADERS (League games only)
Batting
Average: Jeff McVaney, of, Santa
Barbara Foresters (.412).
Slugging
Percentage: Jeff McVaney, of, Santa
Barbara Foresters (.632).
On-Base
Average: Jeff McVaney, of, Santa
Barbara Foresters (.491).
Home
Runs: Sako Chapjian, 3b, Glendale
Angelenos (10).
RBIs:
James Wharton, 1b, Santa Barbara Foresters (34).
Stolen
Bases: Arby Fields, of, MLB Academy
Barons (25).
PITCHING
LEADERS (League games only)
Wins:
J.C. Aguayo, lhp, Conejo Oaks (7).
ERA:
Harmen Sidhu, rhp, San Luis Obispo Rattlers (0.26).
Saves:
Kyle Martin, rhp, San Luis Obispo Blues; Kyle DiMartino, rhp, Team
Vegas (6).
Strikeouts:
J.C. Aguayo, lhp, Conejo Oaks (84).
BEST
TOOLS
Best
Athlete: Aaron Brown, of, Glendale
Angelenos.
Best
Hitter: Jeff McVaney, of, Santa
Barbara Foresters.
Best
Power: Greg Bird, c/1b, Team Vegas.
Fastest
Base Runner: Arby Fields, of, MLB
Academy Barons.
Best
Defensive Player: Christian Summers,
ss, Santa Barbara Foresters.
Best
Velocity: Stephen Johnson, rhp,
Santa Barbara Foresters.
Best
Breaking Ball: Austin Kubitza, rhp,
Santa Barbara Foresters.
Best
Command: J.C. Aguayo, lhp, Conejo
Oaks.
TOP
35 PROSPECTS
1.
AUSTIN KUBITZA, rhp, Santa Barbara Foresters (Rice/SO in 2012)
SCOUTING
PROFILE: Instant stardom at the
college level was predicted for the 6-foot-5, 190-pound Kubitza from
the moment he turned down a seventh-round offer from the Pittsburgh
Pirates in the 2010 draft. He responded as a Rice freshman by going
6-5, 2.34 with 24 walks and 102 strikeouts in 100 innings, spread
over 15 starts. Rice coaches understandably wanted him to curtail his
workload this summer, and he initially worked in the back end of the
bullpen for the Foresters before returning to the rotation late in
the season as the team geared up for the NBC World Series. Overall,
he went 3-1, 3.46 with three saves, along with 16 walks and 51
strikeouts in 39 innings. As a closer, Kubitza’s fastball was a
customary 93-95 mph; as a starter, it was usually in the 90-92 range.
His two-seamer had hard, boring action, while his slider was a
swing-and-miss pitch with its late break. He seldom threw his
changeup in a short role, but his return to the rotation enabled him
to break out that pitch again. Kubitza routinely carved up hitters on
both sides of the plate with command of his raw stuff, but had a
tendency to elevate his pitches. He also created unusually good
deception on his pitches with his Jered Weaver-like, cross-body
delivery. Kubitza’s brother Kyle, a lefthanded-hitting third
baseman from Texas State, played for the Foresters a year ago on his
way to being drafted in the third round of this year’s draft by the
Atlanta Braves. With more polish and added strength, Kubitza should
blow right by his brother in the draft two years from now.