We had a little gap in the weather last week, with temperatures up in the 60’s, but there was ice on the wind shield this morning and the wind chill tonight is supposed to be around -10 degrees.
Nebraska somehow managed to play a four game home set with Cal State Northridge this past weekend, although I didn’t get down to Lincoln to watch the action. The final three games were played in misty mid 30’s type weather that isn’t good for taking a short walk in, let alone watching a college game. One player to watch, though, on the Nebraska team in addition to RHP Mike Nesseth (2-1. 1.71, 21 IP/11 H/26 K’s) is OF/LHP Adam Bailey.
Bailey is an Arizona native who was a pitcher on Arizona State’s 2007 CWS team, but attended junior college last year before transferring to Lincoln as a primary outfielder. He’s hitting .358-6-22 after 14 games while also going 1-0, 1 SV, 1.59 in 5 innings out of the bullpen. As a left handed hitter with average speed and a plus arm, he’s sure to get draft interest with that type of offensive production.
College Notes
-- You’ve all been reading on the PG Blog about Northern Iowa’s decision to drop baseball pending some serious fund raising. It’s an issue that hits home with Perfect Game for obvious reasons and Jerry Ford’s promise to donate $25K to the fund raising efforts wasn’t a surprise if you know the man.
The Panthers stand 6-6 after 12 road games. Cedar Rapids native OF Travis Bennett, junior, is the team’s leading hitter thus far at .333-2-17. He was a regular participant in the Iowa Spring League and here are the notes on his hitting ability from the 2006 Spring Top Prospect Showcase: “Left handed hitter. Can swing the bat. Good coil, aggressive hard swing, has bat speed, looks to lift and pull, good game hits, nice looking young hitter.” We gave him a PG Grade of 8, which looking back at the notes (7.01 runner, 82 off the mound) should have been an 8.5. Looks like a good evaluation, though.
-- Another Iowa high school product had a huge and likely unique debut in college baseball last weekend. Freshman OF Willie Argo (Davenport Assumption HS) did not play in Illinois’ first seven games this year. Inserted into the #8 hole against #1 ranked LSU, all Argo did in his first college game was go 3-3 with 3 home runs and 5 Rbi’s. Think about if someone did that in their big league debut, hit 3 home runs against the Yankees!
Argo was a multi-sport star in high school and didn’t have a whole lot of baseball experience but is obviously learning quickly. He’s run as low as 6.58 at PG showcases and his best raw tool is his bat speed.
-- It was enjoyable reading Anup Sinha’s report on Boston College and their two star juniors, C Tony Sanchez and LHP/OF Mike Belfiore. Sanchez played in a couple of WWBA events and we didn’t get a strong feel for him when he was in high school, but we saw Belfiore at numerous events over a two year period and I wrote a couple of reports on him as a primary outfielder. He was given a 9.5 PG Grade at the 2005 National Showcase. But I always suspected he had a higher ceiling as a pitcher than a hitter, despite the fact that he was mostly 84-85 off the mound in high school. Belfiore threw effortlessly with a very projectable 6-3 frame but he looked as if pitching at that point was a distraction at that point. Despite his frame and athleticism (6.7 runner), he didn’t have the explosiveness in his bat in my opinion to project as much power in his bat as he did velocity in his arm. Keep in mind that Belfiore is one of those rare “Throws Left/Hits Right” type of players. Left handers who throw up to 92 with nasty sliders have bright futures.
-- Kent Matthes was one of the more underpublicized members of the 2004 Aflac All-American team. The Orlando, FL, native has gone on to a have a solid career at Alabama, including a .303-11-52 junior season, and is as well recognized for his community involvement and character for the Tide as he is for his on-field ability. Here’s his report from the 2005 World Showcase, the 3rd showcase that he received a 10 PG Grade. Kent Matthes is a 2005 3B/OF/SS/RHP from Orlando, Florida, with a strong and athletic build at 6'3", 205 lbs. He has great arm strength, plus accuracy and carry, easy actions in the OF, good range and solid actions at 3B, ball jumps off his bat, projectable power, line drive hitter, great combination of tools.
Matthes has got off to an outstanding start this season for 8-3 Alabama. He’s hitting .442-9-22 after 11 games. Not surprisingly for anyone who remembers Matthes plus/plus arm strength, he’s second on Alabama’s career outfield assist list.
-- With all the different levels of college baseball, it’s hard to accurately determine who might be leading the country in home runs. My nomination would be 6-4, 240 lb 1B Bryce Cutspec from NAIA Azusa Pacific University. Cutspec was the ranked #299 in the 2006 class by PG and spent his freshman year at Arizona as a catcher. After 22 games at 19-3 Azusa Pacific, the left handed hitting Cutspec is hitting .421-15-38. Boydsworld.com lists Kent Matthes (see above) as the DI leader with 9.
-- Allan Simpson wrote about Kansas State RHP A.J. Morris in his top prospect write up on the West Coast Collegiate Summer League this off-season, quoting scouts who wondered how a draft eligible sophomore throwing 94 mph could go undrafted. That likely won’t happen again. Morris has started the season 3-0 with a perfect 0.00 ERA in 18.2 innings. K-State has started the season 10-2 and owns wins over Houston, San Diego State and Creighton, along with a narrow 2-1 loss to San Diego.