During the course of the five-day 17u Perfect Game World Series (July 21-25) Todd Gold and David Rawnsley will be providing daily recaps of notable prospects and their respective performances.

Contributing: David Rawnsley

17u Perfect Game World Series: Event page| Scout blogs


The team that arguably had the best day Tuesday should surprise no one. The defending champion SF Elite Squad – Louisville Slugger posted two victories, 6-2 in the morning game over the DBacks Elite Scout Team and later won a shortened game due to the run rules over the Dallas Patriots 12-0 in the night cap while pounding out 14 hits. The Elite play with a great deal of confidence, especially on offense, and travel with a notably enthusiastic group of fans. Their record now stands at 4-1 with pool play games remaining Wednesday against Mountain West and CCB Elite.

The Elite received an impressive pitching performance from big RHP Andres Nunez (2014, Archbishop McCarthy HS, FL) Tuesday night, as Nunez threw four shutout innings. Nunez works from a high three-quarters to over the top arm slot and powers the ball downhill very well in the 87-90 mph range with plenty of heaviness down in the strike zone. He also threw a big downer curveball up to 76 mph that was a solid second pitch.

LHP/1B Michael Mediavilla (2014, Mater Academy, FL) seems to square the ball up every time up, and is 7-for-14 with 5 RBI. IF Kirvin Moesquit (2014, Highland Christian HS, FL), who hits ahead of Mediavilla in the batting order, is 6-for-13 at the plate and has scored seven runs.

2014 RHP Devin Meyer (Coral Springs, FL) didn’t light up the radar gun, topping out at 86 mph, but he shut down a lineup filled with the best prospects the state of Arizona has to offer. He showed good command to both sides of the plate with his 83-86 mph fastball, good arm side fade on his changeup at 77-79 mph and a 12-to-6 curveball with good depth and shape at 76 mph. His thin athletic frame projects to add significant strength over the next few years, and even if he doesn’t see a significant jump in velocity between now and the draft, he could develop into a prospect while at the University of Miami.

One of the top prospects in the class of 2015, OF Daniel Reyes (Miami Springs, FL), broke open what had been a tight ballgame in the sixth inning with a two-run triple to the wall in centerfield. Reyes is a physically imposing 6-foot-2 200-pound outfielder who can handle centerfield at this level, but projects for the corner long term. He has big power to the pull-side and up the middle of the field with good bat speed and a lot of strength at contact.

DBacks Elite Scout Team 2014 SS Cole Tucker (Phoenix, AZ) is a switch hitter who is better from the left side at this stage in his development, and he broke out of a slump, showing off both his emerging power with a deep drive that burned the center fielder while showing off his speed, getting to first base in 4.26 seconds on the turn and legging out a triple.

Two-way 2014 LHP Andrew Shaps (Paradise Valley, AZ) followed up a solid showing on the mound yesterday where he topped out at 88 mph with a 2-for-3 day at the plate showing good bat control.

Florida Burn 2014 IF Dalton Guthrie (Sarasota, FL) continued his hot hitting, going 3-for-4 with a double and a mercy-rule inducing walk-off bunt single (3.89 seconds home to first). Guthrie has been locked in at the plate all tournament long. He played a little bit of first base at the end of the game after serving as an extra hitter, but he’s a high level defensive shortstop. 2014 MIF Matt Reardon (Palm City, FL) got the start at shortstop in Guthrie’s place and didn’t miss a beat, showing good range of his own and smooth defensive actions while also going 2-for-2 at the plate.

2016 RHP Austin Bergner (Windemere, FL) was the breakout star of opening night of the tournament, topping out at 92 mph and showing pitchabillity beyond his years. Today he showed that he can do more than just pitch, going 2-for-3 with a double that one-hopped the fence in left center field. He also came in at shortstop late in the game, and while his slightly gangly 6-foot-3, 160-pound frame looked a bit out of place in the middle infield, he handled a sharply hit one-hopper quite capably and then made a good feed to start a 6-4-3 double play.

2014 3B/RHP David Hensley (San Diego, CA) put on a show at the plate, going 4-for-4 with a double and what proved to be the game winning RBI in the San Diego Show’s 3-1 victory over the East Cobb Braves. In his first at-bat he burned speedy CF Dalton Ewing with a shot to the wall. His next time up he took the pitcher’s hat off with a hard liner back up the middle before putting two more balls up the middle for singles. He showed very good range and body control defensively at third base as well and was a major factor in the Show’s victory.

Another day, another impressive power display from 2014 MIF Greg Deichmann (Metairie, LA) whose loud foul balls to the pull-side echoed throughout the Reds spring training complex. He crushed a double to right center after just missing a home run foul, and would add a blooper to left in a 2-for-3 effort.

2014 RHP Alex Lange (Lee’s Summit, MO) showed high level stuff, sitting 90-92 with his fastball and mixing in a plus slider at 80 and a solid changeup at 78 for Marucci Elite. But he didn’t have his command today, walking five CCB Elite hitters in three innings of work, allowing four unearned runs.

2015 OF Nick Oar (Pleasantville, CA) continues to be a pleasant surprise in his first Perfect Game event, hitting in the middle of the CCB Elite order. He went 1-for-2 with a walk against Marucci and homered in the morning game against the San Diego Show.

2014 OF Derek Hill (Sacramento, CA) continued to have a quiet showing at the plate, but showed off his speed in NorCal Baseball's nightcap against the Houston Banditos. Hill fell behind 1-2 in the count after a borderline strike call went against him, but he then shortened up with two strikes and grounded one to the second basemen who pivoted and threw to second to attempt a 4-6-3 double play, but Hill sprinted down the line in 3.98 seconds.

The EvoShield Canes continued to roll out power arms as 2014 RHP Jake Godfrey (New Lennox, IL) and 2014 RHP Jeff Harding (Cambridge, MD) each touching 92 mph (with Harding getting up to 93) out of the bullpen. The Canes starter, 6-foot-7 2014 LHP Ryan Avidano (Starr’s Mill, GA), sat 84-87 with very good extension out front, allowing his fastball to play up a tick. They combined to hold a SGV Arsenal lineup that came into the game with the second most runs to just one run on three hits.

2014 OF Marcus Wilson (Los Angeles, CA) went 0-for-3, but just barely. He grounded out to second base on a bang-bang play where he went home to first in 4.07 seconds.

At the end of the morning games no team had established itself as the dominant, team to beat, especially with about half the games in Pool B ending in ties. Marucci Elite was in position to potentially claim that role in their 8:00 am game Tuesday morning. Marucci started the game with a 2-0-1 record but played to a 1-1 tie against Mountain West, thanks to a strong performance from LHP Caleb Prentiss (2014, Carlsbad HS, NM). A bright spot for Marucci Elite was their own pitcher, RHP Carlo Graffeo (2015, St. Paul’s HS, LA), who also threw a complete game, allowing five hits while throwing 95 pitches. Graffeo pitched in the 84-87 mph range and his best pitch was a low-70s curveball that was sharp late biting at times.

Houston Banditos LHP Nick Kennedy (2015, College Station HS, TX) had an outstanding outing Tuesday morning in a 1-0 win over Team Northwest, and had a large contingent of college coaches behind the backstop nodding in appreciation. Kennedy has a very strong 6-foot-1, 200-pound build and a loose, fast left arm that produced fastballs up to 88 mph to go with a low- to mid-70s curveball that developed better spin and depth as the game moved on. Kennedy struggled some in the early innings repeating his release slot, but once he settled down he cruised and only threw 65 pitches in his six innings of work.

RHP Ricardo Salinas (2014, North Shore HS, TX) made his second relief appearance in this event and continued to impress with his arm strength, pitching in the 89-92 mph range, and picked up the save while allowing the only Team Northwest hit of the game.

There were an impressive number of defensive gems during the 7:30 pm games Tuesday night. EvoShield Canes SS D.J. Burt, Arizona Baseball Club Dodgers SS Ryan Peep and NorCal 2B Dakota Conners both made full out diving stops off line drives, and AZ Baseball Club-Dodgers 2B Addam Stebbins made a Dominican-style glove only double play feed that was sweet.

But the defensive play of the night was made by Tri-State Arsenal C Matthew Thaiss. In between hitters, Thaiss heard the shouts of “Heads, Field” and turned around to see a foul ball from an adjoining field heading straight towards the back of the home plate umpire. He leapt out of his crouch and jumped, fully twisting around the unsuspecting umpire to cleanly catch the ball right before it hit him in the back of the head.

It was noted earlier in the 17u PG World Series notes how sound a brand of fundamental baseball the Florida Burn play and how important that is to their success. It works by the numbers, too. In advancing their record to 3-0-2 Tuesday night, the Burn have only made seven errors in five games on defense, are 14-for-14 on stolen base attempts, have thrown out six out of 12 opposing runners, have six sacrifice bunts and have collected 15 walks and five hit by pitches to contribute to their .435 team on-base percentage.