3/21/2015 10:44:56 AM
-Liberty High School (AZ) put their offensive firepower on display on Friday, as it seemed like every starter in their lineup had several hits, or at least hit the ball hard several times. 

-Liberty leadoff hitter Rudy Karre is someone Perfect Game has definitely talked about before, but he continues to impress at every turn. Karre played center field on Friday, and his natural instincts and overall plus athleticism allow him to easily project there long term. The unique thing about Karre is that he's not being forced to the outfield by a lack of infield chops...he might be better at shortstop than he is in centerfield, and he's very good out there. Usually when we see high-level prospects, the question we ask is "can Player X stick at shortstop at the next level? Will he have to move to 3rd base? The OF?" With Karre, this is not the case, as he's going to head to Kansas with the ability to contribute immediately at 3 premium positions (SS, CF, RHP)...and he can also catch! He hits leadoff for Liberty, and the first pitch he saw of the game ended up off the wall in LF for a double. He clocked 4.46 on the turn, and although he's not an elite-level runner, he doesn't need to be. He's a switch-hitter, and I've seen him hit from both sides, but what is interesting is that on Friday he took all of his at-bats right-handed, against a RHP. 

-Liberty RHP/UT Tyler Wyatt, who Jheremy wrote up in this blog a couple days ago after his outing on the mound, looked very comfortable at the plate as well on Friday. He starts with a relaxed stance/set up, gets the back elbow high, and really fires forward with leverage and some natural lift. On Friday it took a little bit for his hands to get going, but when they did the results were excellent. Wyatt is a very strong player, and the strength shows in the swing, with easy strength at contact and consistent hard contact. He stays through the middle in his approach, and simply just looks to make hard contact wherever the ball is pitched. It's a quality swing with solid mechanics, highlighted by strength and a natural feel to hit. 

-Liberty junior left-hander Vinnie Cafarelli started and picked up the win, showcasing advanced pitchability and quality command of his entire arsenal throughout the start. He works in the high 70's, touching 80-81, but his fastball is hardly the primary pitch of his arsenal. It seemed to me that he threw equal numbers of fastball, sliders, and changeups. He does an excellent job of mixing pitches, kept the opposing hitters of balance, and just looked comfortable working quickly and firing strike after strike. 

-O'Connor High School (AZ) took on Sprague (OR) on Friday afternoon, and similar to Liberty, showed an offense that didn't seem to give any breaks to opposing pitchers, all the way from 1 through 9. 

-Senior 2nd baseman Dakota Solis is just a quality, old-school baseball player. He makes consistent contact with a line drive plane and quick hands, just trying to spray line drives, and has an advanced feel for the strike zone as well as recognition skills. He is, in other words, "the ideal #2 hitter." He doesn't strike out, he handles the bat extremely well, and he gets on base at a high level. He's also a quality defender at 2B with quick feet and more than enough arm for the position. He plays hard, knows the game, takes the extra base, and in general is just quite fun to watch. 

-O'Connor junior Ryan Alexander showed off some raw pop, even with a somewhat unrefined approach, during Friday's game. Alexander, who can play in any corner on the diamond, starts with a really upright stance with an extremely high hand set, and just looks the part of a power hitter. He has some hand noise pre-swing, but on the whole the unorthodox swing worked really well for him. He drilled a long fly ball just foul in his first AB, which ended up bouncing on the roof of a building beyond the RF wall. He is raw in certain phases of hitting, including strike zone knowledge and general recognition skills, but it's hard not to like his legitimate bat speed and natural raw power. 

-Brian Sakowski