Grand Junction HS (Colorado) showed several players with solid skills on Thursday, including shortstop Caleb Coleman, left-handed pitcher Sinjin Garrett, and catcher Tyson Zanski.

-Despite not getting the results he wanted on the mound, junior lefty Sinjin Garrett showed flashes of having legitimate college-level potential. He has solid size at 6’1” 175; projects to put on some more strength as he matures, and shows really easy arm action at present. The arm works very well, but his mechanics and command were inconsistent throughout his start. He features a rotational delivery and short arm circle to a high ¾ slot, but too often his arm slot would slip more to ¾ and he would tend to miss up in the zone. The fastball sat in the low 80’s early in his start, touching 84, and showed slight life to the arm side. His delivery can be deceptive and the ball comes out easy, and was really hard to square up—or even make contact with—when located down in the zone.

-Senior Caleb Coleman shows quality actions and hands at shortstop, consistently making the routine play to both sides, and showing impressive range to his arm side by snaring a hard grounder deep in the hole early in the game. He makes consistent contact and is more than willing to use the entire field with his line drive approach, and should begin to drive the baseball more as he fills out his frame.

-Junior catcher Tyson Zanski certainly looks the part, with a broad-shouldered and muscular 6’2” 210 pound frame. He has quality flexibility in his lower half, receives the baseball well, and moves pretty well side-to-side behind the dish. He consistently pops in the 2.1-2.2 second range, and will continue to pop quicker times as his catch-and-throw mechanics get better. At bat, he shows loose hands with a momentum-driven swing, showing the ability to barrel the baseball all over the zone and hit hard liners to all fields. 

Though he wasn’t able to take the bat off his shoulder much in Green Mountain’s (CO) first game of the day, junior outfielder Wyatt Featherston still had a productive day at the plate. Strolling to the right-handed batter’s box, the uncommitted and physically built 6-foot-1 Featherston reached base in all four trips, three via a free pass. It did show his patience at the plate and ability to stay within the zone, never expanding just to swing. His third at-bat afforded him the opportunity to swing and he did just that, lining a pitch hard into left field for a line drive single. Featherston shows nice balance in his swing with a short and quick path to the ball and once he reaches base, he shows off surprising speed given his strong look.

When you’re ranked within the top five players in the country and have the long list of accolades that senior shortstop Nicholas Shumpert does, odds are you’re going to attract scouts to your games. The former Perfect Game All-American did that over Highland Ranch’s four games in the desert and he didn’t disappoint, showing off  his impressive tools on both sides of the ball. Though I didn’t see his third game, I was told how he ended it by going yard in his final two at-bats, one to his pull side and one to the opposite field.

For those who weren’t able to see his power display Wednesday Shumpert gave us a look at it on Thursday, once again going deep and he wasted little time to do so. After taking the first pitch of the game for a ball, the University of Kentucky commit jumped on the next pitch, showing his extremely quick hands and strength off the barrel and drove it over the left-centerfield gap wall. For those keeping track it was his third home run in his last three at-bats. That swing set the tone for the rest of the first inning as Highland Ranch erupted for a 9-spot, allowing for Shumpert to get another at-bat in the first inning. He sat back well on the pitch and shot a hard line drive over the shortstop’s head for an RBI single. Shumpert then walked and hit a 6.2+ second popup behind the second baseman, falling in the triangle for his third hit of the game.

Defensively, Shumpert did what he has always done up the middle, showing quick feet and range to complement his strong arm and soft hands. He was put to the test immediately, recording two of the first three outs on ground balls. One of those ground balls had Shumpert range to his right where he picked the ball with his backhand crisply before delivering a strike across the diamond.

On the field opposite of Shumpert’s, Valley Vista senior outfielder Terrance Robertson and his teammates were taking batting practice before their 3:00 game. A 6-foot-1, 175-pound center fielder who is full of quick-twitch muscle, Robertson showed off his hidden strength from the left side in BP, putting a few balls over the right field fence, clearing the street that lies just on the other side of the fence. He didn’t quite show that strength in game time but he did pick up a hard line drive single to the opposite field in his third at-bat after being plunked in his prior trip to the plate. Like Shumpert above, Robertson recorded two of the first three outs in the first inning, showing a quick first step (Robertson is an easy plus-runner) with solid range and closing speed. He features a strong arm as evidenced by his 87 mph fastball earlier in the tournament and is an intriguing athlete that will remain on scout’s radar throughout the spring.

 -Jheremy Brown