4/9/2016 1:17:12 PM
With the three days of the Rawlings Select Classic #4 winding down, the following are the players that stood out over the course of the event.
The Jordan Beetdiggers were one of the four semifinal teams in the event. Their senior shortstop, Drew Lisk, a Utah commit, showed very well over the weekend. Lisk stands at a very projectable 6-foot-2, 190 pounds with some present strength already in his frame. At the plate, he showed a quick swing with an aggressive approach. He utilized a line drive plane that he matched consistently and showed good bat speed through the zone. Most of his contact was pull side and he had the hand speed to get around on inside fastballs and drive them with authority. In the field, he showed consistent actions with soft hands and good footwork around the bag. He had enough arm strength to leave the projection for him on the left side of the infield.
For King's Ridge, the sent out right-hander, Kyle Brnovich for their first pool play game. The Elon commit stands at 6-foot-3, 180 pounds with long limbs and is riddled with projection moving forward with lots of room to fill. He showed a short, compact arm action on the mound and almost looked like he was pushing it out of his hand. He showed impressive arm speed with a stab in the back of his arm circle and failed to generate good angle towards the plate. Brnovich worked his fastball between 88-90 mph with very slight arm side run. His command on the mound left a lot to be desired with him currently being more of a thrower than a pitcher. He did very well to generate swings and misses and recorded 18 over his six innings on the mound, but a lot of that was due to sitting in a higher velocity band than most hitters were seeing. Brnovich had a lot of trouble getting to his glove side for command, often yanking his body towards first base through his landing. He showed a lot of confidence in his slider that he threw in the upper 70's, touching 82 mph, and was confident enough to throw it for strikes. It was a looser spinning offering, but hitters did swing threw it on occasion. He also mixed in a curveball with more 11-5 shape at 72 mph that he only showed a handful of times.
For video of Brnovich, please follow this link.
The leadoff man for Russellville who faced Brnovich was senior shortstop, Reed Smith. Smith came in as one of the more highly ranked players to attend the event and did not disappoint, leading the Golden Tigers to the playoffs. For whatever reason, Smith opted to bunt almost every time a runner was on, so I only got three real looks at his swing, his first at-bat of all three games played prior to this blog. With two of those swing, Smith showed his raw strength and hand explosiveness to rip a pair of doubles that either one-hopped or went off the wall in left field. He does possess plus bat speed with the aforementioned raw strength, and those allow his swing that is built for extra bases to play up. It's a line drive swing plane with lots of natural lift that I wish he would use more often in games. When he has opted to bunt, he's shown very impressive burst out of the box from the right side of the plate. I had two times on his bunt attempts at 3.81 and 3.82 down the line on true digs, but it looked more effortless than that. He really does glide down the line and that first step quickness also helps him in the field. He gets to almost every ball hit to him at shortstop and has an average arm from the left side. He double taps his glove before throwing, but has soft, sure hands on balls to him to go with sound footwork.
Trevor Roberson for IMG Academy showed really explosive bat speed and torque through his lower half to launch a line drive home run for the Ascenders in their second game. There is a lot of strength throughout his 6-foot-2, 210 pound frame that he gets through the ball to drive it. In other at-bats, Roberson showed a very patient approach, often laying off bad spin low in the zone and waiting for a fastball he could barrel. He showed good bat speed as well with and an approach that allowed him to utilize the whole field.
Christian Brothers Academy played both of their pool play games on Friday afternoon and tossed out a pair of promising arms. Their game one starter is a Perfect Game regular in right-handed junior Weston Bizzle. The Vanderbilt commit came out and tossed a very strong outing with the same long, stiff arm action he has in the past and downhill action. He was much more in control this outing, with minimal head whack. He's listed at a generous 5-foot-11, 195 pounds with strength throughout and not a lot of remaining projection left in his frame. He landed mostly on-line, with slight fall off towards first base. Bizzle showed a lot of athleticism off the mound making several plays getting to soft come backers. His fastball lacked it's similar explosion on the mound that he's shown in the past, as it sat between 85-88 mph and touched 89 mph, but he had more success throwing it for strikes. Bizzle did very well to fill the zone, especially with his 12-6 breaking curveball. The pitch showed average spin with some depth, but he did miss bats with it. He allowed only three hits on the mound and recorded 10 swings and misses throughout the outing.
For video of Bizzle, please follow this link.
The second arm that Christian Brothers tossed out was left-handed junior, Jared Shemper. Shemper stands at 6-foot-1, 200 pounds with good athleticism on the mound. The Austin Peay commit showed a clean arm action with a short, compact circle in the back. He got downhill well for his size and used his lower half well in his delivery. Shemper did well to fill the zone with his fastball that sat between 84-86 mph in the first two innings, then dipped down to 81-83 mph thereafter. He had good arm side life with the pitch that allowed him to miss bats and barrels. He was not hit hard, surrendering only four hits, but saw his glove side command leave him in the second inning when the opponent's damage was done. He worked both sides of the plate well, landing on-line with a simple, repeatable delivery. His curveball showed 1-7 break towards the plate with tight spin and depth at 73 mph, especially when kept low. He did well to maintain his arm speed on his curveball that allowed its effectiveness to play up.
For East Paulding, as they made their run to the Championship game, they relied heavily on third basemen Nate Butterworth. Butterworth stands at 6-foot-1, 215 pounds with a lot of physicality in his frame. He uses his strength from a lower base at the plate to generate a lot of explosion through his hips. He has a lot of present feel for the barrel and timing the barrel release through his hip coil. The thing preventing him from getting more hits has been his launch angle. He gets just slightly underneath the ball, while still hitting it hard. If he could use a more consistent line drive plane, he would see a plethora of line drive base knocks with his present bat speed. What Butterworth also did that impressed was the ability to pick up and lay off bad spin.
The starting pitcher Russellville sent out for their semifinal game was an impressive one. Right-hander Cody Greenhill, an Auburn commit, took the mound standing at a physically impressive 6-foot-4, 215 pounds with lots of raw strength. He comes to the plate with a slight bend in his upper half and utilizes a three-quarter to lower three-quarter arm slot. He was very quick to the plate, landing closed with a slight crossfire delivery. He showed very impressive arm speed on the mound and showed the ball late, adding to his deception. Greenhill cut his extension off a lot and used very little of his lower half in his delivery. He relied on his raw strength and arm speed to power the ball into the zone. His fastball worked 88-90 mph for the first several innings and then dropped slightly to 86-88 for his fifth and final inning. The pitch had good arm side run and heavy action towards the plate and helped hime escape jams throughout his outing. He was not hit particularly hard, but saw some hits drop and the result of an inconsistent strike zone saw a couple extra runners reach base via the walk. He lowered his arm slot for his curveball that he threw at 73 mph with some depth, but inconsistent break. He had trouble getting the pitch across for strikes, which limited him at times to just his fastball. Greenhill also mixed in a changeup at 80 mph that was not very effective, slowing his arm big time for the offering. He at times git changeup-happy and started throwing them more and more often and that's where his trouble lied.