3/27/2017 10:45:22 PM
Tall righthander Ryan Loutos (2017, Deer Park, Ill.) got things started for the Barrington Broncos by sitting in the high-80s and touching 90 mph in the first inning. The frame is extra large, standing tall at 6-foot-4 and 220-pounds, and the arm shows looseness through the back of his delivery. Loutos shows good arm strength in his delivery and is able to throw fastballs past opposing hitters without a ton of effort. The arm slot is a pretty standard three-quarter release and he did a good job on Monday afternoon at keeping the ball low in the zone to induce weak, ground ball contact. Loutos filled up the strike zone, throwing strikes on around 75% of his pitches. He mixed in a curveball and changeup to give him a three-pitch mix, but for the majority of the outing worked off the fastball. The pitch sat 87-89 mph early on and the frame and size allowed him to maintain his velocity deep into the outing. It was true in movement but when the pitch was low in the zone it was hard to square it up consistently. As he continues to refine his repertoire and his mechanics he will only get better as the tall righty impressed. 

Two of Loutos' teammates impressed with the bat during their doubleheader on Monday as Tyler Acosta (2018, Barrington, Ill.) and Will Yonton (2018, Barrington, Ill.) led their team to two wins. 

Acosta demonstrated, seemingly, his entire skill set during the games as his hitting ability, speed, and defense shone on Monday evening. The Illinois commit is very athletic with a very projectable 6-foot-1, 165-pound and shows very impressive speed, particularly in the batter's box. Clocked at 4.35 and 4.36 seconds to first base from the right side, the combination of his speed and instincts allowed him to stretch hits into taking extra-bases. The speed played well in the outfield as his quick first step and speed allowed him to correctly read fly balls and even make a sliding catch out in centerfield. At the plate, he showed some bat speed and hand quickness and drove balls with backspin. The approach is a simple, line drive-oriented mentality in the box and the swing is pretty compact and allows him to drive hard hit liners to all fields. 

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Yonton displayed immense physicality and strength in the batter's box. The build is very strong with broad shoulders and he impacts the ball hard through contact. The swing is quick through the zone with some leverage being displayed and the stance shows a high hand set and high back elbow. Yonton has good raw power and was able to collect two hits over the course of Monday's events. The swing will get a bit uppercut-happy at times, but he has a good power profile from the right side of the plate.

Starting, and finishing, the game for the Glenwood Gators was lefthander Daniel Holley (2017, West Point, Ga.). The southpaw has a shorter frame on the mound, listed at 5-foot-8 and 160-pounds, but has some build. The fastball started out at 83-85 mph in the first inning but settled in around 81-84 mph. There is some violence in the delivery with an exaggerated leg lift, but the arm action is pretty clean throughout and he showed good arm speed which allowed him to gain velocity. Holley throws a changeup and a curveball, the latter of which has slurve-like shape to it. The changeup flashed and showed a similar arm speed and action as the fastball. He threw from a high three-quarter slot which allowed him to generate plane on his fastball despite only getting downhill occasionally. Holley finished off the complete game while only allowing three runs and giving the Gators a victory on Monday night. 

Patrick Thatcher for Madeira had two big hits for the Mustangs that were loud drives to the pull gap and put runs on the board. He has a large frame with present physicality on the build throughout his body. Thatcher has a lot of raw strength and power in his frame and he did a good job of transferring that into his swing on Monday night. The bat speed is average but he did a good job at extending through the point of contact. The hand load is stiff at times but he was consistently on time with the swing and was a big reason why the Mustangs were in the game until late in the affair. 



Perhaps the most impressive performance of the evening, in terms of pure pitching tools, belonged to freshman righthander Logan Austin (2020, Salem, Ala.). He stands at a tall and lean 6-foot-2, 157-pounds with a very lanky build that indicates huge physical projection in the years to come. The auburn commit worked 84-85 mph in the first inning and settled in at the 82-84 mph mark after the first; there was some downward life on the fastball when in the lower part of the strike zone, however the pitch was mostly straight. The arm action was very long with looseness throughout though the length of the arm circle might cause timing issues going forward. Austin creates separation and releases from a higher three-quarter arm slot; there is effort in the delivery with some head whack. The stuff that Austin showed is what really stood out. The most dominant pitch he threw was a changeup/splitter hybrid pitch that his coach called a changeup; the similar arm speed combined with the amount of action the pitch had made it nearly unhittable. The pitch was about 10 mph slower than the fastball and had tremendous downward action; it also registered around the 1500 rpm mark via TrackMan. Austin went to the pitch often, and for good reason, which helped him rack up a ton of swings and misses. The curveball was another effective pitch that he threw less often than the aforementioned two. The pitch showed sweeping action with occasional sharp break and added a third pitch to his overall repertoire. The arm speed was similar on both pitches, however he threw his secondary pitches with a bit less noticeable effort. Austin shows a very advanced feel for mixing speeds and pitch selection, and advancement on his changeup, with a strong set of overall pitching tools moving forward.