John Klima | November 30, 2009
Tony Wolters is among the most coveted middle infield prospects among Southern California prospects available for the 2010 draft. He offers three tools that grade out to average or above-average on the major league scale.
Wolters was already on the radar this summer, but his MVP performance at the Aflac game in August cemented his stock. He won that game with a hard-hit ball into the right-field corner at Petco Park in San Diego. It capped a solid summer for Wolters, a left-handed hitter with surprising strength for a player of his stature. Here’s an early look at a potential first-round pick in June.
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Category: '10 Videos |
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Tags: 2009 Aflac Game, Anthony Wolters
John Klima | November 29, 2009
If you weren’t around the computer during Thanksgiving week, make sure you don’t miss last week’s content. We published our Angels Elite player summaries as well as looks at pitchers Dylan Covey and Taijuan Walker.
This week, Baseball Beginnings continues providing fresh content. We’ll have a first look at shortstop Tony Wolters, a San Diego high school player who was MVP of the Aflac game. We’ll also have a look at Florida high school third baseman Yordy Cabrera, who has some power in his bat and his arm. We’ll have a scouting report on Ohio right-hander Stetson Allie and the first look at California third baseman Dominic Ficociello. On the pro side, we’ll also have a look at Phillies outfield prospect Dominic Brown and Cubs shortstop prospect Starlin Castro. We’ll also have a Q&A with Angels prospect and 2006 No. 1 pick, catcher Hank Conger.
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John Klima | November 29, 2009
When we last saw Mike Moustakas, it was at the Cal-Carolina League All-Star game in July. We saw him recently in the Arizona Fall League. Moustakas has taken his share of criticism long before he is ready for the majors, but despite his body changes, he still has plus left-handed power and the hands to hit for a decent average once he learns to trust them.
Moustakas won’t be a middle infielder and he won’t stay at third base. When scouts in the stands start muttering that you resemble Bob Hamelin, that’s not a good sign. Moustakas does have power but he needs to make sure he doesn’t shortchange himself. Part of the reason Moustakas gets heat is because he was the No. 2 overall draft pick in 2007 draft as a shortstop and his development hasn’t been unusually fast. Yet it also hasn’t been unusually slow, which gets lost in the discussion. (more…)
Category: 2009 Minor Leagues |
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Tags: Kansas City Royals, Mike Moustakas
John Klima | November 28, 2009
Right-hander Tanner Scheppers has been a draft darling and a hold-out all-star. We had a first-person look at him at the Arizona Fall League, where the former Fresno State pitcher made his pro debut.
Scheppers can be in Texas’s bullpen tomorrow, but based on one very brief look, he’s not polished enough to be an effective and consistent starting pitcher. Scheppers is a thrower with a great arm. He has a great body, long and loose, and is listed at 6-4, 200. His arm action is fairly smooth and he has physical projection, but he cannot command consistently enough to throw 180 big league innings and win right now. (more…)
Category: 2009 Draft, 2009 Minor Leagues |
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Tags: Fresno State, Tanner Scheppers, Texas Rangers
John Klima | November 27, 2009
When we last saw Mike Leake here at Baseball Beginnings, he was pitching for Arizona State on the road to a season that got him drafted in the first round, No. 8 overall in 2009. We picked Leake up again recently in-person at the Arizona Fall League, where we caught three innings and a bullpen.
Leake is a classic example of what the great scout and former big league second baseman Gene Handley meant when he said, “The gun is a crutch.” (more…)
Category: 2009 Draft, 2009 Minor Leagues |
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Tags: ASU, Cincinnati Reds, Mike Leake
John Klima | November 26, 2009
Today concludes our two-part look at the 2009 Angel Elite season with our player summaries. As we mentioned Wednesday, this list does not represent rankings and follows the professional scouting model, where at this time of the year you are simply following players between summer and spring.
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Category: 2010 Draft, 2011 Draft |
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Tags: Andrew Thurman, Angels Elite, Cory Hahn, Dylan Covey, Frankie Christian, Henry Owens, Jake Jelmini, Jimmy Allen, Kyle Richter, Peter Tago, Stefan Sabol, Taijuan Walker
John Klima | November 25, 2009
Today begins our two-part series on player summaries from the 2009 Angels Elite Fall Season. These are not player rankings and we have not listed the players in any preference or order. This follows the professional scouting model, where at this time of the year, the scout is in follow mode and letting the players dictate which players are on the rise entering the spring.
These summaries have been compiled from personal scouting done this fall. In each case, the players have been seen multiple times.
Be sure to come back Thanksgiving Thursday for the completion of the list.
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Category: 2010 Draft, 2011 Draft |
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Tags: Angels Elite, Austin Hedges, Austin Reed, Chad Lewis, Cody Doyle, Derek Campbell, Eric Snyder, Michael Lorenzen, Phillip Evans, Scott Frazier, Vincent Velasquez, William Swanner
John Klima | November 24, 2009
Before we discuss Dylan Covey’s stuff, there’s another aspect worth mentioning. It’s called mound presence. The view here is that when scouting amateurs, this doesn’t really mean anything. If a guy throws 82, I don’t care if he wears a mask, snarls and spits blood and flips off the other guy like he’s acting like the 87-year old owner of an NFL team. 82 is 82 and it won’t scare anyone. But when stuff is super premium, when it’s so obvious, you have to take into consideration some of these intangibles. Why?
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Tags: Angels Eite, Dylan Covey
John Klima | November 23, 2009
Right-hander Taijuan Walker helped himself this fall, putting himself and his stuff in the right light for the radar guns and those imaginative enough to see the projection in that body.
Walker’s outing Wednesday at Angels Elite was one of his best of the fall. His fastball sat at 91-92 with hard, late life low in the strike zone. He delivers the ball from a whippy frame and generates productive torque with his across-the-body motion. Walker mixed in a curveball at 82, with signs of shape and depth, and was more consistent with it than when I first saw him in September. His change-up at 80 also has promise, though it isn’t ready to take into a pro game just yet. Have a look.
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Tags: Angels Elite, Taijuan Walker
John Klima | November 22, 2009
The season is always here at Baseball Beginnings. We’ll be rolling out seven new stories again. The main course for Thanksgiving week will be our Angels Elite player summaries that will be published on Wednesday and Thursday. These are brief descriptions of the players we saw the most.
Before that, we’ll give you your first look at pitcher Taijuan Walker, a rising right-hander from Yucaipa who helped himself. And we’ll give you a glimpse of Dylan Covey pitching on a big league mound. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more of that.
Later in the week, we’ll visit the pro-side and have updated scouting reports and commentary on former Arizona State pitcher Mike Leake, whose crafty ways give hope to Reds fans. We’ll also look at former Fresno State right-hander and Rangers prospect Tanner Scheppers. We’ll close the week out with an updated look at Royals prospect Mike Moustakas. They call this guy Moose for a reason, and despite the criticisms he took for this season, you gotta go with the power and remember tools don’t lie.
Stay here this week for your best baseball fix around between turkey, football, shopping and leftovers. We’re cooking fresh all week! That was pretty corny. I apologize profusely.
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