Baseball Prospect Report

By The Baseball Beginnings Guy
March 22, 2010

Austin Wilson’s main interest points are the durable, athletic build and the potential for pure power. High school baseball is a slower game for superior pro prospects, so scouting players in this environment requires an eye for nuances.

Wilson’s frame hasn’t suffered. Smart scouts watch for body change from summer to spring leading up to a draft. In Wilson’s case, he retains the same strong build that should allow him to play for years to come. He did not hit before the game and said later that he probably won’t start hitting with wood for workouts again until later in the spring. So Wilson’s power is what it has been. His top present amateur grade will be pure power, which I think already goes 5 on an average day and 6-7 on a good day. His power frequency grades up to 7 if he becomes only an adequate hitter at the advanced levels, 8 if he proves he can hit for power and decent average. Power production, likewise, would stay at 7 or 8 in the future. This is a cornerstone-type player, one of the few position players in this draft who can say that with a straight face.

Batting leadoff in game, he hit a line drive for an out that showed what he’s trying to accomplish as a hitter. Preferring to prove he has hands to protect the inside part of the plate and to develop power to right field, the line drive was a caught shot to the right side. It’s a good sign and it’s a positive sign when strong kids who are better suited to hit with wood retain proper foundation with mistake-encouraging metal bats.

Wilson kept trying to go to right field in this game, but didn’t hit the next two balls as hard. He ended up rolling them over off the end of the bat, but this gave a chance to see him run. Considered a five-tool player in the general media, I would agree that Wilson doesn’t have a tool that projects to grade out to below 5, or major league average. That doesn’t mean everything is an 8, but it does mean everything is enough, including running.

In all likelihood, he’s not going to be as fast as Torii Hunter was in his prime, but Wilson moves very well for someone with a large build. His first time to first base was 4.4, mainly because a hesitation before he left the box cost him a fraction of the second. His second attempt was a clean 4.3 from the right side, a time I have frequently caught him at. Even if he never gets faster (and it’s not a forgone conclusion that he can’t have more speed upside if he does proper training) this is more than enough speed for a corner outfielder and run producer. As it is, he’d run as well or better than 80 percent of the corner outfielders in the big leagues right now.

Defensively, Wilson is playing center field for his high school team after a summer in right field, his future pro position. The arm strength is still here, but it’s clear that the angle of the throw from center to third and home isn’t as familiar to him as the throw from right to third or right to home. As a result, Wilson looks like he is feeling his way, and short-armed a ball hit softly into center field to home plate early in the game. When he’s going right, Wilson generally takes good angles to balls, sets his feet well for a young player, and gets on top of the ball and gets rid of it. It will be a weapon for him. 

Wilson’s final at-bat produced a long fly ball to center field that he just got under. That shows an ability to lift the baseball at will against mistakes, whereas his earlier at-bats were devoted to keeping his hands back for as long as he could to go to right field. I don’t want to hear anyone saying that this guy is too strong to be trying to be handsy, nor do I want to hear any of this, ‘This guy has too many inside-out swings for what he is,’ talk. Hank Aaron was handsy too. So was Mays. Worked for them. Should work for Wilson to some degree in the coming years.

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Categories: '10 Scouting Updates
Tags: Austin Wilson, Austin Wilson Update, Stanford