By John Klima
August 26, 2010
Cory Hahn had a memorable senior season at Mater Dei – pitching, hitting, hitting for power, playing defense, base running, throwing from the outfield – and helping his team win a Division I championship in Southern California. Hahn is a guy that if you watch as a scout, I mean, really watch and break down, you’ll find a guy who’s going to have value as a pro because he does things within the context of a ballgame that will help teams win. Arizona State knows this, and so do the San Diego Padres. The Padres aren’t a bad fit for Hahn, because they must build around speed and defense in that dungeon they play in. The other truth of the matter is that Hahn is better than a 26th round ballplayer and if he gets to ASU, he won’t be a 26th rounder in three years.
I believe I once wrote that Hahn would go to the Cape after his freshman season in college and people from around the country would fall in love with this guy. That’s because Hahn is a casualty of the meat-market mentality. He has the tools to play the game – they may not be off-the-chart tools, but they’re better than serviceable. He knows how to use them, which is almost just as important. Baseball is a game and not a showcase, and frankly, Hahn is a victim of bad scouting. If you’re going to bury the guy, bury him because you think he won’t hit, not because you fear he won’t be big or strong enough. That’s a cop out. Make a call.
Baseball Beginnings caught up to Hahn recently again, where we talked about the 2010 season and what comes next.
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Category: '10 Meet the Player, '13 Meet the Player |
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Tags: ASU, Cory Hahn, San Diego Padres
By John Klima
August 19, 2010
By the time this is published, we will know if Brian Ragira has signed with the Texas Rangers or is getting ready for freshman orientation at Stanford University. (The winner is Stanford.) All we know is that he’s going to hit wherever he goes. When I did my not-for-public-eyes preference list before the draft, he was in Group 1. Baseball Beginnings talked with Ragira shortly after the draft. A shout out to Austin Wilson for helping us book that.
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Category: '10 Meet the Player |
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Tags: Brian Ragira, Stanford, Texas Rangers
By John Klima
July 18, 2010
Right-hander Nick Kingham is part of the Pittsburgh Pirates draft of 2010 which, for the Pirates, might be best remembered as the year of the right-handed high school starting pitcher. After drafting Taillon and Allie in the first and second rounds, the Pirates missed on A.J. Cole, then went to Kingham, who pitched his way into a ride to Oregon and onto the national radar with a good spring that showed velocity and physicality more in tune with what you draft for in your major league starting right-handers. No matter which way Kingham goes, it’ll be because of the development over the past year. That was the main topic of our conversation for this Baseball Beginnings Q&A.
On a side note, Kingham is a funny kid. Nice guy. He became the second guy in the history of Beginnings (following Angelo Gumbs) to ask me to redo his shot. Kingham picked game face. I said, OK. But I reserve the right to harmlessly give him a hard time for it.
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Category: '10 Meet the Player |
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Tags: Nick Kingham, Oregon, Pittsburgh Pirates
By John Klima
June 28, 2010
I loved Colorado right-hander Kevin Gausman when I saw him pitch in summer 2009. Looking back at the scouting report, I loved his fastball movement and his arm speed. I saw a fastball-slider-change-up guy with a very live arm and a very loose body with physical projection. Gausman got a late start to the spring because he played one last season of high school basketball. When he made his first spring start in 2010, by Gausman’s own admission, he was behind schedule. National scouts came in and Gausman had a bad day. He spent the rest of the spring catching up, pitching away from his strengths.
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Category: '10 Meet the Player |
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Tags: Kevin Gausman, Los Angeles Dodgers, LSU
By John Klima
June 21, 2010
Angelo Gumbs 
will always remember the moment his family learned he that had been drafted by the New York Yankees. The story goes that a guy on the subway during the draft exalted aloud that the Yankees had taken a California kid in the second round. Gumbs, whose mother is Puerto Rican and has family in New York City, said his Aunt was on the subway when she heard the fan. Before she could ask the kid’s name, the fan said Angelo Gumbs aloud, and Gumbs’s poor Auntie almost fainted.
Baseball Beginnings had a chat with Gumbs for this exclusive Q&A. In the meantime, we’ll see if the Yankees can sign Gumbs, and if they get it done, what they do with him.
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Category: '10 Meet the Player, Baseball Beginnings Exclusives |
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Tags: Angelo Gumbs, New York Yankees
By John Klima
June 20, 2010
When I bumped into Rico Noel of Coastal Carolina in the Cape Cod League in 2009, I was struck by his own convictions about how determined he was to use his strengths. Admittedly not a big guy in a big man’s game, that didn’t faze Noel one bit. He had immense faith in his athletic ability, defense, ability to put the ball in play, and especially in his speed. Noel firmly believed that if he could put the ball in play, he could run you .300 as a pro, catch anything near him, and steal a ton of bases.
What he did in his final college season proved that Noel stayed true to that vision. He finished up the 2010 season with a .349 average, 56 stolen bases, and only three errors. The speed and the defense talked, and the Padres picked Noel in the fifth round. In a draft where the Padres went heavy on college middle infielders – looking for speed, defense, contact ability and athleticism – Noel’s natural tools should give him a chance to get out in front. We’ll look forward to catching up with the Oklahoma native again when he gets to the California League down the road.
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Category: '10 Meet the Player |
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Tags: Coastal Carolina, Rico Noel, San Diego Padres
By John Klima
June 14, 2010
When I first saw Ryan LaMarre in summer 2009 on the Cape on an otherwise windy and cold day in Wareham, I liked his BP swing. At the time, I wasn’t sure how scouts would feel about him. I knew I liked him, but I couldn’t quite tell where he was along the developmental process. It’s hard based on one look and the first and only time you see a player. When you do this kind of work, what the player has done in the past, statistically, is not as important as how he projects with a wood bat in his hands.
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Category: '10 Meet the Player |
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Tags: Cincinnati Reds, Michigan, Ryan LaMarre
By John Klima
June 4, 2010
Pierre LePage knows the story – people say he’s a small guy with big dreams. Well, hitting .336 with wood on the Cape helps that, as does running better than most right-handed batters, as does providing the middle infield glue of a talented Connecticut team. He’ll be drafted and he will have earned his shot. LePage, for me, is a player playing in the wrong era. Back before the TV era, the second basemen were always LePage’s size, about 5-7. The things LePage does well today were highly valued back then – speed, defense, infield captaining, contact hitting, hustling. I’d like to think that some team somewhere gives the guy a chance to be what he is, even if he might be a baseball time traveler.
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Category: '10 Meet the Player |
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Tags: Pierre LePage, UCONN
By John Klima
June 3, 2010
Jake Thompson is a free spirit with a big arm and a competitive streak. He’s had his ups-and-downs and has had to pitch his way out of a reputation as an immature kid who left high school a year early to go to Long Beach State. Maybe it’s the California in me, but I get Thompson. Maybe it’s the baseball guy in me, but I get the difference between a loose guy off the field and a warrior on it. I bet there are some teams who don’t get him and who are scared. I say the guy has a big arm. Would you like a choir angel who throws 87? There are plenty of those around.
It doesn’t mean that Thompson is the finished product, and I’d like to see him become more consistent. I’m not afraid to say that and I’m sure the guy would respect me for saying so. Hey look, big arms are hard to come by. So are guys who don’t need to be coddled. Some guys need a push. But I’d rather have the guy who needs a push than the guy who looks like a dear in headlights. The guy who has needed the push usually learns that he’s got to do it for himself. The guy who is scared usually stays scared. That’s just my experience speaking.
Some guys grow up at different paces. When it comes down it, the arm and the stuff are there. Baseball Beginnings grabbed a piece of the pine with Thompson recently and did this Q&A.
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Category: '10 Meet the Player |
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Tags: Jake Thompson, Long Beach State
By John Klima
June 1, 2010
The first time I saw Aaron Jones play was at the Academy workout in Compton. At the time, I really thought he threw as well as anyone else there at the position. I checked in on him twice during the high school season once I knew that there had been cross-checkers in to see him during the April tournaments.
What I saw was a big, durable athlete with right-handed power potential. What I later learned was that he was a two-sport guy, and that his football position, free safety, means the guy is an athlete. I’m not sure where every scout in the world stands on Jones, but I think he has right-handed power potential and I think he can catch, throw and run very well. I should see him again with wood and we’ll check back on his progress in the future. In the meantime, here’s our quick Q&A we got in on the way out of the yard.
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Category: '10 Meet the Player |
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Tags: Aaron Jones
