Scouting Report: Angelo Songco, OF, Loyola Marymount (2009 Draft)
By John Klima
May 23, 2009
(photo: Baseball Beginnings)
Angelo Songco, OF
Loyola Marymount (2009 Draft)
6-2, 190
Bats: Left, Throws: Right
Games seen: 2, Innings: 18
Baseball Beginnings
Scouting professional prospects and identifying future major leaguers
Scouting video: Angelo Songco, OF, LMU (2009 Draft)
By John Klima
May 23, 2009
Here’s a few clean looks at Songco’s swing. The ball he pulls early in the clip was a home run down the RF line at LMU.
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Read Angelo Songco Q&A
Read Angelo Songco report
Angelo Songco Drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers
Catching up with Angelo Songco
Q&A with Angelo Songco, OF, Loyola Marymount (2009 Draft)
By John Klima
May 22, 2009
(photo: Baseball Beginnings)
Back in the day (2007 to be exact), Angelo Songco was the other freshman hauling the BP bucket through airport security. His Loyola Marymount teammate, Ryan Wheeler, was the guy with the bag full of batting helmets. In a few years, both guys might be making enough to pay someone to carry their stuff for them. And let’s face it, if you play in the big leagues, you have nicer stuff than the rest of us working class honks.
But they have to get to the big leagues first.
Songco is the kind of power hitter a lot of scouts tend to like. What does it for the scouts is a swing that allows him to rip balls to the opposite field as well as pull balls. They like it when he gets his arms extended. It’s a classic kind of swing extension, and if you miss it, you can see his swinging silhouette on the T-shirts his family wears around the ballpark. On the trail this spring, I can tell you that I overheard a lot of guys liking him.
Baseball Beginnings caught up with him for a Q&A, with a special cameo appearance by teammate Ryan Wheeler, who helped us size up Songco’s hands. (more…)
Scouting Report: Ryan Wheeler, 1B, LMU (2009 Draft)
By John Klima
May 19, 2009
(photo: Baseball Beginnings)
Ryan Wheeler, 1B
Loyola Marymount University
Bats: Left
Throws: Right
Games seen: 2; Innings: 18 (Also saw as HS player)
Scouting Video: Ryan Wheeler, 1B, LMU (2009 Draft)
By John Klima
May 19, 2009
Shopping list for team drafting for what they would term definite first base prospects: Quick hands, ability to generate power, drive ball to all fields, physically durable, preferably a good athlete, someone who isn’t a hack with a glove.
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Read Ryan Wheeler Scouting Report
Read about Ryan Wheeler in the Cape Cod League
Ryan Wheeler Drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks
Catching up with Ryan Wheeler
Q&A with Ryan Wheeler, 1B, Loyola Marymount (2009 Draft)
By John Klima
May 18, 2009
(photo: Baseball Beginnings)
Ryan Wheeler is that one rare guy the head coach of a Division I college baseball team would probably trust enough to give him a key to the batting cage. This is always a funny moment and it goes something like this: Coach gives kid key. Coach tells kid not to tell anyone else. Coach makes sure nobody saw it. This conversation never existed.
Unlocking the key to his own swing has been at the core of Wheeler-Gate at Loyola Marymount, where the left-handed first baseman used a good sophomore season and a better summer in the Cape Cod League to grow beyond his days as a high school non-prospect.
Wheeler wasn’t drafted out of Torrance High School in 2006 because he spent more time drilling jumpers in an empty gym than he spent hitting liners in the batting cage. By his own admission, he came into his high school baseball seasons in basketball shape, but his legs were faster than his bat.
Most players of this stature are not drafted out of high school because scouts consider them impossible to sign based on college commitments and would rather spend the pick on a player they can send out to the minors.
Those were not Wheeler’s circumstances. He was simply discarded because he was too far behind other high school players. But a kid can catch up if the ability is actually there. Wheeler is a textbook example of why experience matters in scouting and why impatient, quick-to-judgment scouting can make you miss players.
Wheeler wasn’t ready to sign, but he was probably worth somebody’s 30th round pick. Instead, Wheeler never filled out a follow card. What he showed was, in his own words, a slow guy who could make contact but not drive the ball.
When he showed up as a last-minute roster addition in the Cape last summer, he showed the pull and straight-away power that he began to unlock as a sophomore. He was only two summers removed from being a player who was going to either have to be a junior college player or a recruited walk-on. Instead, we doubt he’ll get past the first 100 picks.
The player with the key to the batting cage has been found. Baseball Beginnings caught up with our old friend Wheeler, who one day might see his name in canvas on that chain link fence back home in Torrance. (more…)
