John Klima | January 1, 2010
Right-hander Matt Hobgood hasn’t spent the winter sitting on the couch watching Norco High graduate Toby Gerhart of Stanford make a run at the Heisman Trophy. Instead, Hobgood committed himself to a new off-season workout routine that he believes will help him progress as a new professional. Today Baseball Beginnings presents the conclusion of our exclusive Matt Hobgood interview.
John Klima | December 31, 2009
Matt Hobgood recently turned 19, a few months removed from his professional debut after the Baltimore Orioles made the Norco (Calif.) right-hander the team’s no. 1 pick and the 5th overall selection in the 2009 MLB Draft. Hobgood, who signed for $2.5 million with a “22” mixed into the tail of that contract to reflect his favorite number, went to rookie ball where he is well aware that many observers expressed concern about results and diminished velocity.
Hobgood has always pitched with a chip on his shoulder. As an amateur, he believed he belonged in the same company as the other power arm starting pitchers in his draft class. He has heard the comments that his body is too big to allow for success over a long career. In all our conversations with Hobgood, he has made it a point to express his differing opinion.
Baseball Beginnings caught up with Hobgood recently, moments after the right-hander finished a winter workout. What we found was a young pitcher who recognizes that he wasn’t lights out in Bluefield, but on the other side of the coin, Bluefield is rookie ball for a reason.
John Klima | June 26, 2009
The Baltimore Orioles are expected to announce the signing of right-hander Matt Hobgood Saturday at a press conference at Camden Yards pending the completion of a physical, Baseball Beginnings has confirmed. Hobgood, the club’s first overall pick in the 2009 draft, was the first high school right-hander selected.
Watch Matt Hobgood Scouting video
Read Matt Hobgood Q&A
Read Matt Hobgood Scouting report
Catching up with Matt Hobgood
Watch Matt Hobgood vs. Jake Marisnick Video
John Klima | June 12, 2009
Matt Hobgood’s selection as the fifth overall pick in the 2009 draft by the Orioles sparked mixed emotions in Baltimore, where some fans felt the pick was made on 
convenience and signability.
Baseball Beginnings covered Hobgood this spring more extensively than any other national source. Here in Southern California, the consensus was that Hobgood was not going to get out of the first 10 picks.
For example, when I spoke to the Angels a week before the draft and asked if he would be there for them at 24 and 25, the answer I got was “not a chance.” Mock drafts had him going anywhere from 15 to 70. But Orioles scouting director Joe Jordan decided that if Seattle took Dustin Ackley with the second pick, he was going to draft a staff anchor from the right side to complement 2008’s No.1 pick, left-hander Brian Matusz. Matt Wieters, another Jordan pick, will be waiting to catch.
Jordan is going back to basics. Back in the Jim Palmer-Mike Cuellar-Dave McNally days, Baltimore was always built on pitching first.
Hobgood’s stock rose this spring because he never dropped off. He has shown in several starts the ability to pitch at 93-95 for strikes late in the game. He also has a power curveball and the makings of a change-up and a cutter. The Orioles view him as a hard-thrower with a good mechanical foundation, a great make-up, and project him as a front-end starter on a contending team.
Baseball Beginnings asked Hobgood how he would introduce himself to Baltimore fans. (more…)
John Klima | June 9, 2009
Here is video from Matt Hobgood’s bullpen session last week at Camden Yards. The Orioles selected the Gatorade National High School Player of the Year with the fifth overall pick. Hobgood is a durable right-hander who should project as a front-end starter for a contending team. We covered Hobgood extensively this season. In Southern California, Hobgood’s durability and competitive nature matched his fastball, which he can pitch with at 94 mph. I’ve seen him touch 95 and 96 mph and have a curveball with tight rotation. He’s got the workings of a change that he has thrown with a splitter grip and a cutter.
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Read Matt Hobgood Q&A
Watch Matt Hobgood Scouting video
Read Matt Hobgood Scouting report
Watch Matt Hobgood vs. Jake Marisnick Video
Catching up with Matt Hobgood
John Klima | June 8, 2009
Who will be the first High School right-hander chosen in the 2009 Draft? It’s difficult to tell, but one solid candidate is Norco (Calif.) Matt Hobgood, a hard-throwing right-hander who was his state’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
Hobgood has a lot going for him. For starters, he is about as clean mechanically as you can find for a high school power pitcher. A lack of arm extension is the root of all evil, and while we don’t claim to be pitching coaches, we know enough to say that the kid who can get on top of the ball with some regularity before he signs has a better chance of surviving the rigors of pro ball than the slingers.
That’s one of Hobgood’s selling points and can be seen in the still photo and in his video, especially in the last sequence. Hobgood is known for getting better and throwing harder later in the game and his durability defies his body type. He’s a better athlete than it looks and still reminds me of Matt Cain.
Hobgood’s pitching charts read like a typical summer week in the Inland Empire, ranging from 90 to 95. His curveball has the makings of a power piece. On the mound, he’s a Dr. Frankenstein, playing around with a split-change grip or the occasional cutter.
The good scouts, those who put down the guns and the cards long enough to watch the individual, know that Hobgood is a competitor. Among the elite players in his area, he’s known as a fire-breather. For some teams, this is something they like, but you never got the feeling Hobgood was pitching for the guns. He was pitching for his teams first and the guns could come along for the ride.
Follow the page jump to watch Hobgood video and read his Q&A, scouting report and other content.
John Klima | June 2, 2009
Back in Arkansas, there was a high school center fielder who could run, field and throw. The kid was certain he could hit. At the time, some scouts agreed with him and some scouts didn’t. He signed as a mid-first rounder and hit .190 with no home runs and six errors in rookie ball.
Torii Hunter now has one more Gold Glove Award (seven) than the six years it took him to reach the big leagues. All those offensive struggles early in his career are a distant memory.
Jake Marisnick is about to embark on a similar path that he hopes will take him to similar heights. He is another skinny centerfielder gifted with above-average speed, throwing and fielding skills, the tools Marisnick accurately describes as the “tools you can’t take away and can’t teach.”
After a strong summer against good pitching, coming back to metal bats and high school pitching felt like slow motion. Marisnick began the season in a slump, trying to find his mechanics. He didn’t hit in March and early April. Some of the national scouts who came to see him against Norco’s Matt Hobgood bailed on him when the hard-throwing Hobgood controlled those outings.
One AL cross-checker believes that downgrading Marisnick because he didn’t hit Hobgood in two games when the right-hander had arguably his best stuff of an award-winning season is a bad call. “His hands are too fast not to hit,” the scout opined.
Marisnick’s advisor is Larry Reynolds, Torri Hunter’s longtime agent. As a fringe benefit of being a center fielder, Marisnick found a role model in both tools and persona. He takes pride in his defense, which always seems to be innate with the rare natural center fielders.
The day before Marisnick and Riverside Poly faced left-hander Tyler Matzek and Capistrano Valley in a Division I semifinal, Baseball Beginnings caught up with Marisnick to discuss the season, the future, and Hunter’s advice to the young center fielder whose growing pains are not unique.
John Klima | May 29, 2009
(photo: Baseball Beginnings)
Right-hander Matt Hobgood’s final high school start before the 2009 MLB draft wasn’t the conclusion that the Norco (Calif.) pitcher and probable first-round pick envisioned. On the other hand, when a bad day constitutes reaching 95 mph and throwing the occasional hard 12-6 curveball at 75 for strikes, the game may be lost but the prospect status is not.
John Klima | May 25, 2009
(photo: Baseball Beginnings)
Trayce Thompson has basketball genes but baseball in his blood. His Dad, Mychal, was Mr. 1/1 (First pick, First round) of the 1978 NBA draft and enjoyed a long and productive career. Two of Trayce’s older brothers are Division I college basketball players. And even though Trayce grew up with Clyde Drexler coming over from a few doors down to try to get Mycheal off the couch and go to the gym with him, he still had baseball in his mind when he was out shooting with another friendly visitor, Uncle Chuck Barkley.
Here at Baseball Beginnings, we like guys who have played multiple sports prior to signing. It’s really a sentiment from Old World scouting, where the belief was that no sport requires more fine motor skills than baseball. So if you take a guy who knows how to move his feet and his hands, you got yourself an athlete. It worked for Goose Tatum, a stud member of the old Harlem Globetrotters and a pretty good baseball player in his own right.
Some of the baseball players with other sports in their pasts who we’ve covered leading up to the 2009 draft are Bonita HS shortstop Jiovanni Mier, a soccer player, and Loyola Marymount first baseman Ryan Wheeler, who used to play basketball with North Carolina’s Deon Thompson in high school. Willie Mays played everything in high school, so did Reggie Jackson. Gary Carter was a prep quarterback. John Elway, you know his deal.
In the showcase and specialization age, the multi-sport baseball player is largely a thing of the past, but a player like Thompson shows why different athletic experiences before going into baseball fulltime still has its advantages. That’s the view here, which probably runs contrary to a lot of opinions in the amateur baseball field.
At this time last year, Thompson said he was just trying to get a Division I school to take him, but athleticism helps a player come quickly into baseball. His ride is at UCLA, but signs indicate that the draft will never let him get there. Baseball Beginnings caught up with Thompson and talked about his basketball past and his baseball future.
John Klima | April 25, 2009
First rounder vs. first rounder is a tradition here at Baseball Beginnings. The video here follows the report I filed live on April 23 when Marisnick and Riverside Poly visited Norco and Hobgood. To sum it up, Hobgood hit Marisnick on the forearm in the first at-bat. Marisnick struck out in his second at-bat against an above-average breaking ball, and then singled on a hanging breaking ball in the third at-bat.
You could jot your scouting notes down on the inside of a matchbook cover. Hobgood: above-average fastball and curveball, workhorse, should be mainstay on a contendor. Marisnick: above-average runner, thrower and fielder right now. Graceful athlete, a lot of potential in front of him.
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Read Matt Hobgood Q&A
Watch Matt Hobgood Scouting video
Read Matt Hobgood Scouting report
Watch Matt Hobgood’s Camden Yards bullpen session
Catching up with Matt Hobgood
Read Jake Marisnick Q&A
Read Jake Marisnick signs
Read Jake Marisnick Catchup
Watch Jake Marisnick Scouting video
Read Jake Marisnick Scouting report
Hobgood vs. Marisnick game
Jake Marisnick Drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays
