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
May 2, 2010
Rico Noel has a nice offensive foundation, can run and play defense. This is the kind of guy who has better tools than he gets credit for. I’m willing to bet the guy has been told he’s too short at every level. Well, you can’t take away tools. I liked his overall skill set, still do, and he’s going to be a very solid draft pick in 2010.
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Category: '10 Videos |
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Tags: Coastal Carolina, Rico Noel
By John Klima
February 7, 2010
Rico Noel and I had an interesting talk last summer, discussing the increasing value on speed and defense at the major league level. As a player who grew up watching the steroid era, Noel was pleased that his skills were coming back into favor. That’s good, because like a lot of middle infielders we have scouted on this site, Noel isn’t going to be the eye-pleasing 6-5 guy. Height is the most overrated aspect of player development, pure and simple. Noel is going to give himself a chance to succeed because he will be able to run, bunt, put the ball in play, play multiple infield positions, and defend. He’ll need some polish as he improves, but from a pure scouting point of view, I’d have no problem turning this guy in because I know good minor league instructors can make a big leaguer out of him.
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Category: '10 Scouting Reports |
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Tags: Coastal Carolina, Rico Noel
By John Klima
September 30, 2009
Moving onto infielders, this list is mostly drawn from the clubs Baseball Beginnings had a look at on the Cape. As we stated in our high school lists for pitchers, infielders, outfielders and catchers, and our college list of pitchers, our college lists are not meant to be taken as definitive this early in the process. As Letterman used to say, please, no wagering in the audience (unless you’re an agent or a team).
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Category: 2010 Draft |
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Tags: Brian Guinn, Chris Bisson, Derek Dietrich, Hunter Morris, Jaren Matthews, Jedd Gyorko, Joe Loftus, Josh Rutledge, Kevin Patterson, Mark Canha, Mickey Wiswall, Mike Olt, Phil Gosselin, Rico Noel, Tim Ferguson, Tom Belza
