Baseball Beginnings

John Klima | August 26, 2009

And the winner is the Oregon Ducks. Jack Marder was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 30th round. He figured the chances of signing were remote, so he said he wasn’t surprised or frustrated to play college baseball for Oregon. College baseball is a good fit for a player like Marder, whose best tool is the bat.

He played in three games at the National Baseball Congress World Series and went 7-for-14 playing for Conejo Oaks of the California Collegiate League. In 33 games and 120 at-bats, facing college pitchers while he was only a few weeks removed from high school, Marder wasn’t one of these guys who let the bat swing him. He hit .375 (45-for-120) with eight doubles, two triples and 27 RBIs. He stole 11 bases in 12 attempts. This is a guy who won’t be confused with Jimmy Rollins (or Vince Coleman if you’d like to go retro), but Marder has this solid history of being a better offensive weapon than his tools say he should be.

After the jump, you can have a look at Marder swinging the bat this summer for Conejo Oaks.

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Category: '11 Videos, 2009 Draft | No Comments »
Tags: Arizona Diamondbacks, Jack Marder, University of Oregon

John Klima | June 9, 2009

Jake Marisnick is Southern California’s most athletic prospect. This video will give you a great idea of why people are so high on Marisnick. He can stay in center fielder and he can throw and run. The scouts who love him believe he will have 20-home run power because his hands are so fast. Here, you’ll see all you need to see: the swing, getting down the line, base running, starting and stopping and throwing. He has a major league body that has yet to fill out and way above-average athletic actions. 

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Read Jake Marisnick Q&A
Read Jake Marisnick signs
Read Jake Marisnick Catchup
Read Jake Marisnick Scouting report
Watch Matt Hobgood vs. Jake Marisnick Video
Hobgood vs. Marisnick game
Jake Marisnick Drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays

Category: '09 Videos | No Comments »
Tags: Jake Marisnick, University of Oregon

John Klima | June 1, 2009

Tyler Matzek is expected to pitch Tuesday at Blair Field in Long Beach against Riverside Poly and Jake Marisnick. This is our second installment of Matzek video and we think it’s clear to see that Matzek looked better at the end of May than he did at the start of April. In his previous outing, Matzek hit 97 mph and impressed scouts with his curveball. Many said it was the best stuff they had seen from him all season.

 

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Read Matzek’s first interview after he signs with Rockies
Read Tyler Matzek Q&A
Matzek hits 97
Watch Tyler Matzek April Scouting video
Read Tyler Matzek Scouting report
Matzek Makes Final Start One to Savor
Colorado Rockies Select Tyler Matzek

Category: '09 Videos | No Comments »
Tags: Jake Marisnick, Tyler Matzek, University of Oregon

John Klima | May 27, 2009

Tyler Matzek’s outing Tuesday night resulted in a consensus opinion among attending scouts that the Capistrano Valley High left-hander’s stuff was the sharpest it has been this season. His first two pitches of the game were at 94 mph. By the second inning, he was hitting 97 a few times. This was the best breaking ball he has had and his cutters to right-handed hitters were hard and down. He pitched six innings, struck out seven and gave up three metal-bat singles in a playoff game victory.

Baseball Beginnings first caught up with Matzek in early April. At that time, some scouts grumbled that he hadn’t been very good early in the spring. He never fell off the charts and was going to go good either way, but he helped himself Tuesday. We caught up with him after the game for a follow-up Q&A to our earlier effort.

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Category: '09 Meet the Player | 1 Comment »
Tags: Tyler Matzek, University of Oregon

John Klima | May 10, 2009

We close out this busy week with the final installment of Jack Marder video. If he gets to you, Oregon fans, you’ll love him.

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Read Jack Marder Q&A
Read Diamondbacks or Ducks
Read Jack Marder Scouting report
Watch Jack Marder Scouting video
Jack Marder Drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks
Read Andrew Lambo Q&A

Category: '09 Videos | No Comments »
Tags: Jack Marder, University of Oregon

John Klima | May 6, 2009

Jack Marder is the best high school hitter you’ve never heard of. You wouldn’t find his name on any of the major pre-season lists. He wasn’t one of the 2009 glamour boys in Southern California, but if you watch his swing and know what you’re looking for, it’s hard to miss.

Marder knows what your scouting report is going to say. Scouts will downgrade him because he’s not the flashiest athlete, but he’s also got enough athleticism. He’s not the rangiest defender, but he’ll position himself before the pitch because his feet always move. He’s not going to wow with his arm strength, but he’s going to get rid of it quickly and be accurate. He won’t be an Olympic sprinter but he’ll pick apart a pitcher with a slow release to steal bases and always go first to third.

All of these aspects are the mental parts of the game. You can be the smartest player in the world, but to play in the big leagues, you have to be able to hit.

Marder is from Newbury Park High School, along the Conejo Grade in Ventura County, where hitting genetics seem to reside in the local gene pools. He played with Newbury Park’s Andrew Lambo in high school and with Matt Dominguez and Mike Moustakas on the 1927 Yankees of club teams a few years back. He is two years younger than the former first round picks in 2007.

Marder is committed to play Pac-10 baseball at the University of Oregon if he doesn’t sign out of high school. What we have here is an average-sized ballplayer who can hit, the kind of player that an inexperienced area scout might dismiss as a good high school player who will be a great college player but never amount to a thing in pro ball, much less sniff the big leagues.

Go ahead. They said the same thing about Dustin Pedroia. Those guys aren’t in baseball today. (more…)

Category: '09 Meet the Player | No Comments »
Tags: Dustin Pedroia, Jack Marder, Jack Wilson, Matt Dominguez, Mike Moustakas, University of Oregon, Willie Mays

John Klima | May 4, 2009

Considered the top high school left-handed starting pitching available in the 2009 draft, Tyler Matzek is ready to see what happens next. At this stage of the spring, most high school pitchers getting ready for the draft are pitching more to show they are healthy than to simply light-up radar guns. 

Yet at the same time, the prospects have to make the guns happy. The end result is that their high school games become glorified bullpen sessions. That reality might be tough to fathom for readers outside of professional baseball, but at this point, these games are more job interviews than anything else.

The window from amateurs to the big leagues narrows every year. For a left-hander considered very desirable for raw power and stuff, Matzek is balancing the desire to pitch for outs with the need to throw hard and maintain his draft status.

Baseball Beginnings caught up with Matzek after a recent start. The Capistrano Valley High and University of Oregon recuit discussed what it is like to experience struggle when dominating has been routine, how to pitch to win when scouts only want to see pure gas, and what happens when high school umpires get in the way of auditioning. At the big league level, pitching coaches want command, control and movement. Before the draft, light it up, please.

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Category: '09 Meet the Player | No Comments »
Tags: Tyler Matzek, University of Oregon