LOS ANGELES — In a distinct and somewhat dispiriting contrast to recent years, the Southern California high school draft class of 2010 offers scant quality in lefthanded pitching—with one notable exception.

SoCal lefties from recent drafts include Tyler Matzek and Tyler Skaggs in 2009; Mike Montgomery, Edgar Olmos and John Lamb in 2008, and the recently-retired Danny Duffy in 2007.

No doubt the premier lefty in the area in 2010 is Griffin Murphy, a 6-foot-3, 200-pounder from Redlands East Valley High in Mentone, Calif. In front of an attentive crowd of 50 scouts on Thursday, March 25, Murphy and REV faced off against Rancho Cucamonga High and their ace, righthander Austin Reed.

It was, to borrow a legal phrase, nolo contendere. Murphy breezed through six scoreless innings, efficiently mowing down the Rancho hitters while notching six strikeouts.

Murphy, whose strong, mature frame resembles that of Joe Saunders, delivers a fastball which ranges from 89-92 mph as well as a sweeping 75 mph curveball. Like a yo-yo master, Murphy can “do tricks” with his fastball: run it in, run it away, sink it, turn it over.
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LOS ANGELES — Cody Buckel of Royal High School in Simi Valley, Calif., threw a 7-inning, complete-game no-hitter in a Wednesday afternoon contest at Westlake High of Westlake Village, Calif.

A righthander, Buckel is ranked No. 38 on Baseball America’s list of Top 100 high school prospects for the 2010 draft. Approximately 60 scouts watched as Buckel came within one solitary walk of a perfect game.

Christian Yelich, ranked No. 50 on the list, provided Buckel’s foremost obstacle in the Westlake lineup. Possessor of one the sweetest prep swings in the nation, Yelich entered the game hitting a robust .625 on the season.

Batting in the leadoff spot, Yelich barely missed squaring up a 94 mph Buckel fastball in the first inning, instead hitting a towering fly to left field. In the fourth inning, Yelich dribbled a soft grounder to second base and was tossed out.

Understanding that the lefthanded hitting Yelich was the primary threat to his no-hitter, Buckel engaged him in an epic battle with one on and two out in the sixth inning.
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Although he's had a few rough outings recently, No. 1 prospect Jameson Taillon from The Woodlands (Texas) High righted the ship in a hurry last night by firing a no-hitter against Conroe (Texas) High in a 7-0 victory. The 6-foot-7, 230-pound righthander struck out 19 batters and walked only one over seven innings.

"It was a tremendous performance by the young man," The Woodlands head coach Ron Eastman said. "He was on top of his game. He made some minor adjustments this week in the bullpen and was back on his game. He was pretty dominant last night . . . He was down in the strike zone and he had his breaking stuff working. The big thing was he was getting ahead in the count, which the last two times out he was pitching behind in the count. He was ahead in the count last night and was mixing in his slider and curveball reall well."

Eastman said the minor adjustments were to Taillon's posture and the 19 strikeouts tied a school record held by Kyle Drabek.

Taillon said the no-hitter was the first he can remember since he was a little kid.

He said the difference between this start and his last few where he's been hit around was with his  fastball command. In his last couple starts, Taillon  said he wasn't using his height to his advantage and wasn't getting good extension, so his fastballs were flattening out. Yesterday, he extended his stride and threw mostly two-seam fastballs, working to stay down in the zone early in the count and then get strikeouts by going hard up and in or soft down and away.

LOS ANGELES — The 2010 spring high school baseball season in Southern California is both unusual and convenient. A large number of high-profile matchups featuring top prospects have and will be played, providing grateful scouts the rare opportunity to watch top draft hopefuls compete directly against each other.

This past week I took in a sampling of such games, all featuring players scattered throughout BA’s top 100 high school prospect rankings, including:

Thursday, March 18: Scott Frazier (Upland HS) vs. Jake Hernandez (Los Osos HS):

Rumors and gossip spread through the scouting community like a stomach flu on a cruise ship. Recent “buzz” in Southern California has centered on Scott Frazier, a 6-foot-6, 200-pound righthanded pitcher from Upland High School. In a recent overpowering start, Frazier tossed an 18-strikeout no-hitter.

That performance helped draw 50 scouts to Frazier’s outing on Thursday against Los Osos HS of Rancho Cucamonga, which features top-notch catching prospect Jake Hernandez.

In the first two innings of this contest, Frazier was devastating. He fanned the leadoff hitter with a changeup, whiffed the next batter with a curve, and finally struck out Hernandez on a fastball. In the second frame, Frazier added two K's sandwiched around a weak ground out.

Frazier’s raw stuff is wicked. Early on, his fastball sat at 93-94 mph. Frazier adds a knee buckling 74-75 curveball, and he mixes in his 80 mph change at unexpected moments.
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Here are the weekend stats for the nation's top college players, listed alphabetically by school, as collected by collegesplits.com. An asterisk denotes a player is a draft-eligible underclassman. You can follow College Splits on Twitter too, @collegesplits [...] Continue Reading »

Barbe High (Lake Charles, La.) shortstop Garin Cecchini, who ranks No. 14 in the Baseball America Top 100, injured his right knee on Saturday, March 13 and will have surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament on March 19. Dr. James Andrews will conduct the surgery at his office in Gulf Breeze, Fla.

It is not yet known how severe the tear is or how much time he could miss. If it is a full tear of the ACL, he could miss six months.

"He's such a high-profile kid, so we've been having every Tom, Dick and Harry coming in and we started getting calls and stuff about, 'Is hurt, what's up with him?'," Garin's mother and Barbe assistant coach Raissa Cecchini said. "So, we took it upon ourselves to bring him to the doctor. He has no swelling, it doesn't hurt him, he just has a little stiffness on the right side, in the back where that tendon is. We decided, you know we're going to have to get a clean bill of health anyway, so we took him in and they said they think he has a torn ACL."

Cecchini was going back to first base on a pickoff attempt when he hyper-extended his knee. That was in the first game of a double-header. He played designated hitter in the second game and hit a home run, a double, walked twice and stole two bases.

Update (March 19): Cecchini's surgery went well this morning and the only damage was indeed the tear to his ACL. Dr. James Andrews performed the surgery using part of Garin's patellar tendon and the whole procedure took about a half hour.

Cecchini's mother, Raissa, said Garin was in good spirits after the surgery.

"He's doing good," Raissa said. "He said, 'I'm just going to work and work hard and try and get myself back to where I was.' It's funny, he said, 'Well, I'm going to sit in the chair and hit one-handed drills, I'm going to throw in the cages sitting in the chair. I'm going to do my therapy and I'm going to get stronger lifting upper body and my abs and when the doctor says I can swim again, I'm going to swim again.' It's going to make him a stronger person and make him appreciate baseball a little more."

Cecchini begins physical therapy tomorrow, March 20. Although recovery times vary from person to person, the plan is for Garin to be on cruches for about 10 days and in the knee brace for four weeks and he can start running in about 14 weeks.

Here are the weekend stats for the nation's top college players, listed alphabetically by school, as collected by collegesplits.com. An asterisk denotes a player is a draft-eligible underclassman. You can follow College Splits on Twitter too, @collegesplits [...] Continue Reading »

LOS ANGELES — Righthanded pitcher Taijuan Walker of Yucaipa (Calif.) High, one of the best athletes in the 2010 prep draft class, made his first start of the season on the afternoon of March 9.

Yucaipa traveled almost 100 miles to take on Palos Verdes (Calif.) High, located in an affluent neighborhood about 14 miles south of L.A. International airport. PV’s baseball field is situated on a plateau that offers a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean. Commented one scout: “You don’t get this kind of view at most ballparks!”

On Tuesday afternoon, the PV ballpark felt more like Candlestick Park. The 50 scouts on hand were blasted by a cold and harsh wind that rattled teeth, nerves and the wooden bleachers.

Walker was as chilly as the breeze. Battling control and mechanical problems, he departed in the third inning in a game won by PV, 15-4. Despite his struggles, Walker’s raw stuff was excellent. His fastball ranged from 89-91 mph, peaking at 92. Walker has touched 93-94 in showcase events. The 6-foot-5, 200-pound righty adds a 76 mph curve and an 82 mph slider.
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LOS ANGELES—On a cold and windy Monday night, outfielder Cory Hahn of Mater Dei High (Santa Ana, Calif.) drew a rapt audience of approximately 40 scouts. Hahn, ranked No. 72 on Baseball America's list of Top 100 high school prospects for the June 2010 draft, flashed outstanding all-around ability but struggled at the plate in a contest against Bishop Amat High (La Puente, Calif.). [...] Continue Reading »

PASADENA, Calif.— Righthander Dylan Covey of Maranatha High School in Pasadena, Calif. enjoyed a sensational start to his 2010 spring season, recording 12 of 15 outs via strikeout in a game Friday night against Newbury Park High.

Covey, an Area Code Games participant and Aflac All-American, is ranked No. 4 on Baseball America's top 100 list of high school prospects for the June 2010 draft. Covey struck out the side in the first, second, third and fifth innings. Overall, in five innings of work, Covey allowed two unearned runs, walked one, hit a batter and allowed only one base hit. He departed after the top of the fifth inning with MHS leading, 3-2. Newbury Park eventually won the game, 6-3.

Friday night’s contest was played at scenic but aged Jackie Robinson Field, nestled within Brookside Park in Pasadena, only a few hundred yards from the Rose Bowl. To state it bluntly, Robinson Field needs updating. Observed one scout, “They could use a few more bulbs in those lights."

Covey’s pre-game bullpen warm-up session was a harbinger. Under a canopy of ancient, craggy eucalyptus trees, approximately 60 scouts watched as Covey pumped pitch after pitch into his catcher’s well-worn mitt. “Atta boy, get in a rhythm,” advised Covey’s pitching coach. “Drop it right in the hole."
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Here are the weekend stats for the nation's top college players, listed alphabetically by school, as collected by collegesplits.com. An asterisk denotes a player is a draft-eligible underclassman. You can follow College Splits on Twitter too, @collegesplits [...] Continue Reading »

East Valley High (Redlands, Calif.) righthander Tyler Shreve—who ranks No. 60 on our Top 100—was kicked off his high school baseball team on Feb. 24, according to Jesse B. Gill of The Sun newspaper in San Bernadino, Calif.

That's the least of his problems right now, though.

After hearing the news that he was kicked off his team, Shreve allegedly wrestled his coach, James Cordes, to the ground and tried to punch him before being pulled away by his father.
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Here are the weekend stats for the nation's top college players, listed alphabetically by school, as collected by collegesplits.com. An asterisk denotes a player is a draft-eligible underclassman. You can follow College Splits on Twitter too, @collegesplits [...] Continue Reading »