KNOXVILLE — Over 600 fans and about 40 scouts flocked to Farragut High's field Saturday night to see a highly anticipated matchup between Farragut and Science Hill High of Johnson City, Tenn. Starting for Science Hill was Daniel Norris, the top prep lefthander in the 2011 draft class. Norris features top-shelf stuff, but this game would be a big test as Farragut features a competitive lineup, including catcher Nicky Delmonico, who entered the year as one of the Top 50 2011 draft prospects.

Before the game and his bullpen session, Norris was long tossing from pole to pole, airing his throws out over the heads of the Farragut players as they took infield/outfield. In his bullpen warm-up, Norris does a typical routine, but also simulates facing batters.

"After I go through a series of pitches and work on some other stuff I'll go in and face a lefty and righty, just to focus getting in and getting out," he said. "Long toss is something I started this year. Usually I go to center field and back to the line, but I've been trying to go pole to pole lately. It gets my arm loose and feels good." [...] Continue Reading »

LOS ANGELES—Gerrit Cole's hat, with its reminders about breathing and taking a pitch-by-pitch approach scrawled under the brim, found its way into the trash barrel outside UCLA's locker room Friday night.

"I've got to try something, huh?" Cole explained. "I don't know."

In a two-minute, 40-second session with reporters after UCLA's 7-5 loss to Oregon State on Friday, Cole used that phrase—"I don't know"—three times. Three other times, he used the phrase, "I don't have a lot of answers."

Indeed, Cole's recent struggles are baffling.

There is nothing wrong with his stuff. Cole sat comfortably in the 95-97 mph range during his entire outing Friday, topping out at 98 a number of times. His 88-89 slider was vicous at times, and he got an early strikeout with an excellent 87 mph changeup, though he used the pitch sparingly Friday, as the Bruins focusing on establishing the fastball.

He has the best pure stuff in college baseball, and he has not been plagued by the lapse in control that affected him over a four- or five-game stretch a year ago. Cole has just 15 walks—three of them intentional—in 76 innings this spring.

Yet Cole, still one of the leading candidates to be drafted first overall in June, has surrendered 18 earned runs in his last 18 2/3 innings over his last three starts—all losses. He failed to hold a 5-1 lead Friday, giving up six runs in the fifth inning. He threw 110 pitches in just 4 1/3 innings, allowing seven runs on 10 hits and three walks to go along with five strikeouts.

"He's in a rut right now," UCLA coach John Savage said. "He's scuffling." [...] Continue Reading »

Buckingham Brown & Nichols School (Cambridge, Mass.) lefthander Andrew Chin, a Boston College commit, will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the rest of the season, Baseball America learned Thursday.

A 6-foot-1, 180-pound lefty, Chin went 7-0, 0.78 with 68 strikeouts in 45 innings for BB&N as a junior. But Chin hadn’t thrown much this year as he nursed the elbow injury, and there had been some speculation that Chin would need surgery. [...] Continue Reading »

After Taylor Guerrieri's start on April 20, I ventured north to Washington, D.C. to catch two of St. John's High's games. The Cadets have shortstop Nick Howard, a Virginia signee who also serves as the pitching staff's ace.

Howard has a big frame at 6-foot-3, 210 pounds. He moves fine for his size and is sure-handed, but will likely shift to a corner spot at the next level. He is a strong hitter and showed an ability to make contact consistently despite seeing a steady diet of offspeed stuff. [...] Continue Reading »

Here are the weekend stats for the nation's top draft-eligible college players, listed alphabetically by school. The stats were collected by CollegeSplits.com. Follow CollegeSplits on Twitter @collegesplits. The list of players was selected before the season to include this year's top college talent for the draft.

For years, Billy Flamion and his sister, Nicole, fought about who would earn the distinction of being the first member of their family to attend college. Despite being two years younger than his sister, Flamion never gave up on the idea.

Flamion caught a break when Nicole went to Modesto (Calif.) JC, which Flamion says doesn’t count. Now the Central Catholic High (Modesto, Calif.) center fielder/pitcher is committed to Oregon and is set to win this round of the sibling rivalry. That is, if Flamion gets past the little trouble of the MLB Draft.

Flamion, who played on Team USA's 14U team in 2007, caught the attention of scouts last summer in the Area Code Games and the Aflac All-American Game with his bat speed and lefthanded power. He is ranked 45th in the Midseason Top 50 draft prospects and is regarded as one of the best high school bats.

“I’m excited to see how it turns out,” Flamion said. “After the season we’ll see what happens and deal with that.”

In the meantime, Flamion is enjoying his final season as a true two-way player. He is Central Catholic’s ace and can reach the upper 80s with his fastball, but said at Oregon he will be, at most, a reliever. Should he enter professional baseball, he will almost certainly give up pitching, as he profiles best as an outfielder.

He also may not be giving up his status as a two-sport star. Flamion caught 33 passes for 705 yards and seven touchdowns last fall. He plans on attempting to walk on to the Oregon football team, though that likely wouldn’t happen until his sophomore year of college.
[...] Continue Reading »

Columbia, S.C.—With his first 13 pitches, righthander Taylor Guerrieri made the long trip worthwhile for the scouts in attendance.

In the first inning of his final regular season game for Spring Valley High, Guerrieri mowed down the first three batters he faced. He struck out the side with a fastball that sat between 93-96 mph and a wicked curveball in the 81-83 mph range. Those would be the only two weapons Guerrieri would need on the night, as Spring Valley rolled to a 7-1 victory over Lexington (S.C.) High.

"I felt good tonight," Guerrieri said. "I took a little bit off my fastball to help me locate it and prove to people I can throw the ball where I want it."

About 20 scouts assembled behind home plate—including many high ranking executives for teams with single-digit picks—to get a good look at Guerrieri. Over six innings, he threw 76 pitches, struck out seven and allowed one unearned run on two singles and two walks. It was a great outing for scouts to see because he scuffled a little over his last few games. 

[...] Continue Reading »

Here are the weekend stats for the nation's top draft-eligible college players, listed alphabetically by school. The stats were collected by CollegeSplits.com. Follow CollegeSplits on Twitter @collegesplits. The list of players was selected before the season to include this year's top college talent for the draft.

[...] Continue Reading »

SAN DIEGO—Texas Christian lefthander Matt Purke is an enigma. Baseball America's 2010 Freshman of the Year (and an unsigned 2009 first-round pick), the draft-eligible sophomore entered this season as one of the consensus top three prospects for the 2011 draft, but his stock slipped a bit in the season's first half, and his outing at San Diego State on Saturday raised more concerns for scouts.

Purke got off to a strong start, racking up five strikeouts through two scoreless innings, using a sharp slider as the putaway pitch for four of them. His fastball sat at 90-91 mph those first two innings, topping out at 92-93, but his stuff dropped off precipitously in the third, when the Aztecs scratched out an unearned run. A scout commented in the third that Purke's arm slot dropped noticeably, and his stuff flattened out. He sat about 88 that inning, then dropped into the 84-86 range in the fourth inning. He exited after allowing a leadoff single in the fifth (when he threw fastballs at 82 and 85 mph), having thrown 79 pitches. He did not strike another batter out after the second, and he finished with three walks, four hits and two runs (one earned).

For most of last year, Purke worked in the 91-94 range and held his velocity deep into games. A scout who saw him two weeks ago said his velocity was OK, so this week's dip is troubling.

"We're trying to figure it out. It's just a dead arm deal," TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said. "Last week he touched a couple 96s early in the game, and he was rolling, then he gets in the sixth inning and all of a sudden he just loses his feel for it . . . And he's such a team guy, he's such a team guy, to where he'll say, 'Coach, I'm fine, I'm good to go 75 pitches.' He's doing everything he can, he's the biggest team guy in this dugout. So we all feel for him. It's going to be better, we think. Everybody and their mother's looked at his arm, there's nothing we can find in terms of any kind of injury. It's just he'll feel great for a while, and then all of a sudden it'll go away." [...] Continue Reading »

For the third consecutive year, Major League Baseball will hold day one festivities of the First-Year Player Draft from Studio 42 at MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Draft will begin live on MLB Network and MLB.com on Monday, June 6th at 7:00 p.m. ET. Prior to the start of the Draft, MLB Network will air a Draft preview show, also simulcast on MLB.com, at 6:00 p.m. ET.

As usual, the Draft will have 50 rounds and will conclude after all 30 teams have passed on a selection or after the final selection of the 50th round, whichever comes first.

Like each of the previous two years, the 2011 Draft will span three days. For day one on June 6th, MLB Network and MLB.com will provide live pick-by-pick coverage during the first round as well as the first compensation round. The intervals between selections will last five minutes during the first round and one minute during the compensation round. The Draft will resume at 12:00 p.m. (ET) on both Tuesday, June 7th and Wednesday, June 8th via conference call from MLB headquarters in New York City.

Stay tuned to Baseball America for coverage of the draft leading up to the big day and then selection analysis on the Draft Blog throughout the process.

See Also: 2011 Draft Order

See Also: All 2011 Draft Coverage

I caught up with Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon on April 9 before his team took the field against East Carolina. . .

We had you as the No. 100 high school prospect heading into your senior year of high school and now you're one of the top prospects in the country. What has that transition been like for you? How have you grown as a player at Rice?
I've grown tremendously—both physically and mentally. Coming out of high school, I was probably 5-10 and 160 pounds. We have great strength training programs here at Rice, you know, and then just learning the game with Coach Graham and learning the different aspects of baseball and learning how to deal with failure a lot better, it's made me mature a lot more. So, I give all the credit to Rice University.

You had a huge year last year and now you're getting more respect with all the intentional walks. Does that ever get frustrating—not being able to hit and just being put on base so much?
I mean, of course it's going to get frustrating because I'm a hitter, that's what I love to do and that's my favorite part of the game, hitting. I guess it is respect that I've been doing good, but you can't get frustrated because it's just a part of the game. And we have a lot of guys doing good behind me that can get the job done. Like yesterday, they got the job done and we got the win and I didn't even do anything.

How's everything feeling now? Is the ankle 100 percent healthy?
Yeah, the ankle's 100 percent healthy. I did a great rehab over the summer and into fall workouts and I came back into the spring healthy and ready to go. Coach Graham even said, 'Hey, you look faster out there!' So, I guess working out my legs actually helped.
[...] Continue Reading »

Here are the weekend stats for the nation's top draft-eligible college players, listed alphabetically by school. The stats were collected by CollegeSplits.com. Follow CollegeSplits on Twitter @collegesplits. The list of players was selected before the season to include this year's top college talent for the draft.

Here are the weekend stats for the nation's top draft-eligible college players, listed alphabetically by school. The stats were collected by CollegeSplits.com. Follow CollegeSplits on Twitter @collegesplits. The list of players was selected before the season to include this year's top college talent for the draft.