SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The final 2010 Milwaukee Brewers Area Code tryouts were held July 15 at Westmont College in Montecito, Calif., near Santa Barbara. Yesterday’s event blended the best players from separate previous workouts in Northern and Southern California.

During the regional Brewer Area Code tryouts, numerous rumblings have been heard from scouts and coaches about the diminished talent level this summer. No doubt the overall talent pool is lower, but long time baseball people understand that can be cyclical.

Talent levels can also be relative. There are doubtless several gifted players in the California class of 2010, but perhaps not as many as scouts are accustomed to. The local talent haul in the past four drafts—2007 through 2010—has been remarkable. Don’t be surprised if a least a dozen California high school players from those drafts appear on All Star Game rosters from 2015 to 2020.
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The Nationals kick things off by taking Texas State shortstop Jason Martinson. Martinson is a good athlete that came to Texas State as a wide receiver, but has switched his focus to baseball.

The Pirates make an interesting choice of Oregon State righthander Tyler Waldron. Waldron started the season as the Beaver's ace, but was pitching out of the bullpen late in the year and scouts say he lost his confidence on the mound.

The Orioles take Connor Narron, who could be a difficult sign away from North Carolina and then the Royals take hometown Jason Adam, another player on our last "Best Available" list [...] Continue Reading »

Having done draft coverage in the West the last two years, I’ve talked to plenty of scouts and junior-college coaches about Josh Spence, who had two amazing years at Central Arizona JC. Now he’s taking Division I by storm while pitching for Arizona State, but I was interested to see what our scout would say about seeing Spence take on Missouri. The Tigers won the game, 5-2 in eight innings; how did Spence fare?

DeMarini Tournament Day 4
Spotlight player – Josh Spence
“Man at Work”

All of the middle-aged people who love and reminisce about 80’s music will certainly remember the group “Men at Work.” They were the Australian band that had several catchy hit songs in the 80’s. One of the tunes was “Down Under,” the song that they play at Packard Stadium when Australian Josh Spence takes the mound for the Arizona State Sun Devils.
 
As the lean 6-foot-1 lefthander tosses his warm-up pitches, he hardly intimidates opposing hitters. In fact, tossing seems appropriate. He tossed a fastball to the catcher at 68 mph just before the throw down to second base prior to starting the game. His first game pitch registered at a menacing 81 mph.

But the Jamie Moyer of college baseball wants to lull hitters to sleep. He wants them to feel comfortable in the box. He wants them to be looking for a certain pitch, in a certain spot, at a certain speed. Because one thing that is for certain, is that the hitter rarely gets it. If the hitter is looking soft away, as he’s thrown the two prior pitches, zip . . . 86 on the hands. [...] Continue Reading »

Arizona State’s Jason Kipnis was a fourth-round pick a year ago, but scouts still aren’t sure what to make of him. Our scout at the DeMarini Invitational, at ASU’s Winkles Field-Packard Stadium, has not seen Kipnis at his best, as he relates.

DeMarini Invitational Day Three
Spotlight player: Jason Kipnis

What do Aaron Crow, Gerrit Cole, Tanner Scheppers, Scott Bittle, Chase Davidson and Zach Cone have in common? They were the only current college baseball players selected higher in the 2008 draft than Jason Kipnis at pick 135.

Kipnis burst onto the scene in the desert last year as a sophomore eligible after transferring from Kentucky. After hitting .337 as a freshman, off the field incidents at Kentucky led him to transfer to Arizona State for the 2008 season. He hit .371 with 16 doubles and 14 home runs, and the Padres drafted him in the fourth round. After summer negotiations, he failed to sign prior to the new draft deadline and returned to ASU for his junior season.

The 2009 opening weekend was a banner weekend for Kipnis as he hit over .700 and was BA’s Golden Spikes Award spolight player of the week. But, delving deeper into this player and breaking down his tools, it’s plain why scouts have a wide variety of opinions on him. Grading out his speed, he’s a fringe-average to average at best. So that would seem to rule out center field for most clubs. Not many everyday center fielders in the major leagues are fringe-average runners as amateur players.

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For the second day of play at Arizona State’s Winkles Field-Packard Stadium, our scout focused on a pair of catchers who were presesason All-America picks, as selected by major league scouting directors. Oregon State won the game 12-8, and the Beavers’ catcher seemed to fare better in the individual matchup as well, at least in the eyes of scouts.

DeMarini Invitational Day Two
Matchup Ryan Ortiz vs. Trevor Coleman

Day Two of the DeMarini Invitational featured two of the top catchers in the country in Missouri’s Trevor Coleman and Oregon State’s Ryan Ortiz. Coleman was Baseball America’s preseason second-team All-American, while Ortiz was a preseason third-team pick.

Coleman has the classic catcher’s build: 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, stocky, strong lower half, barrel chest. Ortiz has more of a lanky frame at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds with longer arms and legs and not as much bulk on his frame. Their games are similar in some aspects. Both catchers received and blocked well. Each has a good setup and moves well behind the plate. [...] Continue Reading »

Baseball America tapped a scout in Arizona to break down the action at this weekend’s DeMarini Invitational at Arizona State’s Winkles Field-Packard Stadium.

DeMarini Invitational Day One
Kyle Gibson vs. Mike Leake

The game drew more than 50 scouts, including scouting directors, assistant general managers and at least one GM in attendance. Most scouts were there to focus on the Tigers’ ace righthander Gibson, but Leake wound up as the star of the show, out-dueling the projected first-rounder. Leake’s first pitch was 91 mph as he used a mix of fastballs, changeups and a devastating slider to rack up 10 strikeouts with just one walk.

Leake had the Missouri hitters off-balance all night and carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning when Andrew Thigpen led off with a double to left field to end the no-hit bid. [...] Continue Reading »