See Also: Massachusetts Arms Race

This year’s crop of high school arms from Massachusetts is one of the best in recent memory, but several of those pitchers have commitments to elite academic universities that scouts will have to weigh.

“We’ve either got a couple future big league pitchers, or we’ve got a couple future senators,” one area scout joked.

Tyler Beede, a Vanderbilt commit, has been drawing the most interest among the intellectual pitchers—and, for that matter, more interest than every prep player in the Northeast. A second area scout called him the best high schooler in New England. [...] Continue Reading »

While Conor Glassey and I have been hitting the road for a lot of 2011 draft coverage, we've seen a few guys at games that stand out as players to watch for the future. Here are some thoughts and quotes on a few of them we've seen recently:

A.J. Simcox, ss, Faragut HS, Knoxville (2012)
Simcox is a junior shorstop at Tennessee powerhouse Farragut High. He's a string bean right now at 6-foot-3 and 170 pounds, but shows very good range in the field, soft hands, a strong arm and good baseball instincts. Simcox's father, Larry, was also a shortstop that spent three seasons in the minor leagues with Houston.

"He's a high-upside player," Farragut head coach Matt Buckner said. "Defensively, he's special. He's got a big arm and he's long and rangy. At the plate, he stays inside the ball and goes gap-to-gap. He's been tremendous this year and he's got a bright future. He has several SEC offers and I think he's 20 pounds away from being a pretty high draft pick. He's got all the physical ability in the world and he's a really good kid, too." [...] Continue Reading »