I tend to believe there is a lot of talent in the 2013 draft if you look past the top 10 picks where you have to decide whether to drop several $ million on talent that may not be much better than what you can get for a fraction of the cost later in the draft. None of these guys I'm going to profile here is likely to be a first rounder, even late in the first round, but worth knowing about so you can be happy if your team calls their name later in the draft:
Alex Balog, RHP, San Francisco. Alex Balog is a big 'ol dude, 6'6", 225 lbs who was USF's Saturday starter last year. He was overshadowed by the sensational junior season of Kyle Zimmer, but pitched well himself. His season line was 4-4, 3.43, 78.2 IP, 57 K, 31 BB. He held opponents to a BA of .224 and struck out a season high 11 batters against Hawaii. I found one scouting report that has his FB high 80's to low 90's. Given his size, he would seem to have some projection left in the heater. I found one video on youtube of one pitch that shows a nice two seam FB with downward tail in slow mo. BA has him ranked as their #23 college prospect. He should be the Dons' Friday starter in 2013 and definitely worth scouting the boxscores on.
Scott Frazier, RHP, Pepperdine. Frazier is another big RHP who I liked a lot coming out of HS in 2010. He actually isn't just big, he's huge at 6'7", 230 lbs. He was Pepperdine's Saturday starter last year and was a workhorse going 7-5, 3.93, 103 IP, 69 K's, 31 BB. He only allowed 2 HR's all season! From those numbers, I'm guessing he used his height to pound the zone on a downward plane inducing a lot of groundballs. I found one video with some radar gun readings that had his FB ranging from 88-93. He should move up to Friday Starter and will be someone I look up the the boxscores each week. Just an aside, his facial features remind me of John Elway. Oh, BA has him listed right behind Balog as their #24 college prospect.
Jonathan Gray, RHP, Oklahoma. Gray is another big RHP, 6'4", 240 lbs. He's a hard thrower with a FB that goes 92-97 but sits comfortably at 94 according to Big League Futures. He pitched in JC ball in 2011 but started 18 games for Oklahoma last year going 8-4, 3.16, 102.2 IP, 104 K's, 42 BB. Inconsistent command is his main detraction but he improved as the season progressed. He pitched just 4.2 IP in his first 2 starts but lasted at least 5 innings in 14 of his last 16 starts. He won 5 of his last 7 starts while striking out 53 in 43.1 IP. Given his size and velocity, I could really see him rising on draft boards depending on whether he can get his walk rate down. BA currently has him ranked as their #36 college prospect. Personally, after reading up on all of them, I would rank him above both Balog and Frazier. Definitely someone to follow in the college boxscores.
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The UCLA guys might be worth a look. Adam Plutko and Zack Weiss. That Grey guy is definitely worth the follow.
ReplyDeleteSo the Swisher signing takes a 2nd rounder off the board. Interesting to see how the link to comp is hurting FA's value. Apparently Boston didn't want to give up their 2nd rounder.
Any predictions on Soriano? The Yanks don't want him back, the Tigers are holding firm against Boras manipulation and teams don't want to give up the pick. I predict the Angels grab him on a 2 year, they are punting the farm anyways.
Soriano's decision to turn down the $13 M qualifying offer is looking like a colossal blunder and it's not like it was hard to see it coming. If that's what Boras advised him to do, he could be sued for malpractice!
DeleteI'll check out the UCLA guys. Still quite a few interesting college RHP's I haven't discussed yet. I'm scratching my head a bit wondering why Gray isn't ranked higher by the experts.
Drb, love your scouting reports. It looks like I watched Alex Balog's best pitched game against Hawaii. For what its worth, I thought he was throwing low 90's with his heater that night and lost the game that night on 2 unearned runs. Thats what I heard listening to the post game show with Coach Trap anyway. I was surprised to see a writeup on the internet on that game where a scout claimed Balog got up to 96 MPH that night! It goes to show you can't go by 1 game to evaluate a pitcher.
ReplyDeleteLG
Well, you've seen more of him and Agosta than any of us, so you probably have the best scouting report. Thanks for your contributions to the discussions. Sounds like you'll get to do lot more scouting this year with Hawaii moving into a tougher conference, although I have to say all west coast conferences can really kick it.
DeleteThanks Drb for sharing your scouting reports on these players. I was surprised to see that Balog didn't have a better record in 2012 and I stumbled onto an article about the Hawaii game written by a former scout of the braves. I'm finding the website to be pretty cool because he writes about Bay Area high school and college baseball. The name of the website is 9county9.com. The bottom line is Alex Balog has to put it togrther to be a 1st round pick in 2013. That website had nice things to say about Agosta too.. I'm wondering if the reason martin Agosta throws alot of pitches every start because he is a power pitcher with good movement on his pitches. i don't understand why anyone in the Giants org wouldn't be talking him up..
ReplyDeletehappy holidays to everyone!
LG
Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.
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