17u WWBA Day 2 notes

Editor's note: Perfect Game recognizes that there are dozens of standout performers at this year's 17u WWBA National Championship. The thoughts provided below are first-hand observations from Scouting Coordinator Jheremy Brown during the event's second day.

Although his frame isn’t the most physical at 6-foot-2, 180-pounds, Beau Ridgeway (2015, The Woodlands, Texas) is able to create some very good arm speed with a short and quick arm action. Throwing from a very low three-quarters to almost side-arm slot, the University of Texas commit is able to generate some serious life on his fastball with the ability to command it well to his glove side.


His release is very compact, creating more deception on what is already a tough at-bat as Ridgeway worked in the 89-91 mph range in first before settling into 87-89. With consistent, late life on the fastball Ridgeway was able to induce numerous ground ball outs, working both sides of the plate. Ridgeway’s changeup is the more advanced off-speed pitch in his arsenal at present, showing some late dive at 77 mph low in the zone. He spun his curveball between 65 and 68 mph with short break, slowing up his arm action on it just a bit.




Ryan Johnson (2015, College Station, Texas) generates very good bat speed from the left side with strength, which translates into big power to his pull side. However Johnson showed the ability to go with a pitch to hit the ball hard to the opposite field in his first at-bat yesterday, lining a ball into the left-center field gap for a standup double. A well proportioned 6-foot-3, 205-pound athlete, Johnson moves well for his size (6.86 60-yard dash), and what helps that speed play up in game is his ability to read pitches in the dirt and take the next base, as he did yesterday.

There’s no denying the strength in the 6-foot-6 build of Luken Baker (2015, Spring, Texas) who is a primary righthanded pitcher who topped out at 94 mph with his fastball in Friday's outing. Baker showed just how strong he was on Saturday with the bat, turning on a fastball and putting it over the 335-foot mark on the left field fence, despite a strong wind blowing straight in.