Daily
Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2
The
beauty of seeing players over an extended period of time is the
ability to track their progress, especially when it’s a young
6-foot-6 righthanded pitcher like with Nicholas
Storz
(2017, Brooklyn, N.Y.). Currently uncommitted, Storz has continued to
evolve from a hard thrower who was new to pitching to a hard throwing
pitcher all the while firming up his mechanics and taking several
jumps with his secondary offerings.
You
can’t teach the imposing 6-foot-6, 245-pound frame that Storz
possesses on the mound, and once he settled in with his command after
the first inning he proved to be difficult to square up. Sitting in
the 88-90 mph range rather comfortably while bumping a 91, Storz
showed a quick and fluid arm action while locating his fastball to
either side of the plate with solid generated angle when he spotted
to his glove side. The velocity is nothing new for Storz who has
always been able to light up the radar guns, but the biggest takeaway
was the feel and frequency of which he threw his slider. A pitch that
lived in the 78-80 mph range, Storz’s slider was the best I had
seen it in my handful of viewings. At it’s best the pitch showed
solid tilt and proved to be a power swing-and-miss offering, and even
when he got on the side and gave it more horizontal life it was
effective as it looked more like a cutter than anything. You could
tell Storz’s confidence grew in the pitch each time he threw it and
by the end of his outing he showed the ability to locate it to either
side of the plate, making it truly unfair to the opposing hitters.
When
you spend three weeks in Georgia covering high level tournaments and
see some of the top players in each of them you begin to build a
profile and somewhat know what to expect. For example, outfielder
Colin Hall
(2017, Alpharetta, Ga.) has become renowned for his barrel skills
from the left side as he seems to do nothing but square the ball up
hard to all parts of the field for solid line drive contact. On
Monday afternoon Hall got a pitch he could handle on the inner half,
and rather than ripping it down the right field line for a base hit
he pulled his hands in and was able to drive the ball. And drive the
ball he did as the uncommitted Hall cleared the right field fence for
a grand slam, putting an exclamation point on Team Elite’s opening
round win.
Tyler
Simon
(2017, Leesburg, Ga.) got things going quickly in the bottom of the
first for Game On Stealth wasting no time as he jumped on the very
first pitch of the game for a hard line drive double, showing a short
and quick swing with some leverage at contact. Currently uncommitted,
Simon also starts up the middle at shortstop where his athleticism
truly shines. He does a nice job of making the routine plays look
easy but he also made a play late in the game that was nowhere near
as easy as he made it seem. With a runner on first and no outs, a
soft chopper was hit up the middle to which Simon gathered, and in
mid-stride, as the runner was barreling down on him, he tagged second
base and proceeded to deliver a strike to first base.
The
only thing quicker than the right arms of Joseph
Perez
(2017, Pembroke Pines, Fla.) and Matthew
Dickey
(2018, Tallahassee, Fla.) was the inning each of the two young arms
threw for their respective teams on fields adjacent to one another.
Perez,
who’s listed as a primary third baseman, is already committed to
the University of South Florida where he potent righthanded bat and
strong arm on the mound would allow him to make an impact on both
sides. His loudest statement on Monday night came in the bottom of
the sixth inning as he picked up the save for Elite Squad Prime
recording three quick outs while working heavily off his fastball.
Showing a fast and loose arm action through the back, Perez sat in
the 91-93 mph range and did a nice job of getting on top of the ball
to generate downhill plane, furthermore adding to the difficulty of
trying to catch up to his heater.
While
Perez flashed a curveball a time or two, Dickey showed a handful more
in the 68-70 mph range which featured 11-to-5 shape and late biting
life. Listed at 6-foot, 175-pounds, Dickey appears both taller and
stronger when he toes the rubber and he does a nice job of
incorporating that strength into his delivery on the mound. The
young, uncommitted righthander employed a short stroke and
consistently worked on top of the ball with a fast arm action leading
to a fastball that steadily sat in the 85-87 mph range.
North
Florida Christian has been steadily producing high end talent over
the last couple of years with several draft picks such as Matthew
Railey as well as both Cole and Carson Sands, along with current
Perfect Game All-American Cole Ragans. And while those are some big
names, the future appears just as bright with the rising sophomore
Dickey, as mentioned above, and incoming freshman righthander Brandon
Walker
(2019, Tallahassee, Fla.).
Despite
being listed as a primary shortstop on his Perfect Game profile, the
6-foot, 165-pound Walker is impressive with his present abilities on
the mound and what the futures holds in store as he continues to add
muscle and gain repetitions. Already showing a long and fluid arm
action, Walker came out and sat in the 83-86 mph range over the first
couple of innings and did so while generating downward plane. Walker
works from a high arm slot and he showed the ability to generate
slight running life to his fastball as it left his hand cleanly and
with low effort. Unlike most young pitchers who are able to throw
harder than most in their class at an early age, Walker also showed a
nice feel for a breaking ball that was up to 75 mph and featured
quality depth and late bit when he got on top and lived down in the
zone.
Nic
Nolan (2018,
Niceville, Fla.) is another young standout on the Orlando Scorpions
who looks to have a bright future ahead of him, especially as he
continues to fill out his long and lean 6-foot, 160-pound frame. His
defensive actions up the middle are pretty advanced for a player
who’s just entering his sophomore season of high school.
Uncommitted, Nolan showed fluid footwork around the bag and high-end
athleticism to complement the glove work and comfort he displayed
going to his backhand into the 5-6 hole.
Kumar
Rocker
(2018, Watkinsville, Ga.) is no stranger to these recaps over the
last three weeks of playing in Perfect Game events. Listed at
6-foot-4, 220-pounds, Rocker continues to show growth on the mound
seemingly each time he takes the ball and Monday night was no
different. Aside from the velocity, as he was up to 88 mph, and the
ease of which he’s able to produce it, Rocker began working
backwards on the mound and showed a consistent feel for both his
slider and changeup rather than relying almost solely on his heater.
Doing a nice job of maintaining his arm action at release, Rocker
showed the most comfort in his slider that I’ve seen in my four
viewings as he back-doored it a couple of times to lefthanded hitters
with late bite and depth. It remained a consistent pitch from the
moment he entered the game and his changeup also proved to be a solid
pitch at 78 mph, giving him a full three-pitch mix.
Currently
ranked No. 6 overall in the 2017 class rankings, outfielder Jordon
Adell
(2017, Lexington, Ky.) continues to make strides as a hitter and
continues to hurt the baseball from the righthanded batter’s box.
With a long and muscular fast-twitch frame, the University of
Louisville commit continued to amaze Monday evening as he once again
showed off his fast set of hands and premium bat speed by turning on
a ball into the left-center field gap for a three-run home run,
jumping off the barrel at 100.4 mph. Adell also worked a handful of
innings on the mound, showing a full and easy arm action that
produced a fastball up to 88 mph with solid downhill plane and a big
12-to-6 curveball with bite in the upper-70s.
The
display of hitting that center fielder Elijah Cabell (2018,
Winter Park, Fla.) has put on over the last few days is as impressive
as any this summer. After nearly putting a ball through the
scoreboard two days ago, the uncommitted Cabell collected multi-hit
games, with a home run, in each of Central Florida Gators' two games.
Two home runs in a tournament is considered exceptional, let alone
two in one day, though the first may have been the more impressive of
the two as Cabell blasted a shot to the right-center field gap that
got out and provoked a college coach to say something to the effect
of “you just don’t see that at this level.” Full of
quick-twitch and athleticism, Cabell is able to generate bat speed
that would stand out in a 17u tournament, let alone a 15u tournament,
and he’s catching fire at the right time for the Gators.
Tyler
Solomon
(2017, Haymarket, Va.) and Noah
Campbell
(2017, Durham, N.C.) are two highly sough after prospects in the 2017
class and each already have their college commitment taken care of.
Solomon, who’s a Vanderbilt University commit and a switch-hitting
catcher, dug in lefthanded yesterday afternoon and turned on an
inner-half pitch for a hard line drive triple to the pull-side gap,
showing a fluid swing with natural lift and solid speed around the
bases for somebody listed at 6-foot-4, 215-pounds. A University of
South Carolina commit, Campbell followed up Solomon’s impressive
shot with a hard double of his own, hitting it to a similar spot of
the field and turned in a time of 4.26 rounding first base.
While
the Marucci Elite lineup already featured a pair of smooth lefthanded
swings in outfielders Tanner Allen and Jacob Pearson, Coach Chad
Raley had another lefty emerge in his lineup; Nicholas
Webre
(2017, Youngsville, La.). Listed at 5-foot-10, 180-pounds, the
Louisiana native has put together a solid tournament and Monday
afternoon put a really good swing on a ball showing loose hands and a
fluid stroke as he tripled to his pull-side gap.