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Tournaments | Story | 9/16/2017

Fall Champ. Day 1 Scout Notes

David Rawnsley

Photo: Perfect Game

2017 PG Fall Upperclass National Championship Protected by G-Form: Daily Leaders
2017 PG Fall Freshman National Championship Protected by G-Form: Daily Leaders

Infielder Chad Call (2019, Mission Viejo, Calif.) entered the PG Fall National Championships as the 471st ranked player in the 2019 class nationally and put his mark on the event right away for the Quakes Baseball Academy. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound left handed hitter hit a pair of doubles, one to centerfield and one to right centerfield, to go with a long sacrifice fly that was almost double number three to lead the Quakes to a 4-2 opening game victory. Call gets his power from his compact, quick twitch build and an aggressive swing that gets the barrel out to the ball very aggressively. He ran a 7.09 sixty at the PG Junior National Showcase last June and looks a step or two faster than that in the games.

The irony of Call's two doubles is that both were off his Mater Dei High School teammate, So Cal Birds 2019 right hander Kyle Scott (2019, Seal Beach, Calif.). Scott is an interesting 6-foot-3, 180-pound righthander with a very projectable build and a loose arm that produced a 81-84 mph fastball. His best pitch was a 73-75 mph curveball that had very good depth to it and that he could have thrown even more often during his three innings of work.

Quakes right hander Connor Crotty (2018, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) stands out on the mound with a 6-foot-6, 210-pound build and a compact delivery and arm action that produced a 83-85 mph fastball to go with a mid-70's curveball that, like Scott's, was his best pitch and one that could have been thrown more often. Crotty is an elite level student who doesn't have a college commitment listed yet but would seem to be a natural fit for an academically oriented college.

Ricky Martinez (2018, Morgan Hill, Calif.) is a very strong 6-foot-1, 195-pound infielder and a high level hitting prospect. The right handed hitter has obviously spent lots of time both on his overall body strength and with a bat in his hand, as he has the forearm development of a mature hitter. He has a calm and well timed shift into contact with a very direct and strong swing that is going to maximize hard line drive contact at the next level. Martinez is a Baylor commit and one can easily see his bat being ready for prime time as a freshman. He went 3 for 4 with three runs scored in the CAB Soldiers 7-3 win on Friday morning, with one of those hits being a rocket line drive to straight away centerfield that got over the centerfielder's head in a hurry. Martinez plays shortstop now but looked like a future third baseman defensively.

CAB's victory was strongly helped by right hander Luke Tillman (2018, San Jose, Calif.), who entered the game with CAB behind 3-2 in the fourth inning. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Tillman retired eight hitters in short order, needing only 29 pitches, to turn the momentum. Tillman worked in the 84-86 mph range with very heavy sinking life the induced numerous weak ground ball outs and also threw a upper 70's change up with late diving live and a sweeping 74 mph slider. With his durable build and sound mechanics and arm action, Tillman is a potential sinker/slider starter at the next level. He doesn't have a present college commitment.

There are very few underclassmen at this G-Form Upperclass Championship but one notable freshman is Zoots third baseman/right handed pitcher Jonathan Cymrot (2021, San Jose, Calif.), the 31st ranked player in the PG 2021 class rankings. Cymrot is listed at 6-foot, 180-pounds but appears bigger than that, with a strong and well developed core and lower half. He's a right handed hitter who hits from a crouched, open stance and a short and strong line drive swing with good swing plane. He went 2 for 3 this game, including a resounding triple up the left centerfield gap. Cymrot also was the Zoots starting pitcher, working three and a third innings in a 4-2 Zoots victory and showing a fastball in the 82-84 mph range. It's easy to see Cymrot potentially gravitating to catcher in the future, at least in scouts and coaches minds, with his build and physical tools.

Zoots had another young standout in centerfielder/left handed pitcher Eddie Parks (2020, San Jose, Calif.) who is also Cymrot's teammate at Valley Christian High School. Paul is a young looking 6-foot-1, 175-pound outfielder with a loose and easy left handed swing. Hitting leadoff, Parks lined singles to centerfield and right field in his first two times up and later came in relief of Cymrot and threw two and two-thirds scoreless innings to get the save, topping out at 82 mph on his fastball.

If it is a PG tournament in Arizona, you can bet that Arizona T-Rex is going to be there and swinging the bats with authority. But they also brought the pitching to their opening day 7-0 win, as three hurlers combined on a one-hit shutout. Big right hander Tyler Woessner (2018, Phoenix, Ariz.) set the pace, throwing three and two-thirds no-hit innings to get the win, working at 89-91 early before dropping a bit on the radar gun and mixing in a mid-70's breaking ball. Woessner, who is an Arizona State commit, is an intimidating presence on the mound with his 6-foot-4, 225-pound delivery and he keeps his heavy sinking fastball down in the zone well.

T-Rex centerfielder Sean Rimmer (2019, Mesa, Ariz.) is a very interesting athlete, in part because he has a strong and still projectable 6-foot-3, 210-pound build but still has the tools to play centerfield. A right handed hitter, Rimmer batted in the clean up hole this game and did his job in the first inning, driving in a run with a booming triple to centerfield and later scoring himself. While Rimmer obviously has strength and raw bat speed, what has stood out about him at past events and in the first game is that he has advanced barrel control and timing at the plate and squares up the ball very consistently. Bat speed and strength combined with hitting ability is a great combination to have. Rimmer doesn't have a college commitment as of yet.

-David Rawnsley

On day 1 of the PG Fall National Championship (Upperclass) several teams immediately put the rest of the event on notice by way of dominating opening day victories. The Blackhawks National club looked to have a pretty loaded lineup on paper and certainly wasted no time living up to that billing, winning their first game 8-0.

Israel Gutierrez (2018, Las Vegas, Nev.) got the start and the win for the Blackhawks, throwing four shutout innings, scattering four hits and one walk while striking out three opposing hitters. He’s got a compact, relatively repeatable delivery and does a nice job of engaging the back hip well and driving downhill online with his hips. His arm stroke has a bit of a higher take back with some wrist wrap at the apex, which in turn caused some timing issues coming through, but for the most part the delivery is succinct and he was able to throw strikes consistently.

He worked 84-86 mph for the majority of his outing, ramping up to 87 mph a few times, generating occasional life to the arm side on the pitch and in general demonstrating the ability to move the fastball all around the zone. He had a bit of trouble early on finding the breaking ball, but once he did, it showed best as an 11-5 true curveball with quality depth, along with the ability to land it for strikes.

The Blackhawks scored 8 runs, obviously, and did so with contributions from up and down their lineup. Leadoff hitter and shortstop Fritz Genther (2019, Kingston, N.Y.), a Virginia Tech commit, was on base twice via base on balls and hit a rope for a lineout in his other at bat, along with playing a very steady shortstop before eventually coming on in relief on the mound and working 83-85 mph to close it out. He’s a quality athlete with the actions and twitch to stay in the middle infield at the collegiate level and looks to have a high-level approach when hitting that should be very good in terms of on-base skills.

Earlier in the day, North East Baseball got off to a hot start, taking their opening round game by a score of 13-1. Their offensive attack was so dominant from top-to-bottom that five of their starters had two hits each. Max Marusak (2018, Amarillo, Texas) hits leadoff and plays center field for NEB, and the No. 74 overall player in the ’18 class had a big day atop the lineup. He went 2-2 with two well-struck grounder base hits but what was more impressive is the speed that he plays the game with. He was 4.04 down to 1st base on the first hit then made the turn on his second hit in 4.41 seconds, showing off that big time speed that evaluators have come to expect from him. The speed also plays quite well in the outfield though he wasn’t tested in this contest.

Other NEB players who enjoyed big days offensively include Justin Dunlap (2018, Dripping Springs, Texas), Hudson Haskin (2018, Bronxville, N.Y.), Brett Baty (2019, Spicewood, Texas), Kyler Fedko (2018, Gibsonia, Penn.), and Adam Schwartz (2018, Akron, Penn.). NEB certainly looks like they’ll be tough to deal with throughout the course of this tournament due to their depth.

Tristin Lively (2018, Las Cruces, N.M.) got the start and the win for NEB, and threw 2.2 innings before being pulled so that he could be eligible to come back and throw again later in the event. Lively has a good build on a compact frame with some musculature throughout along with decent projection remaining. He pitched mostly with his fastball, working up to 91 mph early on and still holding the upper-80’s through his 43-pitch outing. He’s able to create plane to the plate when he consistently gets over his front side, and showed the ability to work the fastball to both sides of the plate. He was content to work primarily with the fastball and was overpowering with it when in the strike zone, striking out 6 hitters while not allowing a walk.

-Brian Sakowski

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