Here is a list of our local players to have signed so far.  The list is compiled from the Baseball American draft database and I have listed the signing bonus signed for, when that information is available.  BOLD is a former BAWS participant and former RNWS participant in the two years that BAWS was known as RNWS (the years I was scouting) before there were two events.

Round, Team, Player, School, Position, Bonus

1, Padres, Joe Ross, Bishop O'Dowd HS, RHP, $2,750,000

1, Reds, Robert Stephenson, Alhambra HS, RHP, $2,000,000

1s, Rays, Tyler Goeddel, St. Francis HS, 3B, $1,500,000

1s, Rays, James Harris, Oakland Tech HS, OF, $490,000

2, White Sox, Erik Johnson, Cal, RHP

2, Giants, Andrew Susac, Oregon State (Jesuit HS), C, $1,100,000

3, Indians, Jake Sisco, Merced College, RHP, $325,000

3, Brewers, Drew Gagnon, Long Beach St. (Liberty HS), RHP, $340,000

3, Tigers, Aaron Westlake, Vanderbilt (Shasta HS), 1B, $310,000

3, Rangers, Kyle Castro, Pleasant Grove HS, RHP, $267,300

4, D'backs, Evan Marshall, Kansas St. (Homestead HS), RHP, $232,500

4, A's, Bobby Crocker, Cal Poly (Aptos HS), OF, $198,000

4, Braves, J.R. Graham, Santa Clara (Livermore HS), RHP, $174,600

Came across this tidbit on former Miramonte HS & Cal star Brett Jackson...

* In other Cubs news, top prospect Brett Jackson(notes) homered twice and walked twice for Double-A Tennessee on Tuesday. He's up to 10 HRs and 14 steals on the year, and he's getting himself on base at a .389 clip. Alas, there's almost no chance that GM Jim Hendry will allow him anywhere near the big league lineup if he continues to draw walks at this current pace. Such a shame the kid doesn't hack at more un-hittable pitches, in keeping with the organization's guiding principles.

That was on a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball website.  The last sentence is obviously a shot at the Cubs team and their ability or inability to take pitches, which if you follow the Cubs you know has been a chronic issue for that team seemingly FOREVER!

Brett is the namesake for the BAWS Most Outstanding Player award.

On July 29-30, at Menlo College, All Americans Showcase will come to the Bay Area.  If you are not aware, this is a big deal as All Americans Showcase is sponsored by and partnered with Baseball America.  Here is the announcement of the partnership from the Baseball America website. 

All Americans Showcase is the only showcase organization that is directly sponsored by Baseball America.  Standout performers, top 10 lists, tools breakdowns, etc. will be found within Baseball America and all the scouting information will go into the exclusive Baseball America scouting database, Prospects Plus.  Video will be taken of every player at All American Showcases as well.  This truly is a very strong opportunity for any player, of any ability level.  The price is right, the people running All American Showcase are experienced and respected and the sponsorship of Baseball America speaks for itself.

Players who participated in BAWS 2011 will be eligible for a discount to the event and they will soon receive an email with that information.  Players with interest can email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for information.  Eligible players are in the 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 classes.  All Americans Showcase features players swinging BBCOR bats, the bats used at the D1 level.

This past weekend I was in San Bernardino covering the ABCL Top 20 Championships for All Americans Showcase and my reports can be found here, within the Baseball America Blog reports. 

First of all, let me apologize for going dark for so long.  I travelled to Arizona to scout a Prospectwire.com tournament and the USA Baseball 16U Championships.  I then got home, had one day before Bay Area World Series started, then after BAWS ended, I was back on a plane two days later for the ABCL Top 20 Championships on San Bernardino.  Suffice to say, in those three days I was not travelling or scouting or writing for the work I was doing, I was trying to get some relaxation.

If you are not aware, Alameda won BAWS 2011, defeating South Bay in the final.  Redwood Christian HS RHP Daniel Jensen (2012) was named Most Outstanding Pitcher, Acalanes HS OF Grant Diede (2012) was given the Brett Jackson Award for Most Outstanding Player, Clayton Valley HS MIF Jesse Medrano (2013) was named Most Outstanding Defensive Player, and Piedmont Hills HS LHP/1B Patrick Higashi was named the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Most Inspirational Player. 

I still plan to get all the BAWS 2011 updates on 9county9 as well as updates about all the goings on in the area, including the new Santa Clara coaching staff, the coaching changes at Cal (pitching coach and recruiting coordinator Dan Hubbs has moved on to USC, where he pitched collegiately) and all other noteworthy news.

The Arizona Diamondbacks called up RHP Bryan Shaw on June 10th and threw a scoreless inning against the Marlins.  Unless you are from Livermore or follow Long Beach State baseball, you likely just said, "who is Bryan Shaw?"  Shaw is a hard throwing reliever, selected by the D'backs in the 2nd round of the 2008 draft, out of Long Beach State.  He is also the first former Bay Area World Series participant to make the big leagues, though he won't be the last.

Shaw, a Livermore HS grad, participated in the inaugural BAWS, in 2004.  I remember seeing him pitch during high school and inviting him to the event.  He was a 6'1" 175 lb righthander with a quick arm and good feel for the breaking ball.  Shaw didn't throw that hard in the summer of 2004, but he was consistently in the mid-80s, would touch around 87 and again, could always fill up the zone with his breaking ball.  He had a lean, athletic body and ran the 60-yard dash in around 6.9 as I recall.  I don't rememeber the exact time he ran but it was well under 7.0.  He was part of my education in scouting pitchers and future velocity.  Shaw is now listed at the same 6'1" but is a sturdy 208 lbs.

As Shaw started his senior year he started to throw harder and harder.  Late in that spring scouts were starting to go in to Livermore to see the Shaw kid, who was reportedly touching in the low-90s.  His velocity had spiked from the 86-87 range in June to the low 90s by the following may.  It was then that it kind of all hit me, that part of projection for a high school pitcher could in fact be his running speed and overall athleticism, including the way his body moved on the field as a position player.  Shaw had some quick twitch to him and as he physically matured and started to develop as a pitcher, that quick twitch and strength and arm speed started to translate to high velocity.

Shaw went to Long Beach State and in short time was a very important reliever for the Dirtbags.  I saw him during his junior year, when LBSU was up here playing Cal and I was working for the Braves.  He was solidly on the scouting map by then so I got to turn in a nice report on him.  I saw a mid-90s fastball and a wicked slider, a legitimate putaway pitch.  The D'backs selected him in the 2nd round in 2008.

Interestingly enough, another former Livermore HS product, J.R. Graham, was just selected by the Braves in the 4th round, out of Santa Clara University.  Graham, like Shaw before him, was a two-way player in high school (Graham was a SS), he could run (below 7.0 as well) and he had a wiry, quick twitch type of body type.  Graham, another BAWS participant, started to get into the low-90s during the summer before his senior year and maintained it into the spring of his senior year.  The A's took a late round flier on him but he intended to go to college because Santa Clara afforded him the opportunity to play as a two-way player.

Graham now gets in the mid-90s and I was told even touches around 96-97 now.  I have no idea if that is true because I have not seen him pitch in a long time but I can believe it.  He lacks the quality breaking ball that Shaw had but with the Braves he will develop well and quickly.

Both Shaw and Graham offer a great lesson and education in scouting, if you know the background of a player, which is why scouting can be so interesting.  If you know the history of Shaw and Graham, and their development path, it makes complete sense.  That is one of the big reasons it is always a good idea for local kids to attend local colleges, because if scouts saw them in high school and then get to follow them into college, they have a history with the player, they have an idea of the development arc the player has been on.

Anyway, this morphed into some sort of scouting post.  I just want to say CONGRATS to Bryan Shaw, Livermore HS grad, BAWS participant and now a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks! 

Who will be the next BAWS participant to reach the big leagues?  Brett Jackson would seem like a reasonable guess.

Tomorrow at 10 AM at Athenian School in Danville, I am holding an open tryout for 2012 and 2013 pitchers who have interest in being considered for BAWS 2011, which will take place later this June, 25-28, at Santa Clara University.

It will be a really basic tryout opportunity and it is not a guarantee that I select anyone.  There are at the most, two pitching spots available.

If you are coming, be there with enough time to get yourself loose to throw a short bullpen for me.  I have a catcher.

By my unofficial count, there were 118 players drafted this year who had some connection to Northern California.  Either they grew up here and went to high school here, or they are from another area of the country but attended a four college or a junior college here in the region.  I define the region as the territory that some of the scouts have to cover, which is from the Oregon border to Visalia, west to San Luis Obispo (though I don't really think too many have SLO these days) and east to the Reno and Northern Nevada area.  Some of the area scouts have Hawaii too but I didn't include Hawaii players.

With at least 118 players having ties to the area, that is an average of 2.36 drafted per round.  There were a total of 1530 players drafted and the 118 represents 7.7% of the entire draft.  That may not sound like a lot but it is.

One thing that stands out this year versus most other years is the number of high round high school picks, including two first rounders and two supplemental first rounders.  In most recent years, the top high school kids were not quite first round talents but were definitely in the 2-4th round range.  However, it has been hard for the MLB teams to sign those kids, generally speaking, because so many have had big scholarships to great schools.  So many of those players over the years chose to go to school and ended up being drafted even higher, which shows that their decisions were the right ones.  Some did sign, like Robbie Erlin, Kevin Eichhorn, etc.  Most have gone to college.

Round, Team, Player, School(s), College Commitment

(Bold = former BAWS/RNWS participant during my time with each event)

31 - D'backs - 2B Matt Jensen, Cal Poly (Clovis East HS)

31 - Dodgers - SS Mickey McConnell, Saint Mary's (yes, this is the star basketball player)

32 - D'backs - RHP Alex Vetter, Feather River College (Spanish Springs HS, Reno)

32 - Royals - RHP Nick Piscotty, Amador Valley HS (Duke)

32 - Twins - LHP Dylan Chavez, American River College (Pleasant Grove HS)

33 - Athletics - 2B Austin Booker, Cal

Congrats to James Logan HS (D1), Campolindo HS (D2), and Marin Catholic (D3), North Coast Section champions for 2011.  The D4 section title will take place today, between San Marin and Acalanes.

I was reading the article write up in the Chronicle today and it was nice to read about some players who will be in BAWS 2011 and some who were in BAWS 2010. 

For James Logan, sophomore RHP/SS Alex Martinez threw a 1-hitter to lead JLHS to it's second ever title.  Martinez will be on the Alameda team at BAWS 2011.  He was also at BAWS Futures last fall.  Martinez struck out the last two hitters he faced.  The only hit he gave up was to another BAWS 2011 participant, OF Hunter Mercado-Hood of De La Salle HS.  JLHS won the game 1-0 and the only run was scored by Pascual Flores, whose older brother played in two different BAWS.  Pascual participated in BAWS 2010.

Round, Team, Player, School(s), College Commitment

(Bold = BAWS/RNWS participant during my time with each event)

1 - Dodgers - LHP Chris Reed, Stanford

1 - Padres - RHP Joe Ross, Bishop O'Dowd HS (UCLA)

1 - Reds - RHP Robert Stephenson, Alhambra HS (Washington)

1s - Rays - 3B Tyler Goeddel, St. Francis HS (UCLA)

1s - Rays - OF James Harris, Oakland Tech HS (uncommitted)

2 - White Sox - RHP Erik Johnson, Cal (Los Altos HS)

2 - Giants - C Andrew Susac, Oregon State (Jesuit HS)

3 - Brewers - RHP Drew Gagnon, Long Beach State (Liberty HS-Brentwood)

3 - Indians - RHP Jake Sisco, Merced College (Grace Davis HS)

3 - Tigers - 1B Aaron Westlake, Vanderbilt (Shasta HS)

3 - Rangers - RHP Kyle Castro, Pleasant Grove HS (uncommitted)