I was only at this game for a few innings but did get there to see a few of my favorite players from Petaluma HS; junior SS Dylan Parks, junior 3B Daniel Comstock, and senior C Spencer Neve.  If you are a college coach concerned with finding and recruiting players who can hit with the new BBCOR bats, look no further than Daniel Comstock.  He is strong, he is patient, he uses the whole field, he drives the ball, and he keeps hitting really simple.  Comstock also catches, plays 1st base and at the HS level is a very good pitcher.

As for Parks, he is an athletic hitter, he has good bat speed, tools, raw power and as he gets more polished, he is going to be an impactful hitter and overall athlete on the field.  Here is some video of a double by Parks.

As for Neve, he is a talented and as of this writing, an uncommitted senior player.  He can receive, he can really throw and he has a nice hitting stroke.  He was the quarterback of the PHS team and that kind of athleticism and leadership translates really well to baseball and the catcher position.  The last Petaluma HS uncommitted senior catcher who found his way into a D1 program in August after his senior year?... Cal junior catcher Chadd Krist.  Here is some video of Neve.

The NCAA has done a study, at about the halfway point of the NCAA college baseball season (D1, D2, D3) and has found, not surprisingly, that scoring is down, home runs are down, ERA is down, shutouts are WAY up, and batting average is WAY down.  I think most that have paid attention to the change expected the results, though the amount of shutouts at this point of the season (444) vs this point last year (277) is quite dramatic. 

Here is a link to the NCAA article

You will notice in the graph in that article, that even though batting average is way down and runs per game are down and home runs are down, strikeouts per game (compared to the same midway point in the season) are also slightly DOWN.  That might surprise you, but it shouldn't.  The reason is strikeouts are down when all the other offensive stats are down is more pitchers are pitching to contact, throwing more strikes and throwing more strikes earlier in the count.  One stat I didn't see in the study is the amount of pitches thrown per game.   My guess is that pitches per game are also significantly down.

The best comment in the article is this one... “But I’ve heard coaches say that the guys who are good hitters are still good hitters,” Keilitz said. “Guys who coaches didn’t consider to be good hitters but still hit for good average with the old bats aren’t hitting for good average anymore with the new bats.”

Three Northern California high school players are ranked in the Baseball America Midseason Top 50, relative to the draft this coming June.  I can't argue with the three players they ranked but do think there could be a player or two they are missing.  Then again, doing a ranking like that is tough stuff and realistically, there is no right or wrong on April 12th, when the ranking was published.

Bishop O'Dowd HS RHP Joe Ross is ranked #44, Central Catholic HS OF Billy Flamion is ranked #45, and Alhambra HS RHP Robert Stephenson is ranked #48.  I haven't seen any of the three this spring but saw Flamion and Stephenson a few times last summer and fall.  It has been a long time since I have seen Ross. 

Since I have spent most of my game time at high school games this spring looking for players to invite to Bay Area World Series, I have not gone to see Ross or Stephenson or Flamion.  I also have not spent much time at college games but I am surprised to not see Cal RHP Erik Johnson in the ranking.  Then again, I don't know what Erik's stuff is like right now in April.  

What is interesting about having three area high school kids rated that highly, and none of them are committed to Stanford, it is conceivable we could see all three sign out of high school, which around these parts, is pretty rare.  So many of our top high school players have just not been signable, away from their college scholarships. 

More than a handful of those kids in recent years were headed to Stanford (Diekroeger, Appel, Piscotty) and it seems the Stanford signees never sign, except the rare rare rare exceptions and other kids good enough to sign were not going to be taken high enough where they felt the pro opportunity was going to be better than what they would get after three years of college.  There have been a few to sign recently (LHP Robbie Erlin) but for the most part, the MLB teams just have not been able to take our high school kids high enough to offer them enough bonus money to bypass college. 

I have NO IDEA what the signability is for any of those kids is by the way.  I do know Flamion signed with Oregon, Ross with UCLA and Stephenson with Washington.  If I was a betting man (and I occasionally play some cards!) I would guess that Stephenson signs (2nd round), Flamion signs (supplemental 1st round), and Ross goes to school and will turn down at least 2nd round money, if not more.  Again, those are GUESSES!! 

Zimmer Named West Region Pitcher of the Week

InsidePitching.com, an online pitching magazine, named USF sophomore Kyle Zimmer the West Region Pitcher of the Week.

Zimmer, in the longest outing of his collegiate career, struck out 14 of the 27 batters he faced on Saturday, April 9 against Saint Mary’s. His performance was the second most strikeouts in a game in school history, second only to Con Dempsey’s 16 against Saint Mary’s in 1946. Ten of those strikeouts were swinging.

According to InsidePitching.com, Zimmer’s 14 strikeouts marked the highest strikeout total in week eight of the collegiate baseball season. 

“Each outing, Kyle develops in ways that continue to surprise us,” said Greg Moore, USF associate head coach/pitching coach. “We are grateful to InsidePitching.com for recognizing the results of his hard work. Knowing Kyle, he’ll push himself to be even better next week.”

The 6-foot-3 right-hander yielded just one walk and scattered five hits in 7.2 innings of work. He opened the game on a tear, striking out four of the Gaels’ first six hitters and worked out of trouble in the seventh inning. After giving up a single and walk, and a passed ball advanced the runners to second and third with no outs, Zimmer struck out three straight to end the inning.

Zimmer had this to say after his performance, “I was going off my plan to keep it simple and work off my fastball. I tried to establish both sides of the plate and mix in my spinner and changeup. And Mason [Morioka] did a great job behind the plate to get under everything and give me so many strike calls.”

The La Jolla, Calif. native is scheduled to take the mound again on Saturday, April 16 at Portland.

Not trying to break a story here because reports are already out, but I just got a call from Cal assitant coach Dan Hubbs and yes, in fact, Cal has been reinstated.  He says the players are exicted, obviously, but feels they will keep their momentum because they realize they have something special going and the leadership of the team is very strong.  I hope so, that was my only concern if and when the program was reinstated, that there could be a let down after playing with a chip on their shoulders for so long.

So now the scramble to build a recruiting class starts.  That was why Coach Hubbs called, as I offered to assist them with names of good players I have seen or been hearing of lately.  That type of phone call (and emails/texts) has started to pick up for me recently, with coaches calling just about every day, wondering who I have seen, calling to follow up on things they hear on players, etc. This is the time of year when D1 programs know just about exactly what their remaining needs are for their recruiting classes.  They now know who on their own team can or can't do it and they have a much better idea of how the draft will affect their program, both for their current players and incoming players.

So congratulations to Cal and all involved in that program.  You all did a great job and are to be commended!

I spent a long but good day at Livermore HS on Tuesday, scouting the 5th/3rd/1st place games of the 10th Annual Gordie Classic.  Foothilll defeated Acalanes 15-7 in the 5th place game, Dublin defeated Livermore 7-2 for 3rd place and Monte Vista narrowly edged San Ramon Valley 4-3 in the 1st place game.  The first two games were not great games to watch but the last game was the best high school game I have seen yet this season.  It is always fun to see talented players playing in a highly competitive environment, especially when it is a good rivalry game, played by kids that all basically know each other. 

Working backward, I want to get to the standout players from each game.  This first post will be all about the players in the 1st place game.  Later today or tonight I will get to the other two games.  Again, I don't so much highlight outstanding peformances as much as I want to highlight players with talent that draws my attention. 

Monte Vista vs San Ramon Valley

The two starting pitchers were both D1 scholarship seniors, SRV's LHP John Hochstatter (Stanford) and MV's RHP Cameron Keysor (BYU).  Both had decent days but they weren't as effective as the pitchers who relieved them.  Hochstatter is not all about stuff, rather, he is about having four quality pitches and command of each.  His fastball was in the 84-86 range, maybe a tick above on occasion but that is about normal from what I saw last summer, when I saw a peak of 88 mph at the Area Code Games.  He can locate his offspeed pitches (CB, SL, CHG, though the SL is more of a cutter now) but I was concerned that he had so much trouble putting away lefthanded hitters.  I recognize that MV has some good lefthanded hitters (Robertson/Carr/DiMartino) but frankly, in my opinion, Hochstatter should be better at getting those hitters out.  The definining moment of the game (aside from SRV head coach DeClercq not sending a runner in the 7th inning) was when Hochstatter gave up a 4 spot in the top of the 5th. 

Though I didn't see the early game on Saturday (Turlock beat Granada, 8-2 in 8 innings), I did see two full games and then what seemed like a third full game in the last one.  I left the last game, between Skyline HS and Encinal HS after the 2nd inning and the score was already like 10-7, or more.  The pitching was poor, I saw the hitters I felt I needed or would have wanted to see in that game, so it was time to hit the bricks.

Alameda HS defeated Antioch HS pretty handily, though I don't recall the score (10-1 I think), sorry.  Alameda is one of the better coached high school teams I have seen.  Coach Ken Arnerich and his staff know the game, talk it the right way to the kids, keep the pressure on the other team and generally just have a really good feel for coaching high school players.  This is a good team that lost in the NCS D2 championship to Campolindo HS last year and I expect them to go deep in the playoffs again.  They can pitch, they play defense, they run well and make contact consistently and don't seem to beat themselves like a lot of high school teams do.

I also saw Alameda play on Friday April 1st, against DeAnza HS but it was such a mismatch and poor way to evaluate the Alameda players, I decided to see them against better competition.  The best player for the Hornets is senior SS Brandon Woo (5'9" 160, R/R) who is a D1 caliber baseball player.  Woo runs well (around 4.3 down the line), is a good all-field, contact hitter with the ability to drive the ball in the gaps, can steal a bag, makes his plays on defense, throws well, turns the double play well, and is a versatile athlete who could play 2B or CF.  Woo plays with a quiet intensity and you can tell he is the unquestioned leader of his team.  I think he will get bigger too, judging by his frame, foot size and long fingers (I shook his hand to find out about his hands... most good players have large hands, ask any old-time scout!).

Went in for a second look at Palo Alto, after seeing them narrowly miss defeating St. Francis a few weeks ago.  I have to admit, I wasn't overly impressed with the Palo Alto club that day against SFHS, in the sense that I thought they played ok and their players were solid, but other than lead-off hitter B.J. Boyd, I wasn't really drawn to any of the players.  However, I knew they were better than I was seeing that day and to be honest, I was with a scout friend of mine and we were doing a lot of catching up and chatting so I didn't really grind on the Paly kids as much as I did on the SFHS players.

One player that didn't play against SFHS that day was junior SS Austin Braff, who is a very talented and skilled player.  Braff transferred to Paly from St. Francis and had to sit out some time before being declared eligible and I think had he played, Paly would have won that game.  Moving forward, he was a big reason Paly beat Los Gatos on Wednesday, 7-1 I think was the score.  Braff played spectacular defense, swung the bat well and overall, looked like a legitimate D1 caliber middle infielder.  He showed range and a nice arm, has strength at the plate and a good swing.

Sorry for the late report and frankly, the inactivity since last week... had my 5-year old son with me all weekend and he comes first. 

On Tuesday I went down near my old stomping grounds in The City to see Serra play Sacred Heart Cathedral, at Moscone Park.  In all the years I lived in SF I never once saw a game there, which is a shame, because it is kind of fun.  To me, it is always interesting to see a team come into a different/difficult environment and play.  We always felt at USF that we had an advantage over teams that came into The City to play. 

In any case, I was at the game in large part to look in on a couple of Serra players and to just see if SHC had anything to offer.  On the hill for Serra was senior LHP Barry Timko (signed with U of Nevada), for his second start of the year.  Timko was outstanding, throwing a CG and really never being seriously challenged by the Irish.  I didn't put the radar gun on Timko (6'3" 170 or so... definitely not the 6'2" 190 he is listed on MaxPreps).  I would say he was up to 86, steadily in the 83-85 range and he really did a nice job of pounding the zone, especially the bottom of the zone.  He has also added a nice little slider since last fall and is well on his way to being a real good one at the college level. 

Former USF star OF/LHP Scott Cousins (WCC Player of the Year, 2006) has made the Marlins opening day 25-man roster.  Cousins had a good start to the spring but did finish pretty slowly, however, being young and talented, he is going to get a shot, seemingly at the expense of Dwayne Wise, the outfielder who made the spectacular end of the game catch to preserve Mark Buehrle's perfect game two seasons ago.

Cousins is a Reno native and a graduate of North Valleys H.S.