Casa Grande HS (Petaluma)

Casa took on cross-town rival Petaluma on 2/10/17, so I stopped in to take a peak. 

SS Joe Lampe, 2019
Bouncy and light-feet on this wiry strong 5-foot-11 155-pound shortstop. Strong arm with throws that tracked across the diamond with carry. Moves around the bag confidently with athleticism and feel for playing the position. Very verbal kid on the field and in the dugout, the type of kid who doesn’t like to sit down, would rather hang near the on-deck area and talk the game with teammates. Strong baserunning skills showed up with quick burst on BID opportunities. Offensively he showed the ability to drive the ball, easily getting to pitches on the inner half, with a good top hand that really finishes his swing and allows his power to play up when considering his size. Really intriguing player. 

OF/1B A.J. Miller, 2018
Oregon signee, the chiseled 6-foot-2 205 pound left-handed hitter is one of the top hitting prospects in the region. He showed a very patient approach, willing to take his base and go deep in counts, but also showed that he knows what he wants to hit in count.  He’s a big kid but has a short stroke, with a line drive type swing. Sort of refreshing to see a powerful young hitter not concerned with launch angle. His approach is quite advanced for a high school hitter.

C Cole Santander, 2020
Cal commit, the compact and stout 5-foot-10 185-pound catcher showed tools/skills that drew Cal’s attention to him.  He’s got soft strong receiving hands and threw the ball with decent carry.  His warm-up pop-time of 2.09 was accurate and just a simple between innings throw.  Most impressive was his ability to drive the ball to right-centerfield.  He seemed to look in a spot (outer half) and he got it (twice) he pounded it. Particularly good top hand on the pitch up and away, also strong back hip action through his swing.

Petaluma HS

RHP Gavin Ochoa, 2021
Lanky 6-foot-1 180-pound right-hander with quite a bit of ceiling to reach.  Overhand slot, loose quick arm, and has deception in his delivery as he breaks his hands quickly at separation, sort of speeding up the hitter. That ends up being really useful as he uses his changeup off his low-mid-80s fastball. The changeup is a high quality offering that is going to get swings and misses.

2B Porter Slate, 2018
Lean 6-foot-1 160-pound left-handed hitting infielder with tools that are coming on as he gets bigger and stronger.  Really smooth around the bag on double play turns, quick release and easy flick on throws, showed good range on pop-ups into the outfield.  Offensively showed off a quick bat and short stroke.  Can see him attending a quality JC program and coming out the other side as a D1 caliber player.

 

Cardinal Newman HS (Santa Rosa)

RHP Sean Flowers, 2019
Flowers has been on the radar of a number of college programs as they wait for him to make a jump to the next level of development.  The 6-foot-1 155-pound Flowers showed his quality 3-pitch mix and was working steadily in the mid-80s, showed feel for going in/out, spun the curveball well and used his changeup willingly. The quicker he worked, the better the results.

C Jason Moran, 2018 
Stout and strong 6-foot-1 190-pound catcher showed his gap to gap power and surprising speed, particularly as a catcher. Receiving and blocking were solid. Moran was working through some early season arm soreness, which could have occurred as he transitioned from a football build to baseball shape. He plays the game with a football type mindset and focus, with toughness and no-nonsense approach.  Moran enters his 3^rd year as a starter.

INF Beau Barrington, 2018
The football team’s starting quarterback and one of the county’s best athletes, 6-foot-1 185-pound Barrington showed what I’ve seen of him numerous times, that being the ability to drive the ball to right-centerfield and hit quality pitching. He was playing 2^nd base and some shortstop and his arm plays at any infield spot.  Along with Moran, he returns as a senior off a very strong junior year and will be a starting varsity player for the 4^th season.  Like Moran, it’s head-shaking that he is still available. 

RHP Carson Crawford, 2021
Perhaps the headliner of the scrimmage was Crawford, a long and lean 6-foot-0 160-pound athletic pitcher/shortstop who looks to have all the tools to really emerge on the mound.  His arm is quick, his delivery is athletic, and he’s got three pitches that he can get outs with.  He attacked hitters with the fastball which really set up his big overhand curveball.  When he went up with the fastball he then showed feel of a diving changeup that got swings and misses for outs.  He was in the low-mid-80s but that is going to continue to rise this year and in coming years.  Crawford has a shot to be one of the region’s top 2021 pitchers.

OF Sean Latham, 2020
Left-handed hitter has some electricity in his 5-foot-8 150-pound body and it came out in his swings.  He’s got whippy/buggy-whip type life to his swing which provides some pull-side power, yet he also sprayed the ball the other way with authority.  On a good high school team with a number of good athletes, his raw athleticism and hit/run tools stood out quite clearly.

RHP Matthew McMahon, 2020
Lanky 6-foot-2 150-pound right-hander who really surprised me, as I saw him last summer and though I liked his feel of the zone and ability to mix pitches, the velocity seemed quite far away from coming.  However, in this scrimmage he had a more compact delivery that was allowing for better extension and life at the plate. He again showed feel of the ball and quality secondary pitches. He is still got quite a bit of development (particularly physical) ahead of him but is trending in a really good direction. Always good to have a projection pitcher you can check back in on.

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