By Nathan Rode
National Supervisor

Starting on July 26, I embarked on a baseball binge, traveling to five cities across the country over the course of 29 days. In that time, I went to Tampa for the East Coast Professional Showcase; Indianapolis for the Prep Baseball Report Future Games; Long Beach, CA, for the Area Code Games; Chicago for the Under Armour All-America Game; and New York City for the Metropolitan Baseball Classic. Squeezed between Chicago and New York were two nights at home where my clothes went from my suitcase into the laundry and back into my suitcase.

To wrap up the trip, I’m going back through my notes and highlighting players that stood out the most. We started with 2016 pitchers. Next, we’ll look at 15 position players from the 2016 class that stood during my travel.

Mike Amditis, C, Boca Raton HS, FL
Currently overseas in Japan with Team USA, Amditis has proven to be a steady player all summer. He doesn’t have one tool that jumps off the page, but he’s solid across the board. He makes accurate throws to second base and hovers around 2.0 seconds with his pop times and he takes a slightly uphill path at the plate and makes consistent contact. He went 2-for-8 at East Coast Pro, striking out just once in four games, and then added some insurance for the National squad in the Under Armour Game. After going hitless in his first two at-bats, the Miami recruit stepped to the plate in the bottom of the eighth with the bases loaded and his team already up 7-5. He jumped on a fastball from RHP Nick Hanson (Prior Lake HS, MN) and deposited it over the left field wall for a grand slam. His bat flip and hop before breaking into his home run trot assured everyone watching that he knew it was gone.