5 Tool Talk - Draft-Related Baseball Notes

College Notes 2-20-11

College baseball has returned, and I would like to start this notes column by thanking the likes of Perfect Game’s Kendall Rogers, Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt and College Baseball Daily’s Brian Foley for their fine coverage of the college game. As you may imagine, I’m particularly happy to be associated with Rogers, who has been cranking out a ton of coverage since he joined Perfect Game a few short weeks ago, and I don’t think he slept at all this past weekend.

I did have one game to watch, a matchup between South Florida and #1 Florida. I’m not going to go too in-depth about the Gators as a whole, as I’m sure by now, if you’re a fan of the college game, you’re already well aware just how loaded they are.

Impressive two-way talent Brian Johnson, who isn’t draft-eligible until next year, took the mound to start the Gators’ season, and looked pretty good facing the minimum through his six innings of work.

Brian Johnson

Last year I was on record here as saying that I may prefer Johnson as a hitter given his patient eye and smooth left-handed swing. He can still swing it (he went 2-for-4 in this game), hitting a pair of doubles including one to deep left-centerfield, but he looked pretty sharp on the mound.

First of all, he’s a pretty big fella, and it looks as though he has added some significant strength since last season (a common trend with a lot of the Florida players, as it looks as though several of the players really hit the weight room since last spring). He doesn’t overpower hitters with his stuff, but he does a great job upsetting their timing by changing speeds and moving the ball around the zone. He allowed only two hits in this game, both of which were wiped out by double plays, and neither of which were hit particularly hard. Overall he induced a lot of grounders and struck out six batters.

His fastball has some dip to it, and he also throws a slider, curveball and changeup for strikes. His slider is his best of his offspeed pitchers, although he did pull the string a couple of times on a really nice looking change. His curve is a slow tumbler, but he does a nice job dropping it into the zone.

He also had a nice defensive play with quick reactions on a ball hit right back to him to start one of the two double plays mentioned above. He will be a name to follow over the next year-plus at Florida, and if someone like Danny Hultzen can go in the middle of the first round in this year’s draft, there’s no reason to believe Johnson can’t do the same in next year’s.

Anthony DeSclafani

I’ll stay with the pitchers before profiling the Gators’ hitters, and one big reason why Florida’s depth and overall talent level is so impressive is that their weekend rotation consists of two sophomores (Johnson and Hudson Randall) and freshman sensation Karsten Whitson. Desclafani, and Alex Panteliodis, who also pitched in this game and will be profiled next, have been shift to more diversified roles.

DeSclafani is the best looking athlete of the pitchers I will cover here (freshman Jonathan Crawford also pitched in this game, but I was trying to focus on the 2011 and 2012 draft-eligibles). He has a tall, well proportioned athletic build, and is another of the Florida players that looks as though he spent a lot of time fine-tuning his physique. He had the tendency to elevate his fastball, which didn’t have much, if any, movement on it, but there was some deception out of his hand thanks to some herk and jerk to his delivery. He threw both a slider and a slow curve, with the slider having more potential, but both needing more bit and consistency.

Alex Panteliodis

Panteliodis doesn’t fall into the camp of those that looked as though they hit the weight room hard, as he’s a little soft through the mid-section, but is far from what you would label a ‘hefty lefty.’ He too elevates his fastball, and gets a lot of the strike zone. He gave up double-digit home runs a year ago, and gave up another in his one inning of work. He doesn’t throw particularly hard, but he commands the strike zone well. He also repeats his delivery and overall mechanics pretty well, and isn’t afraid to challenge hitters with his fastball.

Nolan Fontana

Onto the hitters, starting with the Gators’ leadoff man. Fontana is known more for his glove than his bat, committing only four errors during his freshman year a season ago. He has a very patient eye at the plate, and draws a ton of walks, thus his placement atop the order. He had four hits in the game, although none of them were hit particularly hard, and none of them were in the air either (two snuck through the left side of the infield, one through the right, and one he out-ran for an infield single).

I saw Fontana drive the ball better a year ago, and it is always important to remember this is only one game (the first game of the year at that). That said, he will have to drive the ball more consistently, although his approach serves him well. He’s a good looking athlete, and while he’s not diminutive by any means, he also doesn’t appear to have much more room to get bigger. I like how he moves at the shortstops position, with soft hands and naturals weight transfer to go along with a strong arm. He also has some speed on the bases.

Preston Tucker

Tucker is also a little soft through the mid-section, and I was a little surprised to heard a few weeks ago that he would start the year in right field. He’s not a bad athlete, and he’s not obviously over weight, but conditioning will continue to be a concern moving forward.

He does have strong arms and sloped shoulders with a good approach at the plate. He had three hits in this game, including a double and a two-run home run. On the double he turned on a high, inside fastball to lace a rope down the right field line. He hit an RBI single in the third in which he looped a curveball the other way into shallow left field. His home run in the fifth was a golf shot, going down low and using his strength to muscle the ball over the fence in right-centerfield.

Austin Maddox

Maddox is an impressive athlete, now playing first base this year. I think he’s at first and Tucker is in right because Maddox doesn’t run the greatest. He does have a very strong arm that would profile well in right field, as it did at third base last year and behind the plate during his prep days.

His power potential is incredibly obvious, with good bat speed and an effortless load and swing path in which he generates torque from the bottom up. He didn’t have a hit in this game, but he put an easy swing on an outside fastball that traveled to the warning track in right field for a sacrifice fly. Comparisons to another former prep catcher and Gator, Matt LaPorta, are going to be connected to this young man for the next year-plus.

Michael Zunino

Zunino is yet another player that added some strength to his frame in the last six months. He’s somewhat similar to Fontana in that I really like his actions defensively, as Zunino has nice lateral movement, soft hands and a strong arm as a catcher, but I’m not so sure how well he’s going to hit at the next level. There is power in his swing, as he doesn’t get cheated, but there are also holes in that swing too. Like so many of the Florida hitters, he will take pitchers and draw his fair share of walks while working the count, but he is also going to swing and miss quite a bit as well.

Kamm Washington

I was interested in seeing Washington again this year after noting him as a potential sleeper a year ago. He’s playing center full-time for the Gators this year, taking over for Matt den Dekker. Washington isn’t the same dynamic athlete that den Dekker was/is, and also doesn’t appear to play the outfield as instictively. Then again, Washington is only a sophomore, and is in his first year of regular playing time. He’s a left-handed hitter with a modest build and a level swing path. His swing is made for line drives, and he has some speed with a solid approach.

Zack Powers

Powers is another member of the Gators impressive freshman class that includes Whitson, Crawford, Daniel Gibson and Keenan Kish. I know I said I was focusing on the 2011 and 2012 draft eligibles, but Powers really caught my eye, and I believe he will be a much bigger part of this team in the years to come. He has a great approach at the plate in which he seems to be going up the middle and the other way, and smacked some balls hard. He has good size with sloped shoulders with good present day strength and room to add more.

HTML Comment Box is loading comments...

Dandy Dozen

SP	Andrew Gagnon	Well rounded RHP w/ good size, repertoire
SP	Erik Johnson	Big bodied RHP with good FB/CB combo
SP	Deshorn Lake	Live-armed RHP with sharp breaking ball
CL	Nick Maronde	Lived-armed LHP tough to catch up to
C	Nick Delmonico	May not be C long-term, big body, LH bat
1B	Zach Wilson	Aggressive hitter can put sting in ball
IF	Sean Trent	Well built hitter with pop, speed, arm
3B	Dante Bichette, Jr.	Clone of father with big build, power
SS	Austin Nola	Steady D' at shortstop, improving strength
OF	Nick Martini	Good all around player with patient eye
OF	Shon Carson	Shorter, well built 2-sport speedster
OF	Granden Goetzman	Fast riser w/ exciting power/speed combo

more

Analyzing Amateur Baseball Talent as it pertains to the MLB Draft