There was lots of great pitching on the first Friday night of the 2011 college baseball season in spite of several rainouts in Southern California. Let's go to the rundown:
Matt Purke, LHP, TCU: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K. Good to see TCU being conservative with their prized prospect.
Gerrit Cole, RHP, UCLA: 9 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 11 K's. His opponent, Matt Lujan of San Francisco put up a nice line too: 8 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 9 K's. Lujan is a senior LHP.
Taylor Jungmann, RHP, Texas: 9 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K's.
Danny Hultzen, LHP, Virginia: 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 10 K's.
Ricky Oropesa and USC were rained out.
I've already found a couple of sleepers for the later rounds:
Brandon Meredith OF San Diego State: Now a junior, Meredith was the first high schooler to hit a ball out of Petco Park. He's always been able to hit. He's a big burly fellow with a barrel chest listed at 6'2", 225 lbs who played 1B is fresman season at SDSU then moved to RF last year. He has more speed than you'd think from a kid his size and has a strong throwing arm. He was projected as a third baseman out of HS. In terms of size, he reminds me a lot of Thomas Neal and Chuckie Jones from among current Giants prospects. Here's his batting lines from his first two seasons:
2009: .309/.415/.465, 7 HR.
2010: .383/.486/.542, 7 HR, 9 SB.
In last night's 12-9 loss to Winthrop, Meredith had a great game going 3 for 5, 2B, HR.
He's not listed in BA's College Top 100. Could be a nice sleeper pick in round 5 or 6. I'll be following him closely this year.
Villanova might have another nice sleeper hitter after producing Matt Szczur last year. This year it's Matt Fleishman, OF. Last night, Matt put up a line of 4 for 5, 2 2B while batting cleanup for the Wildcats. The line caught my eye so I looked up his prior stats. In one year of JC ball in 2009 he put up a line of .315/.371/.582 with 7 HR. Last year, he hit .276/.359/.439 with 3 HR while missing a month of the season with an illness. He's 6'2", 200 lb. Look for a breakout this year and a mid-round draft.
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We're enjoying a 4 game series between Hawaii and #9 Oregon over the weekend here. It features 3 prospects in BA's top 100: #15 Kolten Wong (2ndbase)for Hawaii - who Peter Gammons compared to a young Carlos Baerga during the Cape Cod League. I've really loved watching this kid play since he was a freshman. #16 (LHP) Tyler Anderson of Oregan pitched well last night, 6 innings 1 run 4 hits 3ks. He showed a low 90's fastball last night and a good slider. #40 Scott McGough (RHP), Oregan's closer, who we can see will be drafted in the top 5 rounds also.
ReplyDeleteTyler Anderson is another possibility for the Giants at #29 or in the supplemental round. I really like Kolten Wong, although I wish he played SS. I'll have to check out McGough.
ReplyDeleteOregon has one of the best college coaches, formerly of CS Fullerton, I believe. He took them from being a brand new program to national prominence in just 3 seasons.
This stuff is a TON of fun to read, Dr. B!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's a ton of fun to look this stuff up and write about it too! I wouldn't be doing it for any other reason.
ReplyDeleteKolten Wong hasn't played (SS) in his college career, but he did a great job as the starting (CF) for Hawaii his Freshman year. They moved him to 2nd base his sophmore year because of a team need. I understand he'll do a little catching this year as well.
ReplyDeleteGreat prediction on Matt Fleishman. Put up some outstanding numbers in 2011 and has a very strong arm.
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