Monday, February 25, 2013

College Corner: Hot Tip

Be sure and check out Big League Futures summary of college pitching and hitting performances over the weekend.  No point in me duplicating their work.  Their site is linked over to the left.

PS:  BLF finally has a Draft Profile up on Philip Ervin a guy I think we would all love to see the Giants draft.

7 comments:

  1. I managed to see those 2 Rice pitchers Austin Kubitza and John Simms pitch on TV over the weekend. I know Shankbone likes them, not sure about Drb. Kubitza and Simms are both excellent college pitchers. Austin Kubitza pitched Friday night, his fastball registered 86-88 mph on the radar gun reading on TV. His fastball has good movement on it though.. He threw a lot of good sliders down in the zone from the 3rd inning on, and that was his strikeout pitch (13ks overall). He gave his catcher a good workout too blocking balls in the dirt.. John Simms also pitched 3 innings Friday night with 5 ks (the game lasted 17 innings!). He also started tonights game (Monday) throwing 7 shutout innings. Simms was registering 87-90 MPH on his fastball according the radar gun. He showed a good curveball and changeup too. The most impressive thing about Simms is he had good command of all his pitches.

    Drb-are you tracking these 2 pitchers regarding the draft? If so, do you see them as possible 1st round picks?

    LG

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    1. I saw that boxscore of the 17 inning game and immediately thought of you, LG. Did you actually watch the whole thing? Wow! That is a whole lot of college baseball!

      Yeah, Kubitza seems to be in position for a supplemental or early second round draft pick. His performance in the early going may be boosting his stock. I would be concerned about that velocity, though. I think Rice teaches it's pitcher's to throw a spike curveball which baffles college hitters, but maybe doesn't fool professional hitters so much. Giants reached for a Rice pitcher, David Aardsma in 2003. He had a lot more velocity than it sounds like Kubitza so I don't know if K fits the profile of what the Giants are looking for in the early rounds.

      Maybe the TV gun readings were low? I've read reports of Kubitza getting it up to 93 this season.

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  2. The radar gun readings seemed to be 2-3 mph slower then each pitchers scouting report and there were a sleugh of pitchers! By the way, a couple of those Rice relievers could be drafted too. I was too tense to go to sleep watching a 2-0 game in 17 innings!

    LG

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  3. Austin Wilson goes down for at least 8 weeks - that elbow injury turned out to be a stress fracture. This is important for Los Gigantes because now we have a Victor Roache situation on our hands where Wilson might drop to the end of the 1st round. Klima just wrote him up good, John has always advocated him going pro out of high school to get his 2K ABs as quick as possible. 70 power, but lacking any new development, and the Stanford stigma. I'm not sure how I feel about Wilson, I think I'd rather have Phil Ervin for the all around ability. But definitely a guy who might be in the mix now.

    LG - that is EPIC! Thanks for the report. Of the two, I think I like Simms more from the small amounts of video I've seen. Hope your rainbows re-group and get some Dubs.

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    1. What is the Stanford stigma? That they don't work out as well as thought?

      He would be interesting to get, plus he fits Barr M.O. of following the talent, not the latest results. From what I remember, wasn't he a potential Top 10 pick or at least first round in 2010? I know he fell a lot because of his commitment.

      Can anyone remember when a top pick like that got injured and fell? Could he fall to the Giants into the second round or later round? Like Susac and Osich fell?

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    2. Stanford has a bad rep with developing hitters.

      He does indeed fit the Barr MO. The last time a top guy fell, Victor Roache dropped from top 10 consideration to the BrewCrew in the 20s. That was my example. Here's the rub with Wilson - he already left huge money on the table to go to Stanford, he dropped in his HS draft because of signability. So it will most likely be the same, the dare to go back for senior year. And with Stanford grads, that threat is real.

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    3. The word that I've heard/read is that there is something they teach their hitters at Stanford that causes problems in the pros. I don't know what it is, but it's something very specific and technical in how they teach hitting there.

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