Michael Lorenzen, Fullerton Union High School

Last month I headed out to Fullerton to see the dynamic duo of Michael Lorenzen and Dominic Ficociello. I only got to see half of the duo, as Fico was suspended for coming out of the dugout to congratulate a fellow teammate. My glimpse of Lorenzen left me wanting and needing more. He had a solid game, with a couple of hits, one being a bullet home run to left field, but his swing looked definitely pull oriented, which doesn't always translate best once a hitter starts swinging wood.

Anyway, it was a slow Monday, with few games scheduled, so I wanted to check back in on the two Fullerton boys and perhaps see them in the cage or some BP. I guess my luck regarding Fico isn't good, because he wasn't suited up for today's practice, apparently injured. Bad luck part two was when I saw that the Fullerton varsity squad was playing against the JV team.

Like last month, Lorenzen was playing SS (he started at SS, then shifted to his normal home in CF). After seeing him field ground balls at short today, I think he could slide over to third and make a home there down the line, but he is currently a plus defender in the outfield, so a permanent transition to the infield probably isn't in his future.

To me, Lorenzen is like a Jeff Francouer type, when everyone thought he was going to be a stud.
He is listed at 6'3" and 185 pounds, but he seems a little bigger than that. He's a strong kid, and you can easily see him putting on a good 20 pounds of muscle the next few years. His body resemble that of a young Francouer, thin and strong, but not bulky. Lorenzen brings the whole shed of tools as he can hit, hit for power, run, field and throw. The tools have transitioned to the high school field, as Lorenzen is currently hitting .423, .512, .803. Michael has also swiped 8 bags on 9 attempts and has a BB/K ratio of 11/4. Only seeing him in person on one occasion in an actual game, I can't tell if the walks are a byproduct of him simply being pitched around or if he truly has a firm grasp of the strike zone.

I am glad I was able to see him again at practice today, as he helped to answer a few of the questions that I had about him, and he displayed all of the tools that he possesses. My main concern was whether or not he is just a pure pull hitter, and I saw some evidence today that he is more than just that. In his first at bat (he was using wood) and hit a high chopper for an infield single, he used his plus speed to easily beat the throw at first base. His second at bat he laced a line drive to right field that was caught, but he hit the ball hard, and this was the first time I'd seen him drive the ball the other way. Then came the third at bat, and this is what excites anyone who watches this kid play. He took a pitch on the outer half of the plate and just above knees (pretty much a pitcher's pitch, especially in High School), and laced a line drive that two hopped the right center field wall. Using his plus speed, Lorenzen cruised in for a triple. If I had a better camera, I would have recorded him running the bases, the kid has a great stride. It was nice to see him use the other side of the field, it was almost like he was putting on a show for me. The only thing he didn't do that I would have liked to see, was that he never really worked the count, I believe he only saw five or six pitches in the three at bats. Then again, it was practice.

Some of the other highlights from the scrimmage regarding Lorenzen were a steal of third base, and an even more impressive feat when he scored from second base on a wild pitch. He got a great read on the pitch and there wasn't even a play at the plate, as he beat the pitcher covering the dish.

Another impressive characteristic of Lorenzen is that he comes across as a good kid and a good teammate. Throughout the game last month, and again today, he was often helping teammates with instruction, advice and encouragement. Even after the practice today, he was talking about hitting with a teammate and using a broom as his bat. Overall, I left today's practice very impressed, hopefully next time I'll get to see the other half of this dynamic duo. . .

Will Smith, Minor League Pitcher, RC Quakes

I got a chance to see Will Smith pitch recently and was pretty impressed with what he brings to the mound. He's not a very hyped up prospect, by any means, but he is a guy that could be pitching at the back of the Angels, or another teams rotation for a long time. Baseball America ranked him as just the 15th best Angel prospect entering the season, primarily because he doesn't have front end stuff, but he does mix in three pitches, and he commands them well within the strike zone.

The outing I saw was his first start of the season, against a pretty formidable Inland Empire lineup. The most impressive thing to me was how quick he works, he would make Mark Buerhle proud. He operates with a simple rock and fire delivery which he repeats well. His fastball ranged from 88-91, and it looked like he used a four seamer a few times that touched as high as 93. He used the four seam up in the zone, and a two seamer that has nice run to it and he was able to get some good sink at times as well. The ability to mix up the look on the fastball is a definite asset, and he had great success on this night, taking a no hitter into the fifth innning. He did run into some trouble, and he finished with a line of 6 IP, 3H, 2BB, 6K's and he allowed 3 earned runs. He did allow a home run to Preston Mattingly, which was a "Cal Leaguer" and probably wouldn't have been a home run in several other parks.

Smith mixes his pitches very well, he commands a solid change around 80 MPH that has good sink and fade away from a right handed hitter. His curveball wouldn't be considered a plus pitch, it has average break, but he varied the speed between 75-80 and commanded the pitch well. He doubled up with the curveball on at least one occasion too, and the change in velocities particularly plays up when he did this.

Smith is the kind of pitcher that the whole package is better than the individual parts, which is why I could see him at the back of a rotation in the bigs down the road. He doesn't have the huge fastball, or wipeout slider, but he uses his full arsenal to his advantage, changes speeds and commands the zone. He knows his stuff, he trusts his stuff, and he can command his stuff, and that will often lead to a pitcher's success.

Being sick isn't fun

I'm hoping to get something posted tomorrow, I've been sick for about a week and my daughter is getting over strep throat (good times). I did get out to a game yesterday, and saw Yucaipa's Taijuan Walker pitch again, and he threw a no hitter. I believe that was the second no hitter I've seen, the other was also this year, by Scotty Frazier. It's a little weird, I didn't even realize Walker threw a no no until I read the paper this morning and checked Maxpreps to check his pitching line (3 walks, 9 k's).

Walker looked much better yesterday than when he pitched against Redlands East Valley a few weeks back. He was working at a much quicker pace and was mixin his offspeed much better. He missed up in the zone a lot again, but he was able to overpower most of the Eisenhower hitters. Yesterday he was working at 90-92 and touched 93 with his slider and change coming in around 80-83. I look forward to seeing more of him in the near future. . .

Zack Weiss, RHP, Northwood High (Irvine, CA)

Listed at 6'2", 195 pounds, Zack Weiss uses his strong legs to generate a fastball that topped out at 94 (two times) today. Most of his fastballs came in at 89-91 with good armside movement when he keeps the pitch down in the zone. Weiss maintained his velocity late into the game, hitting 92 and 94 in the seventh inning.

Some of the scouts at today's game were debating if Weiss was throwing a slider, so I looked at some of the video from the bullpen and it was in deed a slider that he was mixing in. From behind the plate, the slider looks a lot like the curve, but it comes in at 79-82, where the curve was coming in at 74-78. I thought either he was varying the velo on the curve or not getting on top of the curve which was giving it more velo with less break, but it is in fact a slider. If you look at the clip below, you can see that he strides slightly towards the right hand batters box. This allows him to generate a lot of torque which enables him to snap off a big curveball and also adds to his deception as the ball is harder to pick up out of his hand. Weiss' change-up lags behind his other offerings quite a bit. The pitch had inconsistent movement and very shabby command. When warming up between innings, he flashed a change that had good sink and arm side fade, but I didn't see this pitch at all during the game. He struggled with his release point on the change, bouncing the pitch a few times, and leaving the pitch up in the zone on several other occasions.

Aside from the issues with his change-up, Weiss was able to command his fastball and curveball quite well. From the third base side, you can see he sometimes lands harder and on his heal and this was usually when he would miss up in the zone. A few times he missed up in the zone with the fastball and that was the only time El Toro really hit the ball hard. Today he only gave up one run (they won 2-1), and that run shouldn't have scored, as the CF airmailed the cutoff man and the runner was able to come around and score.

The main thing for me regarding Weiss is can he take the next step. His body is pretty thick right now, and he isn't overly athletic. He does have large feet, I could see him growing another inch or two as he gets into his late teens, which would definitely help his cause. I just don't see a ton of projectability with him though, primarily because he seems to lack some athleticism. But time will tell. . . .

Tale of the Tape

Today I'm gonna take a look at two of the premiere catching prospects in Southern California, Stafon Sabol of Aliso Niguel, and Jake Hernandez of Los Osos. Listed at 6'2", 200 pounds Hernandez has a solid body for a catcher.

Toot the Horn

Was a rainy day in SoCal today, which means I stayed inside, took the kid to John's Incredible Pizza and didn't get a whole lot done. Soooooo, instead of doing a full write-up, I'm just gonna take a look at something I posted a month or so ago over at http://www.minorleagueball.com and toot my own horn a bit, as some of the things I mentioned have kinda come true. This is my write-up of Garret Cole vs Sonny Gray when Vandy was in town to play UCLA.
Garret Cole looked very good, was pitching mid 90’s and topped out at 99 on one pitch in the first inning. He hit three batters in the first inning, yet didn’t give up a run as he struck out two and got an out at third base when a weak ground ball got by the third basemen and the SS got the baserunner out as he rounded third.

Cole mixed up his arm angle a bit, dropping down to a low 3/4 arm angle. He has more movement on his fastball than Gray.

Gray was pitching around 93-94, think he topped out at 96, fastball was a little straighter then Cole’s, but still had some good run to it. .

Neither really seemed to throw a change up, Cole didn’t really need to as he was pretty much in control of things as the score got a little out of hand.

Gray looked better than the box score showed, the bullpen came in mid inning and I believe two of the inherited runners came around to score. One of the runs came on a hit to RF, that the RF didn’t field cleanly and he probably would have thrown the guy out at the plate had he came up with it cleanly.

It was an interesting matchup because of the big difference in the size of the two pitchers. Cole has the great pitchers body, at 6’ 4"or so and Gray is all of 5’ 10" or so. Gray is definitely gonna get labeled as the injury risk, should he be a reliever type of label come draft time because of his size and he is kind of a max effort guy. The max effort with the lack of the third pitch, the pen may end up his home. (he may have a decent third pitch, but he didn’t show it yesterday).

UCLA didn’t really pound the ball off of Gray, there were a few hard hit balls into the left center gap, Gallego hit a triple into the gap which was probably the best hit ball off of him. .

It seemed a little odd after watching BP, most of the UCLA hitters didn’t really show much pop, they seem to be built similarly to CSUF, which seems to be the trend now. I was surprised to see in their notes that they had hit ten HR’s in the first four games of the season. Vandy has some big boys that made more of an impression in BP.

Joe Loftus doesn’t have a textbook swing, with his hands very low, but it seems to work for him. The ball jumps off his bat.

Aaron Westlake is a huge young man, listed at 6’3 236 he is listed as a catcher/1b but played LF. Big Swing, can put a jolt into the ball, but i don’t see him playin much OF w/ his body.

Anthony Gomez made an impression in BP, he’s a freshman, but didn’t play. I guess he’s the back up SS. I was disappointed he didn’t play, because he had a nice swing and he looks like he could be a big bat at SS

Cole still has the highest upside of the guys I have seen pitch this year, and his numbers this year have backed up his big stuff. I'm more impressed/happy with my call of Anthony Gomez. Since that write-up, he has moved to second base and has started twenty games, and has played in 29. Among the "regulars", Gomez is leading the team in batting at .475 (80 AB's) and has a .563 Slugging Percentage. He'll probably have to be a little more patient (only 3 BB's!!!), but he isn't striking out at all either (just 2 K's)

I had some technical difficulties (forgot to charge my battery), so not a lot of pic's, but a few are up top, and a little video below. . .

Minor Report: Ethan Martin

So yesterday I got to hit up my first minor league game of the young season, and took in a pretty solid pitching matchup as Ethan Martin of the Inland Empire 66'ers faced Will Smith of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. OK, it didn't end up quite the pitching matchup in the end, but the first five innings or so were pretty impressive. Today I'll take a look at Ethan Martin, and I'll try to do a write-up on Smith later in the week.

Martin is very athletic, especially for a pitcher. He looks more like a middle infielder, and he was a two way player coming up through High School. The former first round pick is listed at 6'2" and 195 pounds. Martin employs a simple delivery which he repeats very well. Last night Martin was primarily working with his fastball/curveball, and also mixed in a change, which is definitely his third pitch right now.

I didn't get behind the plate until the second inning, and Martin was pitching at 92-93 for the most part, and hit 95 a few times. The pitch had good life, with late arm side movement. For the most part, Martin was able to command the strikezone with the fastball. Martin's curveball is truly nasty. His curve was coming in around 80-84 with sharp two plane break. At one point he threw three straight curveballs to strike out a Quakes hitter, and all three had great break and good location. His command of the pitch, at least last night, was solid. A few times he didn't get on top of the pitch and the pitch was well out of the strike zone, up and away to a lefthanded hitter. Martin's third pitch is a change, and it lags well behind his two primary offerings. The pitch comes in with similar velocity to his curveball, ranging from 80-83. The change looks like it could be a split finger, as he starts with this grip as he takes the sign from the catcher. The pitch had inconsistent movement when he threw it, primarily when warming up. Sometimes the pitch had good armside fade and sink, while other times it appeared to be straighter with some sink. He lacked command with pitch last night.

Martin's pitching line from last night was 5 IP, 3H, 0R, 0BB, and an impressive 9 K's. One of the hits was an infield hit. I didn't note his pitch count, but he only went the five innings since it was his first start of the year. I was very impressed with Martin. He delivers easy velo from his simple delivery and the ball comes out of his hand very easily. The development of his change up will determine his future. He should be, at least, a solid bullpen option similar to Scot Shields early in his career, when he was primarily a two pitch guy offering a plus fastball with a big curve. If the change develops he could be pitching behind Clayton Kershaw in the rotation, his first two pitches are THAT good.