As part of Perfect Game's partnership with Baseball Prospectus, David Rawnsley and Patrick Ebert will be conducting a “Before They Were Pros” series, providing scouting reports on some of the top prospects in baseball from when they were in high school attending PG events. This six-part series (one for each division in MLB) will appear once Baseball Prospectus has provided their own detailed scouting reports of the top prospects, team-by-team, as part of their own series.
We wrap up the series with a look at the American League West. Be sure to read Baseball Prospectus' features on each of the five teams:
Rangers | Mariners | Athletics | Astros | Angels
And here are links to the other 'Before They Were Pros' series already conducted:
NL East | NL Central | AL East | NL West | AL Central
Alex Gonzalez – RHP
The Orioles selected and signed a number of late-round high-school pitchers in the 2009-2011 period that were projectable physically and polished on the mound. A couple of them appear on their present top prospect list and could make their MLB debuts this year, including left-hander Tim Berry and right-hander Zach Davies.
The one that got away was Gonzalez, who the Orioles failed to sign after making him their 11th-round pick out of Boca Raton (Fla.) High School in 2010.
In high school, Gonzalez was a 6-foot-3, 185-pounder who generally sat in the 86-88 mph range and occasionally touched a bit higher. His best pitch was a slurve-type curveball that often got up into the 75-77 mph area with hard biting action. Notes in the PG database indicate that Gonzalez threw his curveball perhaps too much but that he also showed lots of life on his fastball and had the present ability to work the outside corner to both right- and left-handed hitters.
Two things happened to Gonzalez while he attended Oral Roberts. The first was that Gonzalez got stronger and fulfilled his physical projection, thus seeing his fastball move from the upper 80s to the low 90s, usually working in the 91-93 mph range. The second was that Oral Roberts coach Rob Walton taught Gonzalez how to throw a cutter, and Gonzalez took to it like a natural, especially in the rare ability to throw it with pretty much the same velocity as his normal four-seam fastball.
Those two things combined enabled Gonzalez to post a 9-5, 1.83 mark as a junior in 2013, including 126 strikeouts and only 27 walks in 113 innings, and move himself into a solid first round position. The Rangers took him with the 23rd-overall pick.
Gonzalez is known throughout the baseball world, of course, as "Chi Chi." When people of my generation think of that name, many of us think of the charismatic golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez and that is the first thing one sees when one types "Chi Chi" into a search engine. According to published reports, Gonzalez got the nickname from his grandfather, who called one of his sisters Nina, the other Nene and Alex "Chi Chi." Perhaps in another 10 years, the first Chi Chi we'll think about and find on the Internet is the Rangers right-hander. —David Rawnsley
Lewis Brinson – OF
The 2012 draft class was loaded with high-school outfielders and Brinson was the sixth high-school outfielder taken despite being the 29th overall pick. He was preceded by Byron Buxton (second overall), Alberto Almora (sixth), David Dahl (10th), Courtney Hawkins (13th) and D.J. Davis (17th). But at draft time, the consensus was that of those half dozen young outfielders, only Buxton had a higher ceiling athletically than Brinson.
Brinson was a fun athlete to watch play, with a loose 6-foot-4, 180-pound build that was both graceful and quick-twitch. He also played the game happy and loose and outwardly enjoyed himself on the baseball field.
His jumps and routes in the outfield were raw at that point, but his high-end speed made anything hit to the middle of the field within his range. He ran a 6.39 at the Florida State High School All-Star game in Sebring two weeks prior to the draft, which certainly got everyone's attention.
Brinson's swing generated surprising power for such an angular athlete. He loaded his hands deep with somewhat of an arm-bar approach and had a big stride and shift into contact. But the raw bat speed was definitely there. A sentence in PG's pre-draft report on Brinson reads "catching up to high-velocity fastballs will not be an issue with Brinson based on what he has shown thus far."
The issue virtually every scout acknowledged going into the draft was that Brinson was a four-tool player, with a big question mark on the hit tool. He could get very long at times, and the big shift into contact left him off balance as well. Brinson did hit .394-4-21 as a senior at Coral Springs High School but continued to show some swing-and-miss in his approach. —David Rawnsley
Travis Demeritte – 3B
Demeritte was a mainstay for the East Cobb Braves during his high-school career and played in two dozen Perfect Game events, including the 2012 PG All-American Classic, and finished his high-school career ranked no. 19 in the 2013 class rankings. It would be difficult to accurately count how many times this scout has seen Demeritte play in both tournament and showcase settings.
Two things stand out when looking back at Demeritte's pre-professional scouting resume with what he's accomplished with the Rangers since being their first-round pick (30th overall) in 2013.
First, while Demeritte played shortstop and pitched at Winder-Barrow High School in Georgia, he only played third base (along with an occasional trip to the mound, where he was regularly 89-91 mph) for the Braves. And he was simply outstanding defensively, as good a defensive third baseman as one will find at that level. Demeritte showed all the ingredients of a potential Gold Glove defender at third; the cat like quickness, the soft hands and the accurate cannon arm. He actually played third base like a shortstop, setting up deeper than the usual third baseman and consistently made far-ranging plays that showed off his athletic gifts on defense.
As a professional, Demeritte has played 92 games at second base, 26 games at third base and 25 games at shortstop. It goes without saying that if his offensive potential comes together he has more value in the middle infield. But he could be an impactful defensive third baseman as well.
Offensively, it should surprise no one who watched him extensively as an amateur that he has produced both power and copious strikeout totals. Demeritte hit from an open right-handed stance that he never closed about 90 percent of the time I saw him over a three-year period. He hunted inside fastballs and hanging breaking balls and crushed them. But because he was so open, not only with his feet but with his front side, he was easy prey to a pitcher who could spot his fastball outside and his breaking ball or changeup off the outside corner. He didn't have the balance or the reach to cover that part of the zone.
There was one event, the 2012 17u PG World Series, when Demeritte noticeably made the adjustment and closed off his stance, and he absolutely raked at that event. —David Rawnsley
D.J. Peterson – 1B/3B
A handful of impressive hitters have emerged from the Southwest part of the nation in recent years, including Peterson, his younger brother Dustin (a second round pick of the Padres in 2013), Boston Red Sox farmhand Blake Swihart, and soon-to-be professional hitter Alex Bregman, one of college baseball's biggest bats.
While Dustin Peterson, Swihart, and Bregman were all well-known and premium talents coming out of high school, D.J. Peterson fell to the 33rd round of the draft, getting a token selection by the Seattle Mariners in the 2010 draft before heading to play at the University of New Mexico.
In college Peterson developed into one of the most lethal bats eligible for the 2013 draft, with the ability to hit for both average and power while displaying a keen eye at the plate. It remained unclear whether he would be able to stay at third base long term, and others questioned the historical success of right-handed hitting power hitters coming out of college.
Here's his pre-draft report from, when he was ranked the 13th overall draft-eligible player:
(Peterson) hit a robust .419-17-78 (33 BB/29 SO) as a sophomore for the Lobos, led USA Baseball’s college-national team in homers last summer and has continued to swing the bat at a fast clip this spring as his .406 average, 20 doubles, 13 homers and 53 RBI (as of late April) are all club-leading figures by wide margins. Peterson has a smooth, balanced, disciplined swing that transitions easily to wood and enables him to generate easy raw power. He has shown no difficulty turning around high-velocity fastballs or recognizing the best breaking stuff in the college game. He also has a very mature approach to hitting and has become very adept at grinding out at-bats in his quest to find a pitch he can drive, or simply draw a walk. The remainder of Peterson’s tools aren't as strong, but he’s a better runner underway than he is generally given credit for. Defensively, he has adequate actions and a playable arm at third, but his hands and footwork are a little short and he may not be long for that position, with first base or an outfield corner likely destinations. Where Peterson might end up in the field is almost incidental to where he might be drafted as teams know they are buying an advanced bat with significant home run potential.
As part of his Draft Focus report that same spring, Frankie Piliere compared Peterson's overall profile to that of Paul Konerko, an upside the Mariners had in mind when they picked him yet again, this time with the 12th overall selection, in the 2013 draft. —Patrick Ebert
Austin Wilson – OF
Wilson both looked and acted the part of the high-ceiling prospect at Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles. He was listed at 6-foot-4, 200 pounds and notes from the 2009 PG National Showcase reference "his Andre Dawson-look with the tapered waist, but the overall frame to hold 230 pounds in the future easily."
His tools spoke just as loudly, especially when it came to power tools. When Wilson squared up a ball, it exploded with that sound one rarely hears. He didn't have much lift in his swing, but often just overpowered the ball with strength and leverage at contact. Wilson's arm strength was also a power tool; he registered 98 mph from the outfield at that National Showcase with a long and fast, low-effort release. On top of it, Wilson also regularly ran in the 6.7s in the 60-yard dash.
Based on those tools, it was pretty clear that Wilson, who was also a Perfect Game All-American, was a likely first-round draft pick in 2010. But that wasn't going to happen without a team taking a big risk. Wilson's mother and father had undergraduate degrees from MIT and Stanford respectively, and both had MBAs from Harvard. Education was paramount in the Wilson household and Austin was signed with Stanford. The Cardinals picked him in the 12th round and made a hard run at him to no avail.
Wilson had a solid three-year career at Stanford, hitting .311-5-30 as a freshman, .285-10-51 as a sophomore, and .288-5-26 as junior despite missing most of the first half of the season with an elbow injury.
That elbow injury and Wilson's drop in performance did impact his draft status a bit, leaving him still available for the Mariners with the 49th overall pick. Wilson signed for a $1.7 million bonus, $590,000 over the MLB recommendation for that slot.
It is worth noting that despite signing after his junior season at Stanford, Wilson did manage to graduate on time in four years, even getting to wear the cap and gown at the ceremony when it coincided with the Midwest League All-Star break last June. —David Rawnsley
Matt Olson – 1B
That Olson has been a high-level performer for the A's from the start of his professional career should not come as a surprise as that is precisely what he did at Parkview High School in North Atlanta. Olson led Parkview to two straight Georgia Class 5A titles as a two-way standout, hitting .407-11-51 as a senior and going 12-1, 1.64 on the mound.
What was actually a bit surprising was that the A's ventured the 47th overall pick in the 2012 draft on Olson, as he generally wasn't considered quite that level of prospect by the scouting community as a whole. A large part of that was Olson's profile. He was a 7.6 runner in the 60-yard dash, although he was agile and athletic around the bag on defense. And though he was able to produce steady upper-80s fastballs on the mound, his overall profile fit best at first base. In other words, you were betting on the bat and strictly the bat. Olson, who was an excellent student, also had a ride to Vanderbilt and the potential to be a two-way star at that top program.
The key to his being drafted that high, of course, was his performance. Olson was outstanding at the final national event he played the previous summer, wearing the gaps out at the 2011 East Coast Professional Showcase in front of a big crowd of scouting directors and cross-checkers. And as Oakland scouting director Eric Kubota noted in articles written immediately after the 2012 draft, Olson hit home runs off both Lucas Sims (the 21st overall pick) and Duane Underwood (67th) that spring in what were undoubtedly very heavily scouted matchups.
The moral of the story is that if you are going to bet big on a bat, you better not be projecting the ability to perform. That has to be a present skill. —David Rawnsley
Chad Pinder – 2B/3B
Pinder enjoyed a successful tour playing in Perfect Game-based tournament events during his high-school career, leading to him being ranked 176th in the high-school class of 2010. At 6-foot, 170 pounds, he wasn't overly physical, but was a gamer that always seemed to come through when his team needed him to, whether it be at the plate, on the basepaths, or defensively in the infield.
Here's a collection of some of the notes from PG's database from those events:
Made hard contact, good hands … quick, long stride, quick out of box, gets on base, avg power … good approach, great top hand, rotational backside hitter, avg to good (batspeed) … tall, narrow stance, toe-tap trigger, flat path, slight bat wrap.
At Virginia Tech, Pinder carried a similar profile leading all the way up to 2013 when the Athletics took him in the supplemental second round of the draft, with the usual “low-ceiling, high-floor” description accompanying his draft report.
So while he did pretty much everything well, nothing really stood out aside from the sum of his parts. He hit for a high average, including during his time spent in both the Coastal Plain and Cape Cod summer collegiate leagues swinging a wood bat. However, he didn't project for a ton of over-the-fence power with most of his extra-base hits going to the alleys. While he was a versatile overall athlete, he lacked the ideal range for shortstop, although he profiled very well defensively at third base. He wasn't a burner, but he ran the bases well and showed an overall high baseball IQ.
Such players, or infield 'tweeners, seem destined for second base, and that's exactly where his value was deemed the highest coming out of college, when he was ranked he 53rd best draft-eligible player as the 2013 draft approached. —Patrick Ebert
Brett Phillips – OF
The fact that Phillips was a sixth-round draft pick out of high school is notable because entering 2013 he wasn't even on the scouting radar. Although he'd gained enough attention to sign with North Carolina State, Phillips wasn't ranked in the Perfect Game top 500. He'd never appeared in a national-level showcase, played at the WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, and even took off most of his summer before his senior year from any baseball activities.
That fall, on a whim, Phillips decided to try to play high school football despite not having played yet in high school. He ended up playing in the Pinellas County All-Star game following the season. Watching this video is pretty instructive when you look at Phillips as an athlete. Just in the first three minutes there are highlights of him playing running back, wide receiver, quarterback, linebacker, safety, blocking a kick, and kicking an extra point. It's impressive to watch, especially in the context of his having never played at that level before.
So when Phillips came to the PG World Showcase in Fort Myers, Fla., the first weekend in January, 2013, he not only wasn't on the radar, he hadn't played any real baseball in six to seven months.
All Phillips did there was light it up and immediately put his name on scouts' "must see" list. He threw 96 mph, ran a 6.7 60-yard dash, and lined the ball all over the field with a short and strong left-handed swing. Here's his report from that event:
Medium athletic build, some present strength. Excellent run/throw tools, 6.76 in the 60. 96 mph OF arm strength with on line carry, moves to the ball well, good overall actions. Left-handed hitter, spread stance, gets hands back, simple load and swing mechanics, hits off hard front side, short quick stroke, squares up well, line drive contact all fields, has some bat speed and gap power. High energy player, defense really stands out and has a chance with the bat.
Getting a talent like Phillips for a sixth-round pick and a $300,000 signing bonus is quite a scouting coup. The Astros surely knew about the aptitude and athletic ability that Phillips showed with his football experiment as a senior, and those traits have served him well thus far in his baseball career. —David Rawnsley
Colin Moran – 3B
Pure hitter is a term reserved for players such as Colin Moran. You don't necessarily know, or even care, what else they may provide down the road, but you know they're going to hold their own and hit at the highest of levels.
Moran's talents were readily evident in high school, earning a commitment to Division I college powerhouse North Carolina while being ranked among the top 500 players in the high-school class of 2010. At an extremely slender 6-foot-4, 175-pounds, he made a positive impression at Perfect Game's 2009 Sunshine Northeast Showcase, garnering a PG grade of 9.0 and this report:
Moran has a thin athletic build, this from a simple stance, smooth swing, stays inside baseball, gets barrel to baseball, future power, stays on pitch, good opposite approach, very smooth swing, sound defensive actions, arm works well.
The nephew of former big-leaguer B.J. Surhoff, Moran followed in his uncle's footsteps at North Carolina. Like Surhoff, and another former Tar Heel, Dustin Ackley, Moran was a left-handed hitter who quickly proved he could hit at the college level, hitting .335 his freshman year, .365 as a sophomore, and .345 as a junior. His power production improved each season as well, as he added 40 pounds to his previously lanky frame, socking 13 home runs while driving in 91 runs prior to being taken with the sixth overall pick in the 2013 draft by the Miami Marlins.
However, observers questioned how well the bat, and more importantly, his power would translate to the next level playing a tradition run-producing position. He had the hand quickness, discipline, and bat speed to catch up with high-quality stuff, but his swing path and overall approach was geared more towards making hard contact to all parts of the field. His long-term ability to stick at the hot corner also was in question, but in the end, his left-handed swing and repeated production was too great to ignore. —Patrick Ebert
Nick Tropeano – RHP
Tropeano was a primary infielder in high school who also pitched, with a peak velocity of 87 mph at a Perfect Game event. That occurred the summer before his senior year in high school at the 2007 17u WWBA National Championship while playing for the Long Island Titans.
Although he wasn't ranked among the top 500 prospects coming out of high school, in PG's database his size, arm strength, and potential for more were noted. Here is a snippet of those notes:
Looks good on mound, good live arm, IF arm action, tall and lanky build, looks better at RHP than at SS … good body, quick arm, good velo projection, mid 3/4, balanced delivery, will add velo, more a thrower now than pitcher, very effective with good upside, held velo for 4 IP.
Tropeano continued his baseball career and honed his skills while playing at Stony Brook. Although his velocity did increase, peaking in the 90-91 range while mostly working in the mid- to upper 80s, he never was a flamethrower at the college level. He did possess one of the best changeups in the college game, and used that pitch to tie for the Cape Cod League lead in strikeouts during the summer of 2010. Tropeano also provided 6 1/3 no-hit innings to lead Cotuit to the Cape title that same summer.
The following spring Tropeano went 12-1 with a 1.84 ERA for Stony Brook, who finished the year 42-14, and although his stuff alone didn't warrant an early selection, his command and repeated performance-based success led to him being drafted by the Astros in the fifth round of the 2011 draft. —Patrick Ebert
Cam Bedrosian – RHP
The son of 14-year big-league relief pitcher and 1987 National League Cy Young Award winner, Steve Bedrosian, Cam Bedrosian had a similar repertoire as his father's while in high school growing up in Georgia, including a low- to mid-90s fastball and hammer curve.
The younger Bedrosian's career came to a peak during the summer of 2009 when he touched 95 mph with his fastball numerous times, including his time spent on the summer tournament circuit with the Homeplate Chilidogs as well as his appearance at the PG All-American Classic, where he was named the starter of the East squad.
Here's the report I wrote about Bedrosian after that appearance:
The son of former big-league closer Steve Bedrosian took the mound for the East team opposite Taillon to start the game. He gave up a couple of runs on an odd play that involved a wild pitch, but overall his stuff looked sharp. He ran his fastball up to 95, but looked better pitching in the 90-91 range where his fastball appeared to have better, natural sinking movement. His curveball is a true hammer, and with a somewhat shorter, stockier build he reminded me a lot of Ben Sheets given his size and stuff. Bedrosian clearly has the big league aptitude, and is also hailed for his character off the field.
His size at 6-foot, 195 pounds, as noted in the report above, did draw the usual concerns that comes with shorter right-handed pitchers, including his long-term durability in a starting role. Bedrosian had a strong enough repertoire to start, as he also threw a solid changeup, and he was ranked the 28th overall player in his class leading up to the 2010 draft.
Bedrosian was one of five first-round picks the Angels made that year—a year after their draft boon that landed them Mike Trout—with all five of them hailing from the high-school ranks. —Patrick Ebert
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