Summer Baseball 2014

[Brewerfan10]

Are all of the summer leagues wooden bat leagues? And why would they swing wooden bats in off season if the use composite bats in regular season?

It's WAY more of a tool to get them ready for the next level. Continually getting rewarded for fisting one into right with an aluminum bat instead of getting sawed off with wood is not a good habit to form. It just teaches kids to be better hitters and they learn how to square the ball up better. Hitting one off of the end of the bat with aluminum is way more forgiving than wood. You learn pretty quickly how to make good contact.

[futurehogdad]

Sounds like we found baxendales dad

Quote from: dbbb on June 16, 2014, 04:33:53 pm
Bax is getting healthy and working with the AR strength coach 6 days a week instead of playing. Should be in great shape and stronger come the Fall.

And yes, DVH knows it....not sure where UCAHOGFAN gets his info but he is usually wrong.

"Sounds like we found baxendales dad or his mom"

+1 Hogtown

[flippinhogmana]

well, not sure why the shot at uca.  He might be wrong with respect to Bax, but he is generally one of our more reliable and accurate posters.  But then again, no particular reason to take a shot at the poster who ostensibly gave us accurate info on bax either.

[East TN HAWG]

+1 Flippin.  I appreciate the work UCA does on this board.  He has tremendous insight on the program.  After the draft, I kept coming here to just read his posts about Bonfield.  Seems like he is right a majority of the time.  If he missed one on Bax, most of us on the board don't care.  UCA keep posting. 

[Kevin]

dvh did say he had not spoken to bax during the season about his injury. dvh said most guys that got injured would talk to him about their progress, but bax hadn't.

that is what uca was talking about.

[ucahogfan]

Oaks Baseball @Conejo_Oaks     ·   25m   

T4: Home run Nomura! Score is 6-0 Oaks.

[ucahogfan]

Luke Bonfield has had a pretty good start to his summer up in the Futures League.  He is currently in the middle of his first game and has had 2 ABs.  He is batting cleanup tonight behind Will Toffey who also graduated high school this year, but he will be playing his college ball at Vanderbilt.

In the top of the 1st inning, Bonfield had a single to left and wound up scoring.

In the top of the 3rd, Bonfield left the yard for a 2 run bomb.

It appears Bonfield was just warming up as he is now 4-4 with 4 R and 7 RBIs.  Based on his team being up 9-4 in a rain delay and his team scored 2 runs in the top of the 1st that he didn't drive in, I'm assuming Bonfield has had a 3 HR game so far today.  Once play resumes and I can see what he has done for sure, I will post it.

[ucahogfan]

Obviously with his big night, Luke Bonfield was named the Futures League Player of the Night.  He is now just 2 HRs away from being tied for the team lead.

http://thefuturesleague.com/view/futuresleague/news-1486/news_162955

[yraciv]

Obviously with his big night, Luke Bonfield was named the Futures League Player of the Night.  He is now just 2 HRs away from being tied for the team lead.

http://thefuturesleague.com/view/futuresleague/news-1486/news_162955

Wow!

[woodhog]

Billy Lovvorn from the Mink league to
The Coastal Plane League

[yraciv]

Billy Lovvorn from the Mink league to
The Coastal Plane League

Um thanks, but I'm not sure we were looking for updates on D3 pitchers.  That move is strange though, seeing that he is now playing with some D1 guys.

[ricepig]

Um thanks, but I'm not sure we were looking for updates on D3 pitchers.  That move is strange though, seeing that he is now playing with some D1 guys.

Proud daddy.

[ucahogfan]

Bonfield had another excellent game up in the Futures League as he went 3-4 with 2 2Bs and 2 RBIs.  He is hitting .615 (8-13) in 3 games with 2 2B, 3 HR, 5 R, and 9 RBIs.  His OPS is 2.105.

Eagan is continuing an extremely solid summer up in Wisconsin as he went 2-4 tonight with 1 2B and 2 RBIs.  He is hitting .361 (43-119) in 30 games on the summer with 12 2B, 20 R, 22 RBIs, and is a perfect 6-6 in SBs.  He has drawn 14 walks while striking out 15 times and has an OPS of .904

In the same game as Eagan, Parker Sanburn saw his first action of the summer for the Lakeshore Chinooks as he allowed an unearned run in 2 IP with 2 Ks.  He also picked up the win.

[ucahogfan]

California League Update:

Matt Campbell has been playing for the Neptune Beach Pearl.  He is hitting .200 (9-45) with 1 3B, 7 R, and 3 RBIs while being 4-5 in SB.  In 51 PAs, he has drawn 5 BBs while striking out 16 times.  Campbell has also pitched throwing 5 IP with a 1.80 ERA with 6 Ks without issuing a free pass.  He has recorded 1 S.

Matt Brown is Campbell's teammate on the NPB.  He is hitting .193 (16-83) with 7 2B, 1 HR, 8 R, and 9 RBIs.  In 94 PAs, he has drawn 7 BBs while striking out 37 times.

Rick Nomura is hitting .317 (57-180) with 4 2B, 4 3B, 2 HR, 24 R, and 19 RBIs while being 12-19 in SB.  In 207 PAs, Nomura has drawn 16 BBs while striking out 26 times.  He has yet to GIDP as well.

Dominic Taccolini is 3-3 with 2.72 ERA.  In 36.1 IP, Big Taco has walked 12 while striking out 31.  He has given up 32 hits.

Nathan Rodriguez's team hasn't updated the stats in a while and Andrew Kelley hasn't thrown in about a month or more so I'm assuming he is done out there.

[ucahogfan]

Northwoods Update:

Clark Eagan will be participating in the Big League Dreams Showcase next Tuesday.

http://northwoodsleague.com/blog/2014/07/28/2014-big-league-dreams-showcase-rosters-announced/

Zach Jackson is currently in 3rd place in Ks up in the Northwoods with 54 on the summer (the leaders are tied at 57), but his ERA stands at 4.41 while the two leaders are around 2.10.  He has struck out the 54 in only 34.2 IP while the two guys ahead of him have thrown at least 19.1 more IP.  It is good to see him striking out that many hitters as it indicates his stuff has been unhittable at times, but the ERA will definitely need to come down.

[hoofer]

what is josh alberius's future role on the team? i haven't seen him mentioned as playing anywhere this summer. he got a few starts at the end of the year at 3B with Weeks out.

Also, is Weeks not playing?

How does that work, are all the guys expected to play during the summer? Is it their choice?

[ricepig]

what is josh alberius's future role on the team? i haven't seen him mentioned as playing anywhere this summer. he got a few starts at the end of the year at 3B with Weeks out.

Also, is Weeks not playing?

How does that work, are all the guys expected to play during the summer? Is it their choice?

Wernes?

[ucahogfan]

what is josh alberius's future role on the team? i haven't seen him mentioned as playing anywhere this summer. he got a few starts at the end of the year at 3B with Weeks out.

Also, is Weeks not playing?

How does that work, are all the guys expected to play during the summer? Is it their choice?

Based on past experiences, players who expect to see playing time next year are expected to spend their summer playing baseball in a collegiate summer league unless they are getting healthy such as Benintendi, Bax, and Spoon.  Rising seniors such as Joe Serrano or Brett McAfee (getting healthy as well) don't normally play summer ball because a lot of players sign with summer teams in the fall or spring and it is normally expected that the good college players will be playing summer ball in the pros after their junior year.

Pitchers who throw a lot of innings could be shut down for the summer depending on how much more their coaches want him to throw.

Honestly, Alberius might run into a numbers crunch.  He is a SS/3B on this team and we return two players at those positions who started at least 55 games each and DVH expects them to be utility players in 2015.  I think Alberius has some promise, but it is just tough to break into a lineup with McAfee, Wiggins, Grieshaber, Campbell, Wernes, and Bernal all expected to be on the team.

[ucahogfan]

Bonfield keeps up his hot streak in the Northeast going 4-4 with 2 2Bs and 3 RBIs tonight.  He is now hitting .667 (14-21) in 5 games with 4 2B, 3 HR, 5 R, and 13 RBIs.

[ucahogfan]

Interesting tidbit - Rick Nomura's manager this summer for the Conejo Oaks is Matt Scoiscia who is the son of Angels manager Mike Scoiscia.  They were able to attend an Angels BP session and meet Mike Trout and Albert Pujols.

http://www.mpacorn.com/news/2014-07-31/Sports/No_more_fun_and_games.html

[ucahogfan]

FCBL @FuturesLeague     ·   10h   

Luke Bonfield @ArkRazorbacks & Nick Fuller @UMassD @MV_Sharks win Player & Pitcher of the Week! http://thefuturesleague.com/view/futuresleague/news-1486/news_165640 ...

Can Bonfield make it 3 for 3 next week in winning POTW?

[ucahogfan]

Big Taco continues his strong summer and makes the All-Tournament Team for the CCL Playoffs.

http://www.calsummerball.com/2014PlayoffsTeam.pdf

[ucahogfan]

Luke Bonfield won player of the night up in the FCBL last night by going 2-5 with 1 3B, 1 HR, 5 RBIs, 1 SF, and scoring one run:

http://pointstreaksites.com/view/futuresleague/news-1486/news_166062

For the summer, Bonfield is hitting .510 (26-51) with 6 2B, 2 3B, 5 HR, and 22 RBIs.  He has scored 11 R and has drawn 6 walks while striking out 6 times.  His 5 HRs is one off the team lead and those 2 guys have about 90 more ABs than Bonfield.

[ucahogfan]

http://tclmarshalsbaseball.com/news/home/index.html?article_id=123

[ucahogfan]

Nathan Rodriguez was named to the CCL 2014 All-League Team after a solid campaign which saw him starting behind the plate in the CCL ASG:

http://www.calsummerball.com/All-LeagueRelease.pdf

[ucahogfan]

Posted something in the wrong thread.

[jbell96]

Northwoods League listed their top 200 prospects today.

http://northwoodsleague.com/wp-content/uploads/file/2014%20Northwoods%20League%20Top%20200.pdf

Jackson was rated 6th, Eagan 61, Simpson 78, & Teague 136.

[ucahogfan]

Northwoods League listed their top 200 prospects today.

http://northwoodsleague.com/wp-content/uploads/file/2014%20Northwoods%20League%20Top%20200.pdf

Jackson was rated 6th, Eagan 61, Simpson 78, & Teague 136.

Thanks for posting!  I wonder why Jackson didn't mix in his change this summer.  One of the comments made about him was that he lacked a third pitch right now and he showed a circle change at points last season that generated swing and misses to go with his mid 90s fastball and slider.

Personally, I thought Teague would be higher than he is.

[dotnet]

I thought teague would be higher too.. but the way I understand this is this is only referring to prospect status right... not an all northwoods team or anything? 

Because if so - I haven't heard any updated scouting reports on teague, but it looks like he projects to have an average fastball at best.  His slider may end up being plus, but I don't know if he projects to have another plus offerring.  if that is the case, you're not much of a prospect. 

None of that has too much to do with him being a very good SEC starter for Arkansas. 

[dotnet]

TO continue, same thing with Eagan too.  If he is going to have relatively little power and is considered a 1b or OF.... then there isn't too much cieling for him at all. 

Again, this wouldn't change my excitement to see these guys next year.

[ucahogfan]

I thought teague would be higher too.. but the way I understand this is this is only referring to prospect status right... not an all northwoods team or anything? 

Because if so - I haven't heard any updated scouting reports on teague, but it looks like he projects to have an average fastball at best.  His slider may end up being plus, but I don't know if he projects to have another plus offerring.  if that is the case, you're not much of a prospect. 

None of that has too much to do with him being a very good SEC starter for Arkansas.

I think that list is more of a who had the best summer type of list because PG rated AJ Puk of Florida (a comp of mine for Keaton McKinney based on being a top 2 way player out of Iowa) as the top prospect in the Northwoods League while he wasn't anywhere to be found on the Northwoods League list.

If I remember correctly, Matt Kent out of TAMU who was #4 on that list doesn't throw much harder than 86-88 which wouldn't put him on a top prospect list unless he had at least one 70 tool at his disposal.

I don't think anyone would say that Landon Simpson is a better prospect than James Teague either.  Simpson works 88-90 at his best while Teague is 90-92 with a slider that flashes plus.  I expect Teague to have a big year as our Sunday starter while Simpson will have a good year in Magnolia for the Muleriders.

I'm not really sure what to make of Eagan.  He might not have much of a big league future because he doesn't have plus power like scouts want out of a corner OF/1B, but he is definitely a good college player.  I still think he projects to be a 5-7 HR type player when he adds strength, but I would be just fine if he was more in the Dansby Swanson mold with just a couple of HRs, but 20-25 2Bs and hits .330-.340.

[ucahogfan]

Perfect Game released their reports for the Team USA top prospects and Trey Killian came in at #18 on the team.  It is a premium list so I won't provide a link, but essentially they praised Killian for his feel for pitching and his command of all his pitches.

4 of the top 5 prospects on the list are SEC players.  Carson Fulmer topped the list while UGA RHP Robert Tyler came in at #2.

[A_R_K_A_N_S_A_S]

I've liked Eagan since early last season. He may not have a great future in the big leagues, I don't know, but don't tell him that. He plays like he does and sometimes that makes up the difference for being a very good college player. He'll probably be one of my favorites before he leaves. 

[Scott7703]

I've liked Eagan since early last season. He may not have a great future in the big leagues, I don't know, but don't tell him that. He plays like he does and sometimes that makes up the difference for being a very good college player. He'll probably be one of my favorites before he leaves. 

Couldn't agree more. He plays the game the right way. He is gonna be a great one for us.

[ucahogfan]

Kendall Rogers @KendallRogersPG     ·   4h   

Incoming Fr -- Will Toffey (@VandyBaseball), Luke Bonfield (@RazorbackBSB) lead @FuturesLeague top prospects http://perfectga.me/1uneCb7  (CBT)

It is a link to a premium article, but Bonfield was named the #2 prospect in the Futures League which is a shock he is behind Toffey, but Toffey is a LHH SS who put up solid numbers so it is understandable.

[ucahogfan]

Cannon Chadwick was named the #12 prospect in the TCL for the summer by PG.

[ucahogfan]

Perfect Game released their top 30 prospects from the California League and two Hogs made the list.  Nathan Rodriguez was the highest ranked freshman and SEC player at #12.  Remember, Rodriguez was on a team with multiple top 100 overall players according to PG.  Dominic Taccolini was the 2nd highest SEC player on the list as he comes in at #19.