Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i Baseball America

Katie Krall is always looking to the future. As a baseball operations analyst for the Reds, she might be considering the next game or opponent, or a move to be made. As an up-and-coming industry employee, she’s often also thinking about what her own future holds. There’s no doubt Krall is excited in her role in Cincinnati, and her short-term plans include helping herself and the organization to several championships. But in the longer term, both with experience working in the commissioner’s office and now with a team, Krall also has her sights set on her own upward projection. “I do want to be a (general manager) some day,” she said. “I definitely am intrigued by the notion of maybe being the first female commissioner, too. Working on the macro-level…

Change is just about the only constant in baseball. Prospect become big leaguers. Others change organizations. Some prospects stumble. Others triumph. That’s why Baseball America updates its prospect rankings and organization talent rankings each year at midseason. We think of them as snapshots rather than fixed images. Our 2021 midseason talent rankings were subject to more turmoil than usual. The biggest reason for that is that this time we are incorporating 2021 draft picks in our rankings. It’s also true that our preseason rankings stood on shakier ground than usual coming off the unusual player development in 2020. Stars matter more than depth in org talent rankings, and clubs with multiple Top 100 Prospects fare better than those with greater prospect stock. 1. MARINERS Up one spot The preseason No.…

BT21 SHO STOPPER SEPTEMBER 2021 Shohei Ohtani has broken the limits of what was thought possible in the major leagues. Through Aug. 22, Ohtani led the majors with 40 home runs and ranked third with a 1.003 OPS. He also had a 2.79 ERA in 18 starts and averaged 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings, eighth in the majors. Ohtani’s two-way excellence is without precedent in the last 100 years. The Angels’ all-star is the first player to make multiple pitching starts in a season while leading the majors in home runs since Babe Ruth in 1919. He’s done it all while going 19-for-27 on stolen bases and even playing the outfield on occasion, though all his starts had come at DH. There are many factors driving Ohtani’s excellence, but his…

Baseball America asks minor league managers to choose the players with the most impressive scouting tools in their leagues. We call the exercise Best Tools and have been bringing it to you since 1983. Each year, minor league managers’ choices highlight familiar names as well as novel ones. Mainstream names and up-and-comers. We think Best Tools provides a valuable overview of minor league talent in a given season and that the results hold up over the years. Some players don’t stick around long enough in a single minor league for a managerial consensus to build around them. For others, their names appear frequently on the ballots we receive. These are their stories. 1. BOBBY WITT JR., SS, ROYALS DOUBLE-A NORTHWEST ARKANSAS TRIPLE-A OMAHA Entering the season, Witt was one of…

In another sign of the baseball world coming back to something resembling normal, college summer leagues returned to play in force this summer. It was a welcome return for college players, fans in the small towns where the teams often compete and for major league scouts who were able to spend long summer nights evaluating potential draft picks. There was also noticeably more summer ball than there has ever been. In addition to the usual standbys like the USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team, the Cape Cod League and the dozens of smaller wood bat leagues that returned after absences in 2020, the MLB Draft League and a re-imagined Appalachian League popped up and began play in 2021. The two new leagues have similar overarching missions—the goal is to provide a…

RECRUITING COORDINATOR: Bryant Ward TOP RECRUIT Thatcher Hurd, RHP (No. 44) OVERVIEW: UCLA has long stood out for its recruiting prowess under head coach John Savage. Now, for the first time in the 22-year history of the recruiting class rankings, the Bruins have the top-ranked class in the nation. They had the third-ranked class after signing day and after losing only one of their recruits to the draft they climbed to No. 1. Both the depth and high-end talent of the class stand out. HITTERS: Outfielder Malakhi Knight (72) is an excellent athlete, a plus runner and is an advanced defender in center field. He has an unconventional swing and had some swing-and-miss issues this spring but excelled this summer in the West Coast League. If he finds consistency at the…

RECRUITING COORDINATOR: Nate Thompson TOP RECRUIT: Peyton Stovall, SS (No. 33) OVERVIEW: The Razorbacks continue to recruit well, and this year their class is headlined by Stovall, the highest-ranked prep player on the BA 500 not to sign. HITTERS: Stovall came on strong all spring as he continued to build an impressive track record for hitting, rising into first-round consideration for some teams. Ultimately, he opted to uphold his commitment to Arkansas and figures to make an immediate impact in the lineup. The lefthanded hitter has a smooth swing, uses the whole field to hit and has above-average power potential. It will be interesting to see how Stovall fits into the Razorbacks’ infield. His arm strength led many scouts to believe he profiles best at second base, but he’s mostly…

RECRUITING COORDINATOR: Jake Gautreau TOP RECRUIT: Andrew Walling, LHP OVERVIEW: Coming off the first national championship in program history, Mississippi State has another strong recruiting class under head coach Chris Lemonis and Gautreau. It’s full of athleticism, both among position players and pitchers. HITTERS: Third baseman Aaron Downs (422) has a strong, physical build at 5-foot-11, 205 pounds and a lot of upside. He’s been up and down offensively over the last couple years, but if he can put everything together, he has the raw tools to be a middle-of-the-order hitter. Matt Corder, a junior college transfer, is an excellent athlete and can play anywhere on the diamond except catcher. He has above-average speed, righthanded power potential and two-way promise thanks to a good fastball-slider combination. Catcher Gray Bane has…

Imagine you’re hired for a job with a company with multiple branches around the country. Right after you accept the job, you get an email telling you to hop on a plane and get to Bowling Green, Ky., for an urgent work assignment. The job is probably going to take five months. You’re a diligent, focused employee. So you drop everything and head to Bowling Green. You do the work. The job involves a lot of nights and weekends and a lot of travel, but you enjoy your vocation. You’ve long dreamed of doing this. So you do it. And just two months into your five-month stint in Bowling Green, your company tells you that you’ve done a great job. In fact, you’ve done such a good job that they…

Lefthander Michael Roth left the University of South Carolina as one of the most decorated college pitchers of all time and an undisputed campus legend in Columbia. While with the Gamecocks, Roth was a two-time national champion, first-team All-American, record holder for innings at the College World Series and owner of a complete game victory against Clemson in the 2010 CWS that will live forever in team lore. Not bad for a guy who viewed pitching as a “backup plan.” “They thought—and I thought—that my future was as a first baseman,” Roth said. Roth arrived on campus in the fall of 2008 looking to fill the first base position vacated by Justin Smoak, who had been drafted 11th overall that June. Roth kept pitching only at the behest of a…

Youth wasthe toptheme ofthe 2021 All-Star Game. A record 40 players were recognized as first-time allstars this season. The same makeover is taking place in major league Best Tools voting. The old guard is giving way to the new. Each year since 1988, Baseball America has asked major league managers to rank the top three players in their league in a variety of offensive, defensive and pitching categories. We skipped the exercise in 2020 because of the atypical schedule. Not only was it shortened to 60 games, but teams played only opponents in their East, Central or West regions. For the past several years, we have also welcomed input from coaches and analysts in big league front offices. The more data, the merrier. The Best Tools balloting data gathered this…

The Coastal Plain League, brought to you by FloSports, is the nation’s premier summer collegiate baseball league. Celebrating its 25th season in 2021, the CPL features 15 franchises playing in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. To date, the CPL has had over 1,700 alumni drafted and 147 alums make their Major league debut-including World Series champions Justin Verlander and Ryan Zimmerman, as well as 2020 NL Rookie ofthe Year runner-up Alec Bohm. For more information on the Coastal Plain League, please visit the league website at www.coastalplain.com, and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok@CPLBaseball. ■ The Coastal Plain League had 50 players, both former and current, selected during the 2021 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Trey Sweeney (Wilson) went 20th overall to…

Baseball returned to Cape Cod this summer after the 2020 season was canceled by the pandemic, marking the first time the league had missed a season since the end of World War II. The Cape Cod League’s return was a welcome sight for many around the game and especially for the people on the Cape. The league drew large crowds all season, and the play on the diamond was its typically high level, despite some unusual circumstances. Like every other entity in amateur baseball, the Cape had to deal with an abnormally late draft date, which led to a midseason disruption of many rosters. USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team was also twice the size it normally is, which pulled more players away from the Cape. The flip side of that…

The summer showcase circuit is made up of several big events, but four of the biggest include Perfect Game’s National showcase in Tampa, USA Baseball’s Prospect Development Pipeline League in Cary, N.C.; the scout-run East Coast Pro in Hoover, Ala.; and the nationwide Area Code Games in San Diego. We highlight an all-summer team of standouts from those events below. Infielders are grouped into middle (MI) and corner (CI) groups. At this point, the 2022 high school draft class looks solid. The bats aren’t quite as loud as a year ago and shortstops and catchers specifically seem to be down, but there is a cornucopia of arms and a large number of players whose fathers Baseball America readers will recognize as former big league stars. C MALCOLM MOORE MCCLATCHY HS,…

RECRUITING COORDINATOR: Matt Reida TOP RECRUIT: Camden Hayslip, OF (No. 118) OVERVIEW: The Crimson Tide have recruited well since coach Brad Bohannon arrived in Tuscaloosa. This class takes it to another level, however, as Alabama has its first top-10 class since 2012. It navigated the draft well, losing just supplemental first-rounder Noah Miller, and now has a group of newcomers ready to buttress a team that in June returned to regionals for the first time since 2014. HITTERS: Hayslip is an excellent athlete who drew scholarship offers as a football player before quitting the sport to focus on baseball. Listed at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, he has a powerful lefthanded swing and drives the ball with authority. His speed and athleticism give him a chance to play center field for the…

The 2021 trade deadline was one of the wildest in recent memory. Teams made a total of 50 trades between July 22-30, with Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Joey Gallo, Nelson Cruz and Craig Kimbrel among the long list of stars sent to new teams. Ten players who were all-stars this season were traded, as were 63 prospects. The prospects on the move included catcher Keibert Ruiz, shortstop/outfielder Austin Martin and righthander Josiah Gray, all of whom ranked on the midseason Top 100 Prospects. Righthanders Joe Ryan and Simeon Woods Richardson, who ranked on previous Top 100s and were members of Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics, also were traded. The hope of every team that traded veteran stars at the deadline is that the…

BEST BATTING PROSPECT 1. Brooks Lee, SS Cal Poly 2. Clark Elliott, OF Michigan 3. Tres Gonzalez, OF Georgia Tech BEST POWER PROSPECT 1. Chase DeLauter, OF James Madison 2. Tyler Locklear, 3B/1B VCU 3. Owen Diodati, OF Alabama BEST STRIKE-ZONE JUDGMENT 1. Chase DeLauter, OF James Madison 2. Tres Gonzalez, OF Georgia Tech 3. Christian Knapczyk, SS Louisville FASTEST BASERUNNER 1. Dominic Johnson, OF Kansas State 2. Eric Brown, SS Coastal Carolina 3. Tommy Troy, 2B Stanford MOST EXCITING PLAYER 1. Brooks Lee, SS Cal Poly 2. Brock Wilken, 3B Wake Forest 3. Chase DeLauter, OF James Madison BEST PITCHING PROSPECT 1. Bryce Hubbart, LHP Florida State 2. Adam Maier, RHP British Columbia 3. Paul Skenes, RHP Air Force BEST FASTBALL 1. Zach Maxwell, RHP Georgia Tech 2. Teddy…

For the first time in program history, UCLA ranks No. 1 in Baseball America’s college recruiting rankings after landing the top-ranked 2021 class. The Bruins’ class is led by a trio of players who ranked in the top 75 of the BA500 top prospects for the 2021 draft. Two other players in UCLA’s class ranked in the top 125 draft prospects before formally removing their names from draft consideration. “We’re really excited, to say the least, of the promise of this class,” UCLA coach John Savage said. “We’re excited in terms of the guys who are going to show up.” At the head of the Bruins’ incoming class is a pair of SoCal pitchers—righthander Thatcher Hurd and lefthander Gage Jump—and Malakhi Knight, an outfielder from Washington state. UCLA, like every…

The United States and Japan have long been home to the two top professional baseball leagues in the world. International success has not necessarily followed. Since baseball became an official medal sport at the Olympics in 1992, the U.S. won gold only once in 2000 and Japan failed to win a gold medal in five tries before organizers dropped baseball from the Olympic program following the 2008 Summer Games. Baseball’s return for the Tokyo Olympics gave Japan a prime opportunity to end that drought. Playing on its home soil under immense pressure, the host nation did just that. Japan beat Team USA 2-0 in the gold medal game at Yokohama Stadium to win its first Olympic gold medal in baseball. Japan went undefeated in the tournament and left no doubt…

Justin Horowitz is a riser in the Red Sox front office. He began as a baseball operations intern, moved up to scouting assistant, became an area scout, was promoted to crosschecker and is now a special assistant in Boston’s amateur scouting department. In his one year as an area scout in Southern California, he scouted and signed Jarren Duran out of Long Beach State. Horowitz joined the BA podcast to discuss what he saw in Duran in college and the changes Duran made to become starting center fielder for the Red Sox. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The full podcast can be heard on BaseballAmerica.com BASEBALL AMERICA: When was the first time you saw Jarren Duran and when did he first pique your interest? JUSTIN HOROWITZ:…