WWBA World Championship: Part 1 of 3 Part Wrap-up

[Stotle]

Here's the first of a three part wrap-up of what I saw at the World Wood Bat Association World Championship. If interested, please take a look! The series covers 25 players in total, and steps through them in the form of a "mock draft".

http://pnrscouting.com/articles_wwbachampionship_pt1_11032009.html

[QBsILLEST1]

Here's the first of a three part wrap-up of what I saw at the World Wood Bat Association World Championship. If interested, please take a look! The series covers 25 players in total, and steps through them in the form of a "mock draft".

http://pnrscouting.com/articles_wwbachampionship_pt1_11032009.html

Man, the more I hear about Whitson, the more impressed I am by him. He is still projectable, and projects to have 3 pitches atleast above average, all possibly plus. In my personaly draft board, he would overtake Cole. But, I am sure with Cole's projectability and current fastball, he will be rated higher than Whitson by most teams, but I could definitely see us going with a guy like Whitson. How is his command? Of these top HS pitchers(Taillon, Cole, Whitson, Covey, Allie) do any of them have decent command?

[Stotle]

Man, the more I hear about Whitson, the more impressed I am by him. He is still projectable, and projects to have 3 pitches atleast above average, all possibly plus. In my personaly draft board, he would overtake Cole. But, I am sure with Cole's projectability and current fastball, he will be rated higher than Whitson by most teams, but I could definitely see us going with a guy like Whitson. How is his command? Of these top HS pitchers(Taillon, Cole, Whitson, Covey, Allie) do any of them have decent command?

I think Whitson has a few more mechanical tweaks to work out than Cole. None of the guys you list are really command guys, though if I had to guess how they'd develop from strictly a command standpoint (control would be a different order):

Covey

Cole

Whitson

Taillon

Allie

You left out Smelter, and he has a good feel for his pitches and locates his fastball and splitter pretty well (though he was all over the place in his first start down in Jupiter).

[QBsILLEST1]

I think Whitson has a few more mechanical tweaks to work out than Cole. None of the guys you list are really command guys, though if I had to guess how they'd develop from strictly a command standpoint (control would be a different order):

Covey

Cole

Whitson

Taillon

Allie

You left out Smelter, and he has a good feel for his pitches and locates his fastball and splitter pretty well (though he was all over the place in his first start down in Jupiter).

Ahhh I knew I was forgetting someone. I find it interesting that you would rank Taillon that low as far as command. I was under the impression, since he has such good body control and decent mechanics that he could have decent command, but then again, maybe you do expect him to have decent command, just Whitson, Cole and Covey you expect to have better command....

I think that there are gonna be some very good ML pitchers coming from this draft. I like Covey a good bit as well. As a whole, I like this year's crop of top HS arms more than 09's. Cannot wait for 2011's college arms, now that will be a star studded draft......

[Stotle]

Ahhh I knew I was forgetting someone. I find it interesting that you would rank Taillon that low as far as command. I was under the impression, since he has such good body control and decent mechanics that he could have decent command, but then again, maybe you do expect him to have decent command, just Whitson, Cole and Covey you expect to have better command....

I think that there are gonna be some very good ML pitchers coming from this draft. I like Covey a good bit as well. As a whole, I like this year's crop of top HS arms more than 09's. Cannot wait for 2011's college arms, now that will be a star studded draft......

He has great body control for a big body. But he's still a little stiff at times in his delivery, particularly in his plant where he can fall way off to the 1st base side. I think he'll have little trouble throwing strikes, I'm just not sure how effective he'll be hitting his particular spots in the zone. That's not to say he'll struggle, but I think that refining of command will be a little more difficult for him than it will will Covey and Cole. Whitson has a similar issue, but I gave him the nod because he's a little smaller (though the two, I think, are similar in control/command-related issues).

[mwmd80]

Dylan Covey will end up being the 2nd best H.S pitcher in the Country behind Tallion,once the draft roles around.

[Stotle]

Dylan Covey will end up being the 2nd best H.S pitcher in the Country behind Tallion,once the draft roles around.

He certainly could be. He looked solid in Jupiter and a lot of scouts loved the way the ball came out of his hand. Gausman also has a chance to hurdle some people with all that room to project and such a heavy fastball.