Posted by Andrew Drennen

Players from around the globe headed to Tropicana Field this past weekend for the Third Annual International High School Power Showcase Home Run Derby.  The event wanted to "unleash the world's up-and-coming power hitters," according to TampaBay.com.  

Posted by Andrew Drennen

Hart High's Trevor Bauer did something that Robert Stock did a few years ago at Agoura High School.  Graduate early to attend college. 

Stock left Agoura to attend USC and Bauer is doing it now to attend UCLA.

"I try to stay away from the field as much as I can because I don't think it's fair to them to see me out here doing whatever I want," Bauer said to the Los Angeles Times.

Bruin head coach John Savage added to the Times, "It's certainly a unique situation. We feel it's a little easier transition being a pitcher. We're going to be patient.

Posted by Andrew Drennen

Zach Collier collapsed after practice in May of 2006.  It was later discovered that the Chino Hills standout had a heart defect.  About a week later Collier had surgery on an anomalous left coronary artery.   He could not play baseball for seven months after his surgery, and with hard work he ended up being drafted by the Phillies in the 2008 MLB Draft.  He suited up for the Phillies' Rookie team in Clearwater, Fla., this past season.

Posted By Andrew Drennen

The LSU Tigers were tabbed pre-season No. 1 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Pre-season Poll. The top ten looked like this: LSU, North Carolina, Rice, Georgia, Stanford, Arizona State, Florida State, Louisville, Texas A&M and Texas. 

"Certainly, winning the national championship is our ultimate goal, Mainieri said in a LSU released statement, "but I think the preseason No. 1 ranking is an indication of how far we've come as a program. We're very flattered to receive this type of recognition, and it's now our intention to affirm the belief of those who think we are the best team in the nation.

Last year, it was Fresno State who won the NCAA National Championship.  In this poll, the Bulldogs were ranked No. 16.  

Some big name schools left off the top 40 list included: Vanderbilt, Long Beach State, South Carolina, Arkanas and Auburn. 

By Andrew Drennen

Here are the top 60 yard times from the Area Code Baseball Winter Camp in Santa Barbara, California.  There was only one time to be posted under 7.00 on the day. The conditions were not ideal, there were wind gusts up to 20 mph throughout the day and the grass on the field was long and damp.

Top 60 Yard Times:

Bijan Rademacher | Canyon | 2010 | 6.91
Brent Peterson | Bakersfield North | 2010 | 7.09
Adam Scott | Fountain Valley | 2010 | 7.22
Jesus Meza | Tustin | 2011 | 7.23
Bobby Stahel | River Valley (AZ) | 2011 | 7.24
Ben Wylly | Woodbridge  | 2011 | 7.26
Cody Buckel | Royal | 2010 | 7.29
Spencer Ruggles | Atascadero | 2011 | 7.36
Jason Wilcoxson | Claremont | 2010 | 7.37
Dante Flores | St. John Bosco | 2011 | 7.41
Josh Flyer | Crossroads | 2010 | 7.41 

By Andrew Drennen

The first session of Area Code Baseball Winter Camp put the players through SPARQ Testing.  The SPARQ Rating for baseball is the end result of four tests: 30 yard dash, 20 yard shuttle, vertical jump and rotational power ball toss. The top SPARQ Rating at the camp this winter was posted by 2011 catcher Bobby Stahel, out of River Valley High School in Arizona.  His 63.32 SPARQ Rating topped Spencer Ruggles' SPARQ Rating of 61.59 for No. 1 in the camp. 

Stahels's posted a 3.96 (30 yard), a 5.06 (shuttle), a 30.6 vertical jump and a 55 foot power ball toss. 

Here are the top SPARQ Ratings from the camp.

1. Bobby Stahel | 2011 | River Valley HS (AZ) | 63.32

2. Spencer Ruggles | 2011 | Atascadero HS | 61.59

3. Cody Buckel | 2010 | Royal HS | 59.24

4. Dante Flores | 2011 | St. John Bosco | 58.68

5. Brent Peterson | 2010 | Bakersfield North HS | 58.64

6. Jonathan Maciel | 2010 | Esperanza HS | 57.90

7. Jason Wilcoxson | 2010 | Claremont HS | 57.56

8. Ben Wylly | 2011 | Woodbridge HS | 57.43

9. Bijan Rademacher | 2010 | Canyon HS | 57.01

10. Adam Scott | 2010 | Fountain Valley HS | 55.47

For all the SPARQ Ratings at the Area Code Baseball Camp visit sparqtraining.com.

By Andrew Drennen

Saturday brought wind to Santa Barbara, but that did not deter the 46 players in attendance for the Area Code Baseball Winter Camp.  This year's camp found itself at a new facility, the home to Santa Barbara City College. 

	Andrew Drennen
	The simulated game is where the players competed against one another.

In what could be one of the best camps, since their inception in 2004, the Area Code Camp featured arms that were consistently in the 80s.  The players started the morning session with SPARQ Testing and those results will be posted here later in the week.  From their the players went into defensive drills where, if they wanted to, the players could jump from position to position, soaking in as much information as possible. 

An added feature to the Area Code Baseball Camps is the opportunity for the players to go through the same type of workout that the players go through at the tryouts. According to the instructors at the camp this addition to the camp gives the players insight into what goes on at a tryout. 

The afternoon session is where the players had a chance to work on their skills and to try and put what they learned in the morning session to use.  The simulated game gave both pitchers and hitters a chance to face each other live. 

Some of the standout players in the afternoon session where the following:

Chris Wilson out of St. Paul High School, was the only pitcher to get his fastball into the 90s.  He worked fast and threw strikes.

Another arm was Cody Buckel out of Royal High School, who through in the mid 80's and showed good secondary pitches.  He threw strikes and kept the hitters off balance. 

A member of the 2011 class, Cody Budgell out of Woodbridge threw strikes and worked efficiently.  He is a developing player with great potential. 

Tyler Wedeking out of Fallbrook, was another player who stood out in the simulated game.  He showed a good arm on defense and a good swing at the plate.  He had an idea offensively what he wanted to do.

The next round of Area Code Camps will be in the summer.  We will have SPARQ Ratings and 60 times later in the week.


 

By Andrew Knepper

Over the last month, Baseball America has been releasing their annual Top-10 prospect lists for all the American League Organizations.  Of the 14 American League teams, six of the organization's number one overall prospects attended the Area Code Games.  Not one of these prospects attended college and all but Lars Anderson (18th round) were selected within the first two rounds of their respected drafts.  Listed below are the Baseball America's Organizational overall top prospects who attended the Area Code Games.

Organization: Player (year attended the Area Code Games)

Boston Red Sox: Lars Anderson (2005)
Toronto Blue Jays: Travis Snider (2005)
Detroit Tigers: Rick Porcello (2006)
Kansas City Royals: Mike Moustakas (2006)
Minnesota Twins: Aaron Hicks (2006 & 2007)
Oakland Athletics: Brett Anderson (2005)

Posted by Andrew Drennen

The 2009 Wallace Award Watch list was announced by the College Baseball Foundation.  The award is presented to the top college baseball player each year.  The previous winners of the award include:

2008 Buster Posey | Florida State
2007 David Price | Vanderbilt
2006 Brad Lincoln | Houston
2005 Alex Gordon | Nebraska
2004 Kurt Suzuki | Cal State Fullerton

To see the list in its entirety please CLICK HERE.

Posted By Andrew Drennen

 UCSB, out of the Big West Conference, signed five players, and only one of them is out of high school.  Last year the Gauchos went 35-21 and 14-10 in conference play.  The lone high school player, to sign with UCSB in the fall, was John Vaccaro of Miramonte High School.  In 2008 he .460 with six homers and 35 RBI.  It led to an all league selection.  Coach Bob Brontsema stated on the UCSB athletic site that Vaccaro should compete for a starting spot.  

"He provides us needed flexibility with his ability to play both outfield and first base. He should compete for a starting spot as a freshman," said Brontsema of Vaccaro.

The four junior college transfers heading to UCSB next year include Kevin Gelinas from Central Arizona CC, Nick Loredo from San Jose City, Derek Eligio from Santa Ana CC and Trevor Whyte from Saddleback CC.

"Coach Myers has once again put together a strong recruiting class," Brontsema said. "These student-athletes all fit the requirements that we look for at UC Santa Barbara to compete well on both the field and in the classroom. We feel as if we have filled some of our immediate needs with this early class and now we'll wait to see what happens with the draft."

Click Here to read the full release.

Posted by Andrew Drennen

It is not a new revelation that colleges can lose some of their top players of their recruiting classes to the MLB Draft the following summer.  An interesting sory from South Carolina is another example of this happening.  It surrounds current Cincinnati Reds' player Joey Votto.  

The Coastal Carolina coaching staff felt the had a solid player in Votto. But, when the draft rolled around the Reds' saw Votto's potential and took him with the 44th pick over all in the 2002 MLB Draft.

Fast forward to the 2009 MLB Draft and once again Coastal Carolina coud lose some of their players from this year's recruiting class including Steven Matz, a left handed pitcher with what some may consider high draft potential.  

Colleges can try and keep their signees quiet and try to maybe hide players, but in this day in age it won't happen.

Posted by Andrew Drennen

San Jose State recently annouced their signing class for next year and it includes ten players.  Of the ten players, seven are prep school athletes with the other three transfering in from the junior college ranks.  "All of these players bring not only a lot of athleticism to their position, but also, across the board, each guy is extremely competitive, and always willing to do the small things to win a game," commented Spartan assistant coach Jeff Pritchard on sjsuspartans.com.  To find out who they signed CLICK HERE. 

Today ESPN Rise features the top high school right-handed pitchers in the nation. Typically the premium right-handed pitchers are more in abundance than lefties, but this years looks to be a lot of volume of lefties than the right handed hurlers.The premium crop of right-handed pitchers is centered around Jacob Turner a  flamethrower from Westminster Christian Academy from Saint Charles, MO. Another interesting note at this year's top 5 list is Southern California's Norco High School pitchers Matt Hobgood and Wes Hatton.

1. Jacob Turner-P 6'4 205lbs.'09 Westminster Christian Academy/Saint Charles, MO.
Has an excellent pitchers physique that features an explosive 90mph plus fastball. Fundamentally sound mechanics and has pin-point control of his pitches.

2.  Scott Griggs-P 6'2 180lbs '09 San Ramon Valley/Alamo, CA
The top rated overall high school player from Northern California has a superb delivery with a dominating fastball and curveball. Excellent overall package.

3. Matt Hobgood-P 6'4 240 '09 Norco/Norco, CA
A physically imposing player with a powerful arm. Undeafeated 10-0W-L record and 1.32 era as a junior and features a 92mph fastball coupled with a hard breaking curveball.

4. Shelby Miller-P 6'3 195lbs. '09 Brownwood/Brownwood, TX
A superb pitcher that has a natural pitchers frame. Has all the ingredients of a power type pitcher and could shoot up the last with a solid spring season. Low 90's fastball and good control of his curveball.

5. Wes Hatton-P 5-10 175lbs. '09 Norco/Norco, CA
Small in stature relative to his peers, but has a 90mph plus fastball and arguably the best curve ball in the high school game. Posted a 1.69 era last season. Was a Team USA and Area Code standout last summer.

The 2008 Area Code Baseball Winter Camps are set.  There will be two in this upcoming December in Santa Barbara at Santa Barbara City College on December 13 and then up the state a ways on December 14 at Delta Community College in Stockton, Calif.  The camps are open to any player in high school (2009-2012).  This is a great way to work on skills during the off-season heading into the spring.

CLICK Here FOR THE FORM.

Posted by Andrew Knepper

University of Evansville has just released the first signing class under new head coach Wes Carroll that includes six prep pitchers and one infielder.  According to the schools press release, coach Carroll was quoted, "I'm a firm believer in the old saying that pitching and defense win championships. So, with that being said, our main objective with this recruiting class was to help bolster our pitching staff and to get better defensively up the middle, and I believe that we have done that with this class.

Below is the signing class for this year's Purple Aces.

Scott Scheumann (Ft. Wayne, Ind. / Bishop Dwenger H.S.) RHP 6-4, 180
Josh Biggs (Valparaiso, Ind. / Washington Township H.S.) LHP 6-3, 185
Kyle Lloyd (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel H.S.) RHP 6-5, 190
Adam Culiver (Newburgh, Ind. / Castle H.S.) RHP 6-3, 180
Ben Lady (Louisville, Ky. / Louisville Eastern H.S.) RHP 6-3, 165
Jake Naumann (Naperville, Ill. / Naperville North H.S.) RHP 6-2, 190
Ryan Pierce (Jeffersonville, Ind. / Jeffersonville H.S.) INF 6-0, 180