The Perfect Game staff will come out with an extensive top prospect list, by class, from the event once all the information and scouting notes have been sifted through, organized and analyzed back in Iowa. Those lists will eventually appear on PG Crosschecker.

As part of my duties in Jupiter, I went through every game sheet as part of the process of entering scores into the system and doing game wraps on the WWBA website. Those sheets contain scouting notes and performance reports on every player. Perfect Game also had two of its own scouts at every field for every game, and most made a point of coming through the tower to make sure everyone knew which players they liked.

From the tower in the center of the blue quad, you can always see four different games going on from 8 a.m. each day to well after dark. There are also opportunities to wander through the crowds of scouts, coaches and agents gathered, and ask, “What are you seeing?”

So even if it wasn’t possible to see every player in Jupiter, I still got plenty of input. Instead of rehashing the same familiar names you can read about elsewhere on this site, I thought I would offer a slightly different spin on a Top 10 list of players from Jupiter.

I have chosen to identify 10 players—not necessarily the 10 best players—who left me with the strongest impressions from five days of competition. Some are top prospects and well-known to scouts and recruiters, some are not necessarily either. But they all stood out in their own way.

1. Dylan Covey, rhp, Marantha HS, Pasadena, Calif. (2010)

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Covey’s first pitch was 94 mph and his last pitch, seven innings later, was 94—and there were lots of nasty fastballs and 78-80 mph hammer curves in between. A very good team (the Kansas City Royals Scout Team) had no chance, absolutely no chance, to hit him when he got in a groove and he gave up just one hit, a wind-blown triple, while striking out 17.

2. Chevez Clarke, of, Marietta (Ga.) HS (2010)

In an event dominated by pitching and high school seniors, Clarke had seven extra-base hits in five games—including two triples and a homer in his first game. Since he’s a quick-twitch, speed player and those hits weren’t leg doubles, that’s especially impressive. He’s a legit 2010 prospect.

3. Robert Aviles, rhp, Suffern (N.Y.) HS (2010)

Mark his name down. Aviles will be one of the top righthanders in the 2010 high school class if he stays healthy and no one changes his mechanics. He has a perfect leverage/downhill release and throws 90-92 mph now with lots more to come.

4. Tanner Poppe, rhp, Girard (Kan.) HS (2009)

The 6-foot-6, 225-pound Poppe was No. 2 (behind WWBA MVP Garrett Gould) on our Kansas state-by-state list of top prospects for 2009, but was notable by his absence from PG Crosschecker’s list of the top 1,300-plus prospects nationally. A couple of Midwest college coaches I talked to in Jupiter had also never heard of him. All that has changed as Poppe threw 93 mph with little effort and projects extremely well. He could become the Tyler Sample (a relatively unknown arm from Colorado who blossomed in his senior year) of the 2009 draft.

5. Justin O’Conner, ss-rhp, Cowan HS, Muncie, Ind. (2010)

When you hit a couple of home runs and throw 92 mph off the mound, you are bound to attract attention. When a PG scout starts talking, and says, “Wow, this kid can really, really play shortstop,” that makes him even more interesting.

6. Shelby Miller, rhp, Brownwood (Texas) HS (2009)

A number of scouts told me that the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Miller wasn’t just the top pitching prospect in Jupiter, but just might be the best 2009 high school pitcher in the country. In separate outings, he touched 94 and had command of three plus pitches. The show he put on in his first appearance—a 9 p.m. game with close to 400 scouts/coaches watching his every move—says something about his composure as well. He was in total control on the mound.

7. Tyler Skaggs, lhp, Venice HS, Santa Monica, Calif. (2009)

I still wonder how you can throw a 68-mph, quality curveball when you’re throwing an 89-92 mph fastball, but the 6-foot-5, 180-pound Skaggs can and does so with feel. His velocity increase from this summer, when he was 86-88, was much discussed among the scouts.

8. Jiovanni Mier, ss, Bonita HS, Pomona, Calif. (2009)

The 6-foot-2, 170-pound Mier was an Aflac All-American and obviously one of the more well-known players in Jupiter. But he’s the type of player whose talent is best appreciated over the course of an eight-game tournament, not in a showcase-type environment. As a shortstop and part-time pitcher, he played an instrumental role in California’s ABD Bulldogs winning the 2008 WWBA championship. The game is slower and easier for Mier than most other top-level players.

9. Mark Payton, of, St. Rita HS, Orland Park, Ill. (2010)

Is it a coincidence that the 5-foot-8, 160-pound Payton, the tournament MVP, is almost exactly the same size and plays with a similar style as his team’s founder, John Cangelosi, a scrappy, overachieving player in his day who managed to play 13 years in the big leagues? I asked Cangelosi if Payton reminded him of anyone at the same age, and he just shook his head with a knowing smile.

10. J.R. Murphy, of, Pendleton School, Bradenton, Fla. (2009)

Murphy, a Miami recruit, broke many of Eric Hosmer’s hitting records with the Florida Bombers. He was the runner-up for the MVP award at the WWBA 18-and-under summer championship. He hit about .500, with power, in five games in Jupiter. There’s just a point where you say, “This kid can flat hit.”

Perfect Game’s 10^th annual World Wood Bat Association fall championship was staged at the adjoining spring training complexes of the Florida Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals in Jupiter, Fla., over a five-day period from Oct. 23-27.

With much of the nation’s best high school talent being featured over the course of 175 games (plus several scrimmage games), there were plenty of highlights—even a few signature moments. Many of the highlights from the 80-team tournament were captured during the event by Perfect Game USA and its family of networks, notably PG Crosschecker and Baseball Web TV.

Now that the tournament is in the books and California’s ABD Bulldogs have been crowned champions, here’s our take on 10 moments that defined the event.

1. Cangelosi Emdodies Team Concept
Just like their owner and field manager John Cangelosi, who parlayed his scrappy, underdog style into a 13-year major league career, Illinois’ Cangelosi Baseball lacked superior, frontline talent. Every player on the roster was from Illinois or Indiana, and none ranked among the top 200 high school prospects nationally. But no team embodied more of a “team concept” or played the game with the same grinding, overachieving style emblematic of the 5-foot-7 Cangelosi from his own playing days. The payoff was seven straight wins, including several over high-powered “scout teams”, as the surprising Cangelosi team advanced to the championship game. It reached the final with a dramatic 3-1, semi-final tie-breaker win in two extra innings over the powerful Texas Scout Team Yankees that prompted the biggest celebration in the tournament. The game Cangelosi squad finally met its match in the final, losing 7-3 to a vastly more talented ABD Bulldog team.

2. Showdown of High-Powered Scout Teams
The ultimate purpose of the WWBA championship is to showcase top individual talent to hundreds of scouts and college recruiters in a tournament atmosphere, and no teams have more raw talent (or pitching depth needed to win eight games in four days) than the all-star squads assembled by scouts expressly for the tournament. The most talented were the defending champion Braves Scout Team and the Texas Scout Team Yankees, and the two clubs squared off in the playoffs, in a second-round showdown. With numerous potential first-round draft picks on the two rosters, notably Braves pitchers Shelby Miller (Brownwood, Texas) and Tyler Matzek (Mission Viejo, Calif.), who were both clocked at 94 mph, Texas won the highly-anticipated match-up, 4-0. Righthander Garrett Gould (Wichita, Kan.), a projected second-rounder, upstaged the two prominent Braves pitchers by tossing a one-hitter with no walks and 11 strikeouts in five innings—sewing up tournament Most Valuable Pitcher honors in the process.

3. ABD Finally Hits Paydirt
After reaching the 16-team WWBA playoffs in eight of the last nine years, missing only in 2007, California’s ABD (Amateur Baseball Development, spelled out) Bulldogs won it all this year with a powerful lineup that was the equal of any in the tournament as it included seven of the top 15 prospects in California’s 2009 draft class. Though the underdog Cangelosi team took an early 3-1 lead in the final, ABD’s superior talent up and down the lineup made the difference in the end.

4. Royals Set Tone For Big Leaguers
With more premium high-school talent in one event than any other, major league teams seized upon the opportunity to get involved and had a considerable presence—both in terms of fielding their own teams and sending scouts in record numbers. The Kansas City Royals had the greatest on-field visibility by fielding two clubs in the tournament that their own scouts assembled and coached, but the Cleveland Indians and Arizona Diamondbacks brought the most scouts to the event, 20 apiece. The Royals had 18. In all, some 400-450 scouts, including 15 scouting directors, were in attendance.

5. Class of 2010 Makes An Impact
The WWBA tournament has traditionally been a showcase for high school seniors, but more and more juniors have begun attending the scouting extravaganza. This year’s underclassman talent was easily the best and deepest yet—no coincidence as the 2010 high school class has already been lauded as being extremely talented. Of the nation’s top 75 juniors, as ranked by PG Crosschecker entering the event, 41 were in Jupiter, including the No. 1-ranked prospect, righthander A.J. Cole (Winter Springs, Fla.). With a fastball clocked at 94 mph, the 6-foot-5, 190-pound Cole should maintain his position atop the 2010 list once rankings are revised. But several new players boosted their stock considerably—particularly San Gabriel Valley (Calif.) Arsenal righthander Dylan Covey (see item 8 below). The Royals Baseball Club, the younger of the two teams fielded by the Kansas City Royals, proved that youth was not a disadvantage as it advanced with relative ease to the playoffs with the youngest roster in the tournament. Not a single player on the Royals roster was a senior.

8. Miller, Gould, Skaggs Benefit From Exposure
The chance to showcase their talent before hundreds of scouts and college recruiters draws the best high school talent in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico to Jupiter, and many improved their worth in the process—both the premium prospects for the 2009 draft, and those just looking for a college scholarship opportunity. Among the elite-level prospects, none may have helped themselves more than Miller and Gould, who, coincidentally, hooked up against one another in the quarter-final showdown between the Braves Scout Team and Texas Scout Team Yankees. Gould got the better of Miller in that game, winning 4-0, but Miller had already boosted his stock from a fringe first-rounder to a possible mid-first-rounder three nights earlier in the tournament, when he stood out in a two-inning stint with command of a 94-mph fastball and two solid secondary pitches. Gould topped out at 89 mph in a warm-up test on the opening night of the tournament but was dominant when matched head-to-head with Miller, showcasing excellent mound presence and pinpoint command of three pitches, including a fastball that bumped up to 91. Scouts may still question his somewhat non-projectable delivery and lack of a dominant fastball, but Gould appeared to solidify himself as a solid second-rounder. Tall, gangly lefthander Tyler Skaggs (Santa Monica, Calif.) may have vaulted himself into that draft range, as well, by showing significantly better stuff pitching for the Ohio Warhawks than he had before at major showcase events. His fastball, normally in the high 80s, topped out at 91-92 mph. Previously projected as a fourth-to-sixth round pick, Skaggs was symbolic of the marginally-talented player who may have considerably enhanced his prospect status.

7. East Cobb Doomed By One Bad Inning
Georgia’s nationally-prominent East Cobb Astros are a two-time winner of the WWBA fall championship and appeared primed to make a serious run at the 2008 title—until one bad inning squashed their hopes. The Astros were leading Pennsylvania’s All-American Baseball Academy 6-2 entering the final inning of a pivotal Pool B game and had righthander Kaleb Cowart (Adel, Ga.), a projected 2010 first-rounder, on the mound to apply the finishing touch. But Cowart didn’t retire any of the five hitters he faced and the underdog Academy team (4-0 in pool play) rallied for a 7-6 win over the Astros (3-1), and went on to reach the semi-finals. With the exception of the fateful inning, the Astros otherwise outscored their opponents 33-3 in the tournament. Their final runs scored/runs against differential of 25 was the second-best in the tournament, yet they didn’t even make the playoffs.

8. Covey Emerges Among Hard-Throwing Elite
In 160 pool-play games played on 12 fields over a four-day period, 166 pitchers were clocked at 90 mph and above. A total of 298 hit 88 or better. Hard throwers were in evidence throughout the tournament, but no pitcher threw harder than Winning Inning (Fla.) righthander Mychal Givens (Tampa), a projected first-rounder in 2009 who was clocked at 96—and yet lost his only start while giving up three walks, four hits and four runs in three innings. Eight more pitchers were clocked at 94, including Covey, who worked all seven innings of San Gabriel Valley’s key 3-2, pool-play win over the talented Royals Scout Team. Not only did Covey allow just one hit, a wind-blown triple, but he struck out 17 and most impressively was 94 from the first inning to the seventh. No pitcher in the entire tournament (with the possible exception of Miller) may have created quite as much buzz. Ranked No. 34 in the 2010 high school class at the outset of the tournament, Covey progressed to a potential first-rounder off his dominant performance.

9. Tournament Does a Rain Dance
The rain that has created havoc—bordering on chaos—with another ongoing baseball championship that was being played out several hundred miles to the north of Jupiter, Fla., threatened to disrupt the WWBA championship, too, but the tournament managed to dance around the issue with a minimum of interruption. Despite a chance for rain on the first three days of the event that was forecast at 80 percent, no significant rain fell and all games were played, as scheduled. The prospects for rain were considered much less on Day Four (Sunday), but heavy overnight rains left all 12 fields unplayable initially. That prompted a revised schedule, pushing all four rounds of playoffs to Day Five (Monday), but all scheduled pool-play games were completed Sunday, with the final game wrapping up at 1 o’clock Monday morning—with an estimated 40 scouts and recruiters there until the end. The playoff round Monday was played in perfect south Florida weather—unlike the rainy, windy, sloppy weather in Philadelphia that impacted Game Five of the World Series later that night.

10. Clarke, O’Conner Become Recruiting Targets
Scouts focused most of their attention in Jupiter on the draft class of 2009, and 76 of the top 100 prospects (as ranked by PG Crosschecker) were in attendance. College recruiters, in turn, concentrated more of their efforts on the 2010 class as a vast majority of the high school seniors in Jupiter had already made verbal commitments in advance of the NCAA’s early-signing window from Nov. 12-19. Thirty-one of the top 50 prospects in the 2010 class played in the tournament, but two players who were not ranked in the top 50 made huge statements to the assembled recruiters with their performance. East Cobb outfielder Chevez Clarke (Marietta, Ga.), ranked No. 69, was the hitting star of the entire tournament as he had seven extra-base hits in five games—including triples from both sides of the plate and a home run in East Cobb’s opener. Meanwhile, Indiana Bulls shortstop Justin O’Conner (Muncie, Ind.), ranked No. 81, made a statement of his own by not only being the only player in the tournament to hit two homers but he did that while also touching 92 mph off the mound in the same games.