Crack of the Bat
by Blaine Clemmens
ORANGE COUNTY, CA – Where to begin? For two days I have been here in Orange County at the National Classic (www.national-classic.com) watching some of the top high school teams and scouting some of the top high school players in America. Some of the teams here are currently or have been ranked in various national high school rankings this season…Cypress (CA), Palm Beach Central (FL), Riverside Poly (CA), De La Salle (CA), Jesuit (CA).
Other teams in this tournament have spent plenty of time in national rankings in the past… Chaminade (CA), Esperanza (CA), Servite (CA), Galena (NV), Long Beach Wilson (CA), Cottonwood (UT). It is safe to say that the National Classic is one of the top high school tournaments in the country, and it has been so for a long time. This tourney has been around since 1990 and is formerly known as the Upper Deck Classic. I had the great experience of playing in the 1991 Upper Deck Classic as a senior at Cherry Creek (CO) HS.
I did not realize until the other day that the National Classic was formerly known as the Upper Deck Classic, but when I did, I was even more excited to be here scouting this tournament. When I was at Esperanza HS on Monday to see the Jesuit/Riverside Poly game (along with well over 50 scouts, including numerous crosscheckers and a few scouting directors), my mind took me back to 1991, when I took the loss versus Esperanza on the same field. It seems so long ago, but I really don’t feel that old.
Similar to when I was in Jupiter for the 2005 WWBA Championship, I am covering this event with the purpose of reporting my experience here to you. There are a lot of top players in this event and you will get to read my scouting reports about many, if not most of them. That is coverage you will not get from anywhere else.
As I write this, it is late on Tuesday night, which means that two rounds of this tournament have been completed. The remaining teams in the winner’s bracket are Galena (NV), De La Salle (CA), Esperanza (CA), and Servite (CA). Surprisingly, Cypress, Palm Beach Central, and Riverside Poly, the three highest nationally ranked teams in this tourney, lost early round games and ended up in the loser’s bracket after day two.
I am never really sure how to go about putting together one of these reports. There are so many good players to write about. The number of scouts at this tournament is a clear indication that there are some big time players here.
At this point, THE main guy the MLB scouting bigwigs are here to bear down on is Jesuit first baseman Lars Anderson. There have been crosscheckers and scouting directors at each of Jesuit’s first two games, which means one thing… Anderson is being evaluated as a potential early (1-3) round pick. Why? In addition to having legitimate raw power from the left side, Anderson has had a huge spring, entering this tourney with 11 home runs
It is safe to say at this point that C Hank Conger and RHP Chris Tillman are the top two high school players in California, at least in the opinion of pro baseball. Both are considered near locks to be drafted in the first round. 1B/OF Chris Parmelee is hanging on by a thread to first/supplemental first round consideration, but outside of those three players, it depends on who you talk to regarding the other California schoolboys that will go in the top five rounds.
As I said, Monday’s game between Jesuit and Riverside Poly drew a large gathering of scouts and scouting decision makers and they were there to see Anderson. There is no doubt that he has performed this spring but there have been plenty of questions about the caliber of competition Anderson has been hitting all those home runs against. Against Riverside Poly he had a chance to show what he could do against a very good arm on a very big stage.
So how did the big (listed at 6’4” 220 and he is L/L) fella do? How about three hits, including his 12th home run of the spring? On the mound for Riverside Poly was LeCurtis Mayes, a 6’0” senior right-hander with an 88-91 mph fastball and three secondary pitches, including a pretty good slider, so Anderson was tested by a good arm.
In his first at-bat he smoked slider for a single through the four-hole so he was off to a good start. He struck out on his second at-bat when he was beat by a fastball up and away, which allowed for the scouts to start picking him apart. You see, when a player is being mentioned or considered for the top couple of rounds, he gets scrutinized so much more. The good things those players show do not count as much on the positive side as the negative things do on opposite side. It is kind of like the saying that it is much easier to get on top than to stay on top.
In his third at-bat Anderson got the scouts looking at him in a positive light again. Mayes spun a slider in the middle of the plate at the belt and Anderson did not miss it. He crushed that hanging slider deep over the right-centerfield wall for his 12th home run of the spring and showed the ability to hammer mistakes, a good thing for any hitter, but especially for those that may not be seen as high average hitters. Anderson is a power prospect, not a high average hitting prospect, so that was an extremely important at-bat for him… possibly the biggest one of his life, to that point.
I left after the home run to attend another game, but later talked to scout and found out that Anderson had another solid base hit in the game, won by Jesuit. Good day for the big fella. Anderson is not only a power hitting first baseman, but he is also a good defensive player with good feet and a pretty good feel for playing defense, which means he is not one dimensional. It also means that he is starting to creep on the minds of organizations that also like Chris Parmelee.
Entering the spring Anderson was considerably behind Parmelee on most, if not all draft lists. I would venture a guess that Parmelee is still ahead of Anderson on most of those draft lists, but not by as wide a margin as he once was. To me Parmelee is a better pure hitting prospect, but there is something to be said for Anderson’s “plus” raw power and the way he has performed and used that tool this spring. In a year when scouts are grumbling more than usual about this being a weak draft class, Anderson is one player that is taking advantage of his opportunity to move up as others are moving down.
Then again, I say all of that based upon his big day on Monday. Tuesday he did not have the same success. In the three at-bats I saw him have against Servite’s junior right-hander Dan Klein (86-88 mph FB and a very good change-up and solid CB; committed to UCLA already) Anderson grounded out, walked, and struck out looking. He must have had at least one at-bat after I left.
The ground out came on a check swing (change-up) and in the strikeout (fastball inner half) he never really was in the AB. Anderson took a lot of pitches on Tuesday and did not appear nearly as comfortable or as aggressive as he did on Monday. Sooo… well, tomorrow is another day, but will the same throng of scouts be back? There was not nearly the same size group on him on Tuesday as there was on Monday, but there was at least one scouting director there to see him.
Anderson does not have a conventional set-up, stance, or hitting approach for a power hitter. He holds his hands high, at about shoulder height and stands with his feet set very wide apart and his front foot very open. He has some flexion at the knees and as the pitch is approaching, he shifts his weight to the backside pretty noticeable. When it is time to swing, Anderson employs a no-stride lower half approach. He shifts from back to front and looks like he is a rhythm and timing type hitter that really makes no secret that he wants to hit on the pull side.
If he hadn’t performed as he has this spring, it is not too likely that he would be considered a high round pick and by that I mean a pick somewhere in the top two rounds. He did not have a good performance at Area Codes. He was recruited by a number of college programs, but when he committed to Cal-Berkeley, most college programs that lost out on his services were likely disappointed but not terribly heartbroken. There are plenty of technical things a scout could pick on.
There is zero doubt about his physical presence. What a body. He is a left handed hitter with power. He moves around the bag well. For all of those reasons Anderson was on every Northern California scouts’ draft follow list. However, it has been his performance in conjunction with his one plus tool that has him being seen in a different light this spring. Good for Lars Anderson, I hope it works out for him because I love to see players achieve good things. So many players get knocked in a negative light when it comes to the draft; it is refreshing to see a player rising as Anderson is doing.
In the coming days I will break down the other top players in this tourney, likely on a team by team basis. I think that will be the best way. The 06 grads in this event are good, but there are some 07s and 08s, and even some 09s that are among the top players in the nation in their classes.
This column represents the thoughts and opinions of the author and are not necessarily those of Perfect Game.