Reflections: Saturday at the 2010 Scout's Showcase

I just got back from the ballpark in Anchorage, where I spent the entire day watching baseball. It was the single greatest baseball experience of my life. I got tons of photos and videos, which I will share with you all eventually, but first I want to go ahead and type out some of the notes I've got. I don't have that much; by this point in the season it seems like I've seen most of the batters, anyway, so I don't have a lot of notes and the ones I do are mainly concerned with pitchers.

One cool thing I do have is velocities. I sat behind the scouts and had the luxury of having 20 radar guns pop up in front of my face every pitch, so I can finally post actual pitch speeds rather than just guesses as to whether a guy has "good" velocity or not. Some of my previous predictions were wrong, so that will be interesting. For what it's worth, these are all Stalker type guns.

I think I'll just post them all together into this one post, but break them up into the separate games. So here we go with game #1: 

2010 Players to Watch: Team-by-team updates.

Liam Baron, the "thunder from down under", is a
new player to watch for the Goldpanners.
Photo courtesy of Goldpanners.com

This past off-season, several ABL teams released their rosters relatively early. And of course, I was all over that, writing up "Players to Watch" lists as fast as I could get to them. There's one problem with that, though, and that's the volatile nature of summer ball rosters. Injuries, academic problems, transferring to schools with new coaches that have other ideas, and all sorts of other academic/athletic/personal issues can lead to a player bailing or being held back from coming up to AK. For the three early-bird teams that we covered, nearly half the players that I had listed on our watch lists will be doing something else this summer. (For the other tree teams, the previous lists still stand).

But fear not, ABL fans. Those players have been replaced by other players, many of whom are just as good or better. So tonight I'd like to take a moment and look at some of the "replacement" players to watch so that we can get a good crop of intriguing guys to keep an eye on before we get too deep into the season. Just like the main team lists, these aren't necessarily a "best of" ranking, but guys who stand out because of internet buzz, potential, statistics, personal background, whatever. And if someone is flying under my radar that you like, feel free to leave a comment and let me know!

Now, onto the list...

AIA Fire:

IF Kellen Bozeman
Delta State
Junior - 6'0" 195lb

Kellen Bozeman will be one of the top offensive threats for the Fire this season, and so far he hasn't disappointed. He's a tough out, he'll hit high for average, and he'll even swipe a few. Perfect Game ranked him as the top prospect on Delta State for 2009; he wasn't drafted this year but if I'm not mistaken he has another year of eligibility, and I'll eat my hat if he's overlooked again in 2011.

Fire ablaze with roster moves

With about two weeks to go until the season begins, the AIA Fire have made some moves to set up their roster. We're getting pretty close to the season, the spring semester is over and for most of the college baseball world, so is the spring season. We must be getting pretty close to having all the rosters down pat. So let's see what changes the Fire have made since they first announced their roster a while back.

Who's In:

The Fire have picked up three pitchers -- Matt Addis, Harrison Helms and Chris Turner -- plus an infielder (Kellen Bozeman) and an outfielder (Ryan Matthews).

Out of all the pitchers, the one I like the most is Harrison Helms, a 6'2" 200lb senior southpaw. He's been very successful at the NAIA level with MNU, where he was the team's top starter this year. In 2010 he led his team in games (14), wins (6), ERA (3.18) and IP (76.1). He isn't super consistent with his outings (who at this level is?) but when he's on his game he's been awesome this year. One plus that he brings to the Fire this season is that he's a lefty, Justin Denbow being the only other left handed pitcher on the roster at the moment.