Saturday, February 23, 2013

University of Texas at Arlington Scouting Report (2013)

I saw UTA play against LA Tech on the 17th, and then again against Northeastern on the 23rd. I combined the scouting reports on just one post.

Keegan Hueul is a lefty with decent size but probably is done with "projection", that is, he is probably not going to fill out anymore. He has a mid 80's fastball that he threw mainly high and a change that seemed to break arm-side. He also has a 72 MPH curve that has good vertical drop that breaks into righties. He has some problems locating high and had a lot of problems throwing strikes.



Brad Vachon is a lanky right-handed pitcher, with good height and some projection. However, he has a really odd delivery and arm action. He brings his arm way back and seems like he has a non-fluid jerky motion. His fastball is about 86 MPH and was thrown just about everywhere with good movement. His curve seemed like a hard curve, and he also threw a couple 78-80 MPH changes that didn't have a ton of movement.



John Beck is a 6-3 junior right-handed starting pitcher with a delivery that has a lot of jerky motion and isn't really clean. He is currently sort of lanky (listed at 197), and his pick-off move was awful.


Beck was throwing 89-93 MPH with some 2-seam movement. It seemed to break arm-side, though sometimes he would jerk it too much glove side. Overall, his fastball command was not good, but it could be a nice groundball pitch when down. He threw a rare (there may have only been one) 83 MPH change, but his main off-speed pitch was a curve that ran from 75-78 MPH with 2 way break. He showed that he can bury it, and I liked the pitch. It has a lot of good movement away from right-handed hitters, though I am not sure if it would work much against left-handed hitters.His command of it was better than the fastball. His stuff doesn't lend to whiffs, and he is probably a pitcher that is going to have success trying to throw low and get called strikes and ground-balls. His fastball, while acceptable in velocity and good in movement, was not one that really works up in the zone for strikeouts.

Tyler Jones is a right-handed junior reliever out of Weatherford Junior College (though I don't think I saw him when he pitched there, or at least I can't find him in the notes from last year) with a really funky delivery. His arm seems to come out of nowhere, but it has to be really hard to repeat. He was very erratic command wise and was not throwing strikes and he threw just 84-86 MPH.

Jake Pinchback is a senior centerfielder with good but not great speed, as I got him at about 4.13 to first base. He is a little guy (5-9 161) with a slappy swing and clearly looked like bunt/slash leadoff hitter.

Travis Sibley is another little guy (5-8 153), but he hit the ball well, and ran a 7.9 on a double. He might actually have been faster if he was bigger. He seemed to play a decent 2nd base.

Darien Mclemore DH'd and batted 2nd. I saw the freshman last year at Southlake Carroll. He was really stocky looking and extremely slow, as I think I got him at 4.6 to first from the left side. At the plate, he was holding his hands up high, and while the bat speed was there, he was chopping at the ball and had sort of a hitch that was slowing him down. He wasn't making hard contact and was pulling a lot of grounders.



From the right side, he drove a low pitch well to left field, and definitely looks better at the plate from that side.

Ryan Walker is a junior shortstop that has decent but not plus run with 3.81 on a bunt. He has a strong arm defensively. At the plate, he had a very upright stance and has been a very good hitter so far in his career statistically. Justin Copeland was behind fastballs with a not very fluid swing. The junior ran 4.46 to first, but hit low pitches well and goes to get low pitches well to avoid ground-balls (which he needs since he doesn't run fast. Greg Mccall is about an average runner, and hits left-handed. The catcher is athletic behind the plate, but his arm is meh with inaccurate but not great zip.

I saw Peter Cuomo in Weatherford last year. He really struggled at third defensively. At the plate, he was tied up on inside pitches and appeared to have bat speed problems. He was clearly trying to pull just about everything. John Michael Twichell is not a great runner, but he drove a ball into the gap well. I saw the junior that originally was at New Mexico play 1st and DH, so he really has to hit. Matt Shortall is a corner outfielder/DH with good size, that made some solid contact. He has some catching experience, but may be down with that.

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