Posts belonging to Category College Baseball

• In case you have been suffering from an ongoing, post-New Years delirium, Alfredo Simon is the main suspect in a murder case in the Dominican Republic.  It appears that he will be tried for manslaughter after firing a shot that both killed his cousin and wounded his brother (I know, wow).  There are two different stories that have surfaced: Simon fired a celebratory New Year’s Eve shot in the air that somehow inflicted the before mentioned damage; he fired a warning shot to disrupt an argument between two women.  Apparently the “magic” bullet that Simon fired struck his brother in the arm before lodging in the chest of his now deceased cousin.  By no means am I an expert in ballistics, but something sounds fishy about how this all went down.  If only we had some Zapruder-esque footage to fuel our suspicions.

• We have also come to learn that both Miguel Tejada and Julio Lugo – fellow Dominicans – have offered to pay for Simon’s legal fees, which will surely be enormous if he intends to fight the case in court.  If Simon is indeed charged with manslaughter, he will face up to 30-years in prison and will more than likely serve as the set up man for Ugeth Urbina on the Latin American Correctional Team.

• On The Black, a blog dedicated to the New York Mets, posted a video of David Wright that features the third baseman discussing what it is like to play for the team that he grew up rooting for.  He also touches on why he loves baseball and offers a quote that I really like, “Every game is like Saturday morning Little League, going out there and playing with your friends.”

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A month or so ago, a player who played for Griff and I over the last couple of summers — as well as with Griff during the school season of 2010 — walked away from the game during the fall of his first season of college. His reasons were not unusual by any means. These included not loving the game anymore, not liking his teammates, not liking his environment, and not liking his coaches. Being of considerable intelligence, the player took the obvious logical steps and arrived at the conclusion that he never really loved the game but rather his company within his personal experiences relative to the game, be it on or off the field. Of course I encouraged him to give his decision a little time and a little reflection so that he is confident in it when he looks back at his life. I urged him to gaze beyond talent and performance and rather toward more rudimentary factors such as basic emotions like love, joy, hate, pain, etc. In the last couple of weeks he has developed a new desire to return to the field, and I think his reasoning is worth discussing.

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Dominic Moreno, of Piedra Vista High School and the StrikeZone Cardinals, attended USA Baseball’s NTIS as a representative of the Mountain West region to compete for a spot with the U18 National Team.  He was not selected, but we all expect Dom to be one of the most heavily recruited players the 4-Corners region has ever produced.  He does everything well.  Low-90’s velocity with excellent command, a hammer breaker, and a highly advanced feel for a change with outstanding fade.

He will be hitting cleanup all year for PV just like he did nearly all of last year during the school’s title run.  He can play both corner spots adequately and is athletic enough to stay at third or move to right if called upon to do so.  Perhaps the most impressive part is the kid’s IQ.  He does very well in school and will probably finish as an Honor Grad.  He applies this intelligence to the game like no player his age I have ever met.  Someone is going to be very glad they signed Dominic Moreno.

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This morning, I made my first appearance as the new co-host of The Baseball Show.

Clint, the mastermind behind Diamond Hoggers–and a former collegiate baseball player, as well– was kind enough to invite me to join The Baseball Show as a co-host. Follow Diamond Hoggers on Twitter here, and be sure to bookmark the site. If you’re a fan of the work that we do here at The Golden Sombrero, I guarantee that you’ll enjoy it; it’s very similar in the fact that it’s written by a former player who is as die hard of a fan as there is around.

We go for about 90 minutes, talking everything from prospects, to the playoff chase, to social media night in St. Louis (and bloggers vs. official media types).

I had an absolute blast talking baseball with Clint in such depth, and couldn’t be more excited about the future of The Baseball Show.

Click below to listen:

There are very few schools each year that land a kid in the first round.  Maybe a couple will land two.  This year Vanderbilt has a realistic chance to land three kids in the first round, including two righties who potentially could wind up in the top 10 overall.  Those two righties are Sonny Gray and Jack Armstrong.  The hitter is 3B Jason Esposito, who likely will be the second ranked collegiate 3B behind probable first overall selection, Anthony Rendon of Rice.  With guys like this, Vanderbilt has a chance to play deep into the NCAA tourney as well as help make some kids a lot of money.

Let’s start with Esposito.  The guy flies.  He stole over 30 bases last season.  His speed is rare for a corner guy and proves that he has the athleticism to stay at third in the pros.  His slashes in 2010 were .359/.455/.599.  He went deep 12 times and walked very nearly as many times as he struck out.  The guy simply shows the polish and athleticism that scouts covet from the collegiate ranks.  While he might slip to the supplemental round, he probably shouldn’t.  The fact that Esposito has a clear left-side arm and plus speed suggests that there is a realistic chance he plays short in the pros.  If he proves somewhere in the next handful of months that he can adequately do this, he is going to climb.  His hands have room to develop, but third often skews perspectives in that area.  I really like the guy because of his polish at the plate and defensive versatility.  Guys like Esposito tend to stay productive for a really long time.

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