The New BaseVols

#1
vol66

vol66

GBO!!!
Staff member
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Messages
62,549
Likes
73,670
#1
The New Guys have arrived or should I say, arrived about a week ago. Based on google, twitter, etc. I think most are accounted for.

Who are you guys most excited to get a look at?

I can't wait to see Jake Westphal. Here's the last PG write up I could find on him.

Jake Westphal is a 2014 RHP/SS with a 6-1 205 lb. frame from Sioux City, IA who attends East HS. Best he's ever thrown at a Perfect Game event. Delivery has calmed down and had better tempo, has been doing good work with his mechanics this spring and it shows. Fastball was 90-93 with lots of 92-93's and over powered hitters, tends to be straight but threw to spots and dominated. Curveball had good spin and depth and was also thrown for strikes. Maintained velocity until his last pitch, something that has not always happened in the past. Definitely got the scout's attention and ended his PG career in style. Good student, signed with Tennessee.


PG Grade 10.0
Click to expand...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#2
#2
Benito Santiago Jr.

fD70wSFO_400x400.jpeg



[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfU1XLb14RY[/youtube]
 
#3
#3
Dominick Cammarata

186ce7c51b1965c34e6afe87b0f11e69_400x400.jpeg


Dominick Cammarata is a 2014 C/1B with a 6-3 205 lb. frame from Asheville, NC who attends T C Roberson HS. Tall, strong athlete with quick twitch agility. Ran a 7.00 60 yard dash. Shows quick actions behind the plate, his feet move well and gets ride of the ball in a hurry. Has a very fast arm and keeps the arm action short. Good receiver with quiet hands. Bats right-handed, shows good leverage and power potential. Has simple swing mechanics and stays short to the ball, shows a good game action approach. Outstanding student.


PG Grade 9.5
Click to expand...

Dominick Cammarata Baseball Profile | Perfect Game USA
 
#4
#4
Zachary Warren


Zach Warren @ZachWarren22 · 9m

Signing day round 2! Proud to officially be apart of @vol_baseball Instagram
Click to expand...


[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl0VkG9r7ng[/youtube]
 
#5
#5
Westphal and Santiago for me. A good offensive catcher is something we need and Santiago is one. Westphal is improving still. Warren is up there too.
 
#7
#7
Brodie Leftridge

2014.021.jpg


https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=brodie+leftridge+baseball

(Brodie) Leftridge is a 2014 OF with a 6-1 160 lb. frame from Highland, MD who attends St. John's College Prep. Slender young build, has some wiry strength. 6.54 runner, gets good jumps on the ball and shows very good range, closes on the ball quickly, centerfield tools and projection, strong arm with a loose long arm action, tends to throw uphill. Right handed hitter, early stride, still hand start, simple swing mechanics, very quick hands, can handle inside velocity, whippy barrel out front, projects some power, bat could really develop with better rhythm and additional physical strength. Plays with lots of energy, high motor type. Big ceiling with patience. Good student, verbal commitment to Tennessee.


PG Grade 10.0
Click to expand...

Broderick (Brodie) Leftridge Baseball Profile | Perfect Game USA
 
#11
#11
First off, I have not kept up with UT baseball recruiting, although I am a VFL and a "baseball guy." I am very impressed to see the analysis on some of these guys. A 9.0 and up rating on Perfect Game is obviously no joke, and it seems that quite a few of our commits seem to have a bright future beyond college. I am extremely excited to see CDS bringing in these type of players. I also think that it is way beyond awesome that we have Benito Santiago's son committed!! If there were ever a catcher's son...
 
#12
#12
I am pretty sure we have as many 10.0's coming in this class then we did the last two combined. Good Good class. and we havnt even see the other JUCO's/ other players signed. Usually there is one or two more they announce after the draft deadline passes.
 
#13
#13
We need pitching, that being said Warren and Westpal are the one's that excite me. And while the class is nice, not enough pitching. CDS seems to be recruiting for the pre-bbcor era. A couple good arms and then all bats. It's all about pitching now. You look at the top teams in this conference and they load up on quality arms. We get 1 or 2 per class, that's not going to cut it. And if Warren does not de-commit from Tulane, this would be another very weak pitching class.

Now don't get me wrong, I am excited about the offensive players coming in. Our fielding and hitting are SEC level now. But nothing suggests that our pitching is. And unless we get some surprises, our pitching will be bottom half. Hope I am wrong. Or maybe I am overlooking something. Someone convince me otherwise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#14
#14
CunningLinguist said:
We need pitching, that being said Warren and Westpal are the one's that excite me. And while the class is nice, not enough pitching. CDS seems to be recruiting for the pre-bbcor era. A couple good arms and then all bats. It's all about pitching now. You look at the top teams in this conference and they load up on quality arms. We get 1 or 2 per class, that's not going to cut it. And if Warren does not de-commit from Tulane, this would be another very weak pitching class.

Now don't get me wrong, I am excited about the offensive players coming in. Our fielding and hitting are SEC level now. But nothing suggests that our pitching is. And unless we get some surprises, our pitching will be bottom half. Hope I am wrong. Or maybe I am overlooking something. Someone convince me otherwise.
Click to expand...

Vandy
Touki Toussaint (RHP)- 1st Round by Diamondbacks (PG: 10, up to 97 mph) SIGNED
Justus Sheffield (LHP)- 1st Round by Indians (PG: 10) SIGNED
Cody Reed (LHP)- 2nd Round by Diamondbacks (PG: 9) SIGNED
Dylan Cease (RHP)- 6th Round by Cubs (PG: 10, up to96 mph) SIGNED

This is what happens when you sign quality arms everyone has heard of.........signing kids and developing them is the objective.

Can CDS develop arms? My guess is yes based on his track record.

If you're expected a freshman phenom in college baseball, good luck, it happens however they are far and few between.

I think the pitching next year will surprise a few, need to improve the depth however its a work in progress and its getting better.............what else can you ask for?
 
#15
#15
CunningLinguist said:
We need pitching, that being said Warren and Westpal are the one's that excite me. And while the class is nice, not enough pitching. CDS seems to be recruiting for the pre-bbcor era. A couple good arms and then all bats. It's all about pitching now. You look at the top teams in this conference and they load up on quality arms. We get 1 or 2 per class, that's not going to cut it. And if Warren does not de-commit from Tulane, this would be another very weak pitching class.

Now don't get me wrong, I am excited about the offensive players coming in. Our fielding and hitting are SEC level now. But nothing suggests that our pitching is. And unless we get some surprises, our pitching will be bottom half. Hope I am wrong. Or maybe I am overlooking something. Someone convince me otherwise.
Click to expand...

Couple things...I forgot to add Steven Kane a righty juco kid out of Cypress Community College. He had the most starts for them this season and had somewhere around a 3.16 ERA. He's also playing summer ball with the LA Brewers and Tyler Schultz. He leads the Brewers in saves and has a 1.84 ERA. He was drafted by the Indians in the 28th round in 2013, 34th round by the Cubs in 2014. At Cypress and with the Brewers, he was/is a team mate of former Vol Matt Esparza. Esparza has the best ERA in the California CL and is going to UC Irvine next season.

We only have two left handed pitchers remaining on the roster, so we needed a couple of them which CDS got. We have 12 RHP's currently on the roster, how many will actually remain no one can know.

Our roster will be junior heavy next season with guys like Stew, AJ, VJax, Houser and Lance so I guess you have to start thinking about replacing them WITHOUT having to throw a slew of freshman out there like we did two years ago.

Obviously losing Steen to the draft hurt, but those are the breaks, look what happened to Vandy.

Honestly, I'm much more worried about the fielding and hitting. I feel better about Rodgers than I did a couple of weeks ago so maybe we'll be okay at 3B. I don't feel great about 2B, and I liked Maggio at 1B, but his BA wasn't all that great and he's had surgery this summer so no at bats in summer ball for him. You've got the juco kid Hill coming in, but he's in the OF.

Smart, Maddox and Price were the 3,4, and 5th most productive players offensively behind Stew and Senzel, below them there was almost no power.

On the pitching front we replace Nick Williams...that's it. Cox, H. Martin, Serrano and Lee all started at times last year and 2 out of those four will only be sophomores. Maybe CDS feels that we are close in that department and since that is his wheelhouse I feel okay with it.
 
Last edited:
#16
#16
vol66 said:
Couple things...I forgot to add Steven Kane a righty juco kid out of Cypress Community College. He had the most starts for them this season and had somewhere around a 3.16 ERA. He's also playing summer ball with the LA Brewers and Tyler Schultz. He leads the Brewers in saves and has a 1.84 ERA. He was drafted by the Indians in the 28th round in 2013, 34th round by the Cubs in 2014. At Cypress and with the Brewers, he was/is a team mate of former Vol Matt Esparza. Esparza has the best ERA in the California CL and is going to UC Irvine next season.

We only have two left handed pitchers remaining on the roster, so we needed a couple of them which CDS got. We have 12 RHP's currently on the roster, how many will actually remain no one can know.

Our roster will be junior heavy next season with guys like Stew, AJ, VJax, Houser and Lance so I guess you have to start thinking about replacing them WITHOUT having to throw a slew of freshman out there like we did two years ago.

Obviously losing Steen to the draft hurt, but those are the breaks, look what happened to Vandy.

Honestly, I'm much more worried about the fielding and hitting. I feel better about Rodgers than I did a couple of weeks ago so maybe we'll be okay at 3B. I don't feel great about 2B, and I liked Maggio at 1B, but his BA wasn't all that great and he's had surgery this summer so no at bats in summer ball for him. You've got the juco kid Hill coming in, but he's in the OF.

Smart, Maddox and Price were the 3,4, and 5th most productive players offensively behind Stew and Senzel, below them there was almost no power.

On the pitching front we replace Nick Williams...that's it. Cox, H. Martin, Serrano and Lee all started at times last year and 2 out of those four will only be sophomores. Maybe CDS feels that we are close in that department and since that is his wheelhouse I feel okay with it.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I feel better. I forgot about CDS ability to develop. And for some reason thought we lost more pitchers.
 
#18
#18
I don't follow baseball recruiting but this seems to be a very good signing class. When was the last time we had this many quality players coming in?
 
#19
#19
Here is some stuff on new LHP Zach Warren from govols247.com
Reports from recent months have him sitting around 88 MPH on the fastball and topping out at 91-92.
Click to expand...
Warren was probably the biggest HS pitcher on the market, and EVERYONE has been scrambling the past week to get him. That's an absolutely huge get for Tennessee. If he's healthy, he's in the rotation this season. That's a really, really good LHP prospect.
Click to expand...
Warren was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 23rd round, and he only fell that far because of signability concerns. He's a HUGE prospect.
Click to expand...
Wes also thinks he is a midweek or weekend starter...

Him and Westphal are big time pitching prospects for sure....
 
#20
#20
Some research im doing....

Brodie Leftridge was rated a 10.0 on Perfectgame a year ago. I would love to see how he has matured since then.
 
#21
#21
matts42012 said:
Here is some stuff on new LHP Zach Warren from govols247.com



Wes also thinks he is a midweek or weekend starter...

Him and Westphal are big time pitching prospects for sure....
Click to expand...

I love the fact that westphal has a fastball around 92, and a change up in the high 70's. With Serrano's ability to develop the change up, he will be a great one.
 
#22
#22
matts42012 said:
Some research im doing....

Brodie Leftridge was rated a 10.0 on Perfectgame a year ago. I would love to see how he has matured since then.
Click to expand...

He's certainly got the advantage of playing summer college ball over most of these new guys.
 
#23
#23
I think CDS knows exactly what he is doing when it comes to the pitching department. Too many schools only look at radar guns and velocity. CDS has a great eye for guys that can flat out PITCH. There will be some very good surprises on the hill come this spring.
 
#24
#24
ELITE said:
I think CDS knows exactly what he is doing when it comes to the pitching department. Too many schools only look at radar guns and velocity. CDS has a great eye for guys that can flat out PITCH. There will be some very good surprises on the hill come this spring.
Click to expand...

Agreed, he's proven again and again that he knows what he is doing with developing pitching. Andy Cox's breakout season is huge proof of that while here at UT. He has gotten Nick Williams and Zach Godfrey drafted as HC of the vols.
 
#25
#25
Burger said:
Agreed, he's proven again and again that he knows what he is doing with developing pitching. Andy Cox's breakout season is huge proof of that while here at UT. He has gotten Nick Williams and Zach Godfrey drafted as HC of the vols.
Click to expand...

Godley.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top