Prospects Plus: Hagen Danner

Name: Hagen  Danner
Team: Huntington Beach HS (California)
Position: Pitcher
Organization Rank: One of the top prospects for the 2017 Draft (UCLA commit)
Thursday vs. Puyallup (Wash.) High School at NHSI: 13 strikeouts, 3 hits  in complete game shutout.

Positives: touched 90/91 with his fastball during his outing but can be has high as 93/94. For only being a sophomore he looked incredibly polished. Danner is no stranger to pitching in big games. Danner played and won the Little League World Series. Hagen's curveball is presently a soft hammer with projection, breaking late vertically at 79-80 mph with shape and depth. Danner even showed some feel throwing a pair of 81-82 mph changeups. His curveball was dominant as he locked up hitter after hitter. If his arm hold up he is going to be a top five pick. Looked the part of an ace despite being so young. 

Negatives: Like any players this young, you worry about his delivery and his arm holding up. 

Prospects Plus: D'Backs Trevor Bauer makes MLB Debut

The 2011 MLB Draft class was highlighted by three top of the rotation type of pitchers: Gerrit Cole, Danny Hultzen, and Trevor Bauer. On Thursday night, Bauer became the first of the group to make their MLB debut. Bauer started against the Braves and went four innings, allowing 5 hits, 2 earned runs and walking 3 on 74 pitches. Bauer Debut Doesn't Dazzle, was the headline from The Bleacher Report. While ESPN story stated that Bauer has some work to do. Its only his first start so there is time. Over the next couple of years it will be interesting to see which of the three has the best pro career.

Prospects Plus: The New Generation K

Almost 20 years ago, baseball insiders were buzzing about three over the top Mets pitching prospects that were supposed to take over baseball, Generation K. Bill Pulsipher, Jason Isringhausen, and Paul Wilson where billed as pitcher that were going to take over MLB. Injuries limited them and derailed most of their careers.

Fast forward to today and the Pirates are set to have three pitching prospects that will rival Generation K. The Pirates set of prospects include Jameson Taillon, Gerrit Cole and Mark Appel. The trio are set to rivals any groups of pitching prospects in the history of baseball.


Jameson Taillon, a 2010 first round pick, has an impressive arsenal of pitches. Taillon has  a fastball that already sits in the mid-90s with movement and a devastating curve ball — rated by most to be the two best pitches in his draft class— Taillon has two potentially plus-plus pitches in his arsenal. Taillon is currently pitching in Class A ball in the Florida State League.

Gerrit Cole (above), the first overall pick in 2011, features some of the best stuff currently  in the minors. To say Cole has outstanding stuff would be an understatement. His four-seam fastball sits 96-98 MPH touching 99 MPH frequently and occasionally flirting with triple digits. Cole attacks the zone with his four-seamer; he's not afraid to throw it up or down, inside or out. While he primarily uses his four-seamer, Cole also mixes in a two-seam fastball sitting 91-94 MPH with solid sink. His fastball command has improved greatly since his high school days and now is firmly above-average.It's very rare to say this about a pitcher who throw upper-90's, but Cole's fastball is not his best pitch; his changeup is. Coming in 83-86 MPH with rare late tumble, he has a true swing-and-miss changeup. Despite his curve flashing plus potential when he was in high school, Cole has shifted his focus to a slider in college. At its absolute best, Cole's slider flashes plus but it's more consistently a notch below that. His slider sits 86-88 MPH with above-average break, but the pitch is obviously still a little raw. Cole is currently in Double A and could be with the big club by the end of the season.

Mark Appeal, a 2012 first round pick, is one of the most complete pitchers in college baseball this year. Appeal has a fastball that sits in the mid-90 and an good breaking ball that is going to only get better. Because of his build some people compare him to Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain.

While nothing is guaranteed, the Pirates have the foundation to have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball in the next couple of years or they could end up like Generation K and give their struggling fan base shattered dreams.

MLB Draft notebook

The first and sandwich round of the MLB Draft are in the books and here a couple of quick thoughts on what happened.

• Welcome to Major League Baseball in 2011, its all about pitching and that showed with the top four players selected all being pitching, including three college pitchers that are going to move fast through each of their systems.
• I guess Gerrit Cole choice to turn down the Yankees after they selected him in the first round in 2008 turned out well for him. Cole was the number one overall pick in the draft. 
• At the start of the season Anthony Rendon was the number player on most people's board after a season that featured injuries Rendon dropped to the Nationals at six. It was a dream for the Nats front office. 
• MLB Network coverage of the draft is getting better each year they do it, love seeing Gammons on the show. He has always loved the drafted.
•  People are going to kill the Giants for taking St. John's SS Joe Panik, but they usually do some weird things in the draft and more times that not they turn out well.
• Both Massachusetts high school pitcher Tyler Beede and Texas high school outfielder Josh Bell sent letters out saying that they were not signing and attending college, it worked out well for Beede who was drafted by Toronto in the first round, while Bell slid out of the first round.
• The draft needs to get more players at the draft, it would make it g

OTWT Mock MLB Draft

The Scouting Staff of OTWT has been locked away in the its bunker for the last couple of days, going over the top prospects in the upcoming baseball draft and coming up with its annual mock draft. Last year, we did it and it did not turn out that well. So here goes.

1 Pittsburgh Pirates: Gerrit Cole, RHP, UCLA

2 Seattle Mariners: Danny Hultzen, LHP, UVa

3 Arizona Diamondbacks: Anthony Rendon, 3B, Rice

4 Baltimore Orioles: Sonny Gray, RHP, Vanderbilt

5 Kansas City Royals: Tyler Jungmann, RHP, Texas

6 Washington Nationals: Alex Meyers, RHP, Kentucky

7 Arizona Diamondbacks: Dylan Bundy, RHP, Owasso (Oklahoma) HS

8 Cleveland Indians: Jed Bradley, LHP, Georgia Tech

9 Chicago Cubs: Bubba Sterling, OF, Gardner-Edgerton (Oklahoma) HS

10 San Diego Padres: Trevor Bauer, RHP, UCLA

11 Houston Astros: Francisco Lindor, SS, Montverde Academy (Fla)

12 Milwaukee Brewers: Taylor Guerrieri, RHP, Spring Valley HS (SC)

13 New York Mets: George Springer, OF, UConn

14: Florida Marlins: Archie Bradley, RHP, Broken Arrow HS (Okalahoma)

15 Milwaukee Brewers: Larry Green, OF, Berrien County HS (Georgia)

16 Los Angeles Dodgers: Tyler Anderson, LHP, Oregon

17 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: Brandon Nimmo, OF, East HS (Wyo)

18 Oakland Athletics: Mikie Mahtook, OF, LSU

19 Boston Red Sox: Matt Barnes, RHP, UConn

20 Colorado Rockies: Kolten Wong, 2B, Hawaii

21 Toronto Blue Jays: Josh Bell, OF, Dallas Jesuit HS (TX)

22 St. Louis Cardinals: Javier Baez, SS, Arlington Country Day HS (Fla)

23 Washington Nationals: CJ Cron, 1B, Utah

The Cover Story: Sporting News College Basketball Preview

The season is only 10 days away and I could not be happier. Here are all of the covers of the Sporting News College Basketball previews from around the country.

The Cover Story: College Basketball

It seems like only yesterday that North Carolina cut down the nets at Ford Field in Detroit, but a lot has changed since they did that, Coach Cal went from Memphis to Kentucky and North Carolina reloaded.

In honor of midnight madness tomorrow night here are the covers of the Sporting News College Basketball preview issues:

Washington

California

Arizona

Texas

Kansas

Michigan

Illinois

SEC

Tennessee

Miami

Kentucky

North Carolina

Pittsburgh

Washington DC

UCONN

The Cover Story: NCAA Tournament

For the last couple of year, Sports Illustrated has created a collage of teams that are involved in the NCAA Tournament. This year they decided to release four different covers for different regions.

Midwest

West

Southwest/Big 12 Country

Big East

It's now the start of the season

The season started last night with Duke beating a church or some terrible school. Here are some of the covers Athlon College Basketball Preview Magazine.

Memphis

Arizona/Arizona State

UCLA/USC

Texas/Texas A&M/Baylor

Who doesn't love a mock Baseball Draft??

Out of all of drafts, the Major League Baseball Draft might be the toughest to predict. Sometimes players drop because of the signing bonuses they want, while other times Scott Boras scares some teams away.

So with that spelled out, Only Time Will Tell is going to sticks its neck out there and try to predict the first round of the draft that will be held June 6. For the last couple of weeks the Only Time Will Tell Scouting Department has been reviewing scouting reports and watching the conference baseball tournaments to create his mock draft.

FIRST ROUND
1. Tampa Bay Rays (pictured above): Tim Beckham, SS, Griffin (Ga) High School
2. Pittsburgh Pirates: Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Vanderbilt
3. Kansas City Royals: Brian Matusz, P, San Diego
4. Baltimore Orioles: Aaron Crow, P, Missouri
5. San Francisco Giants: Buster Posey, C, Florida State
6. Florida Marlins: Yonder Alonso, 1B, Miami
7. Cincinnati Reds: Gordon Beckman, SS, Georgia
8. Chicago White Sox: Kyle Skipworth, C, Patriot High School (Rubidoux, Cal.)
9. Washington Nationals: Justin Smoak (pictured above), 1B, South Carolina.
10. Houston Astros: Eric Hosmer, 1B, Plantation High School, (Fla.)
11. Texas Rangers: Christain Fredrich, LHP, Eastern Kentucky
12. Oakland Athletics: Brett Wallace, 3B, Arizona State.
13. St. Louis Cardinals: Tim Melville, P, Holt High School (Wentzville, Mo.)
14. Minnesota Twins: Brett Lawrie, OF, Brookswood Secondary School (Langley BC)
15. Los Angeles Dodgers: Shooter Hunt, RHP, Tulane
16. Milwaukee Brewers: Joshua Fields, RHP, Georgia
17. Toronto Blue Jays: Andrew Cashner, RHP, Texas Christian
18. New York Mets (Glavine/Braves): Casey Kelly, SS, Sarasota (Fla.)
19. Chicago Cubs:Jason Castro, C, Stanford
20. Seattle Mariners:Aaron Hicks, OF/RHP, Long Beach Wilson (Ca.)
21. Detroit Tigers: Reese Havens, SS, South Carolina.
22. New York Mets: Gerrit Cole, RHP, Orange Lutheran HS (Ca.)
23. San Diego Padres: Ethan Martin, RHP/3B, Stephens County HS (Ga.)
24. Philadelphia Phillies:Daniel Sclereth, LHP, Arizona.
25. Colorado Rockies:Brett DeVall, LHP, Niceville HS (Fla.)
26. Arizona Diamondbacks: Ike Davis, OF, Arizona State.
27. Minnesota Twins (Hunter/Angels): Jemile Weeks, 2B, Miami.
28. New York Yankees: Alex Meyer, RHP, Greensburg HS (Ind.)
29. Cleveland Indians: Ryan Perry, RHP, Arizona.
30. Boston Red Sox:Anthony Hewitt,SS,Salisbury School (Conn.)

COMP ROUND A
31. Minnesota Twins (Hunter/Angels):Zach Collier, LF, Chino Hills HS (Cal.)
32. Milwaukee Brewers (Cordero/Reds): Connor Gillaspie, 3B, Wichita State
33. New York Mets (Glavine/Braves): Tanner Scheppers,RHP, Fresno State
34. Philadelphia Phillies (Rowand/Giants): Kyle Russell, OF, Texas
35. Milwaukee Brewers (Linebrink/White Sox): Brett Hunter, RHP, Pepperdine
36. Kansas City Royals (Riske/Brewers): James Darnell, 3B/OF, South Carolina
37. San Francisco Giants (Feliz/Phillies):Jody Mercer, SS, Oklahoma State
38. Houston Astros (Miller/Rays):Ross Seaton, RHP, Second Baptist HS (Tex.)
39. St. Louis Cardinals (Percival/Rays): Jake Odorizzi, RHP, Highland HS (Ill.)
40. Atlanta Braves (Mahay/Royals): Xavier Avery, OF, Cedar Grove HS (Ga.)
41. Chicago Cubs (Kendall/Brewers): Dustin Hood, OF, Episcopal HS, (Ala.)
42. San Diego Padres )(Brocail/Astros): Tim Murphy, LHP, UCLA
43. Arizona Diamondbacks (Hernandez/Twins): Kyle Lobstein, LHP, Coconion HS (Ari.)
44. New York Yankees (Vizcaino/Rockies): Tyler Sample, RHP, Mullen HS (Col.)
45. Boston Red Sox (Gagne/Brewers):Jordan Danks, OF, Texas
46. San Diego Padres (Cameron/Brewers):David Cooper, 1B, California

The Real Star of NCAA Tournament

Some might say the real star of the NCAA Tournament might be Derrick Rose of Memphis or even Kevin Love of UCLA, but the real star of the big dance has been Endy in the Outfields favorite pop-a-shot player Chuck. Just check out the intensity.

It's Big, Blue, and Ugly

Sure the NCAA Tournament has been great this year with the introduction to the world of such players as Stephen Curry and Courtney Lee, but something is missing.

In the past, sites that hosted the tournaments, would just keep their logos on the floor, but now the NCAA has decided to put these huge blue NCAA logo at the center court. That decision has taken some of the joy away from watching the tournament. During the tournament one of the best things to see was all of the different center court logos around.

From UCLAs Tyus Edney crossing over the Boise State logo on his way to beating Missouri to the Boston College players celebrating on the William and Mary logo after being top seeded North Carolina in the second round. It's was always great to see the other logos on the floor, it something that made the tournament fun.

Please return the logos that is all I'm asking.

First weekend thoughts

The first weekend of the big dance is always the best. This year has been no different with all kinds of drama. Here are some thoughts about the last four days of action:
• Could Mississippi Valley State be the worst team ever in the dance?
• I think Belmont coach Rick Byrd bought his sweater vest at Macy's.
• Is USC loss to Kansas State the last time we will see Tim Floyd on the sidelines of the Trojans. I think so.
• These Nike commercials are starting to get annoying. I know my better is better then your better.
• Davidson's back court of Curry and Richards might be one of the best in all of the land.
• Two weeks ago looked like Villanova might be headed to the College Basketball Invitational, now they are in the Sweet 16.
• Who would have ever thought Quentin Thomas would be winningest player in the history of North Carolina basketball.

One Shining Moment through the decade

One of the things that makes the NCAA Tournament so much fund is the end, when CBS decides to run One Shining Moment. The song has been the unofficial ending of the college basketball season for almost 30 years. Lets hope this years is as good as all of the prior years.

2000

2001



2002

2003



2004

2005

2005: 25th anniversary of One Shining Moment was show right before the national semifinals

2006


2007



2008: ???????

It's that Time of Year Again

Dick Vitale has been sleeping for the last couple of months getting is vocal chords ready for tomorrow night, Midnight Madness the official start of the college basketball season. So before long Joe Lunardi will be running around talking about bubble teams, Jay Bilas will be breaking down the high pick and roll, and Digger Phelps (pictured) will be trying to pick out highlghter that match all of his great looking ties.

Here are my Top Five teams as the practice gets started.

1. North Carolina: Only the Heals can have a lottery pick and still be the top team in a America.
2. Memphis: Here is the deal, enough is a enough for Coach Cal. Every year we hear all about how good they are and every year they crash out in late March. So this has to be the year.
3. Louisville: Pitino has all of the tools to have the best team in the Big East and when the coach gets to March few are better.
4. UCLA: I hate UCLA, they bore me to death, but they should be one of the best teams in the West.
5. Kansas: Talent: check. Great home court: Check. Coaching: no check. Last year, North Carolina and Kansas had the best talent in American, but in the end they lost. I'ts now or never time for Coach Self.

So everyone sit back and get ready, the real games are only a couple of weeks away.