Friday, March 27, 2015

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. 

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Prospects Plus: Carlos Rodon

A new baseball season  is here and so is the return of Prospects Plus. During the course of the season ,  I will deliver scouting reports on some baseball's up and  coming stars that I have the pleasure to watch on TV or see in person. I have a tickets package to the  Lakewood BlueClaws, so you will see reports about prospects in the South Atlantic League as well as college games I watch on TV. So here is our first report on White Sox prospect Carlos Rodon, who pitched against the Royals last night on MLB Network. 


Name: Carlos Rodon
Position: pitcher 
Organization: White Sox 
Organizational rank: top ranked player in the White Sox system, according to Baseball America.
Wednesday night vs. Royals: 4 innings, 4 hits, 0 earned runs, 9 strikeouts.

Positives: Rodon struck out the side on 12 pitches in the first inning. Looked so polished even against the regular lineup of the American League Champions. Touched 96 with his fastball at one point. The Sox have not yet announced whether Rodon, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 draft, will start the season with the major-league club or will go to Triple-A Charlotte for more minor-league seasoning.

Negatives:  Rodon is still trying to harness his  fastball and could use some time in the minors to smooth that out. While Rodon does repeat his delivery well, he did have a tendency last year to lose command with his fastball and secondary offerings, putting too many men on base via walk for a frontline starting pitcher.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Bring back WWE King of the Ring

One of the best wrestling events of the year is PWG's Battle of LA. This single eliminate three night event features great wrestling action. Tournament type wrestling is something that is sorely lacking the WWE.

Why can't/won't the WWE bring back the King of the Ring tournament to file some of the down time in the wrestling calendar, like the time between WrestleMania and Summer Slam. The Crockett Cup used to  be a staple of the wrestling calendar. Now these type of events have been limited to just independent promotions.

Wrestling tournaments like the NJPW Cup and Best of Super Juniors, I know those two are over a couple of weeks but the semifinals and finals are the same night, have been praised. In addition to providing great action the event would allow the WWE to develop another great star similar to what they did with Steve Austin when he won the 1996 King of the Ring. This event set in motion Austin 3:16 and the company made a ton of money.

Why not bring that back to the WWE.