2016 MLB Draft: Top Performers in Cape Cod League

[KB21]

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/6/28/8845443/update-on-2016-mlb-draft-prospects-in-2015-cape-cod-league

Reid Humphreys, Dakota Hudson, Zac Houston, and Daniel Brown are all mentioned.

[bulldogcountry1]

Good to see a lot of our guys doing well this summer. I'd like to see Humphreys doing a little better at the plate, though.

[KB21]

Good to see a lot of our guys doing well this summer. I'd like to see Humphreys doing a little better at the plate, though.

He started slow but has been making better contact lately. I would still like to see the power numbers up. Brent Rooker is going to be the big power guy in the line up. He's hit 5 already in the New England Collegiate League. Cole Gordon has hit 2 home runs in the Great Lakes League, and half of his hits are extra base hits. I still believe the bloodlines will come through and Hump will perform similar to his brother Tyler Moore in the long run.

[Todd4State]

Hump has one of the better averages in that league right now against some really good pitching. He's never going to hit for average though. He is what he is.

[Jacksondevildog]

Also, I saw a Perfect Game or Baseball America 2016 MLB Draft projection that has Alex Speas as the number 4 or 5 pick in the draft for next year. He gone.

[Todd4State]

Also, I saw a Perfect Game or Baseball America 2016 MLB Draft projection that has Alex Speas as the number 4 or 5 pick in the draft for next year. He gone.

Yep. The only way we get him is if he fails a physical.

[KB21]

Yep. The only way we get him is if he fails a physical.

Maybe he will get Scott Boras to represent him and end up going in the 31st round like Cody Everitt.

[KB21]

Todd, regarding Reid Humphreys and your premise that he will never hit for average. What do you see that makes you believe that? What is he showing that is drastically different from Hunter Renfroe as a sophomore when his average was almost identical to Reid's?

[Todd4State]

I've followed Reid's career since he committed to us, and he never hit for a high average in high school- he never cracked .400 which is rare for a SEC prospect, and he hasn't hit for average for us. Now, I know his bio says he hit .419 his senior year, but trust me- that's inflated by about 100 points.

Hunter absolutely dominated his junior and senior years in high school- I think he holds the MAIS record for home runs with 20 after hitting 15 his junior year and he just had incredibly natural physical tools. He threw 94 on the mound and he wasn't really even trying or knew anything about pitching. I don't know what Hunter's 60 time is/was but he is also really fast on the basepaths as well.

Reid has good power- he might even hit 13 like Hunter did his junior year, it wouldn't shock me at least- but I doubt Reid will hit in the .350's like Hunter did. I'm expecting .275 or so.

Reid played at a high profile baseball program and is the step brother of a famous by Mississippi standards baseball player and that elevated his profile probably more than it should. I've always been worried about our fans possibly having too high expectations for him.

With Hunter, I felt like at first it was more about him having confidence in himself that he could play at the SEC level, and then he slowly started to put it together and by the time he was a junior he realized that he could be an elite player. A lot of that is because he played at a small school and didn't do as much of the travel ball stuff.

[Jacksondevildog]

Reid's batting average was not inflated .100 points at NWR, if any. You can trust me on that.

[Todd4State]

Maybe he will get Scott Boras to represent him and end up going in the 31st round like Cody Everitt.

I've long been an advocate for getting Boras involved with our recruits.

With Speas I just don't think he's serious about going to college. Honestly, I don't think it's a stretch to say that his ceiling is becoming the next Dwight Gooden if he can put everything together like he appears to be doing.

[Todd4State]

Reid's batting average was not inflated .100 points at NWR, if any. You can trust me on that.

NWR has a really good baseball website. It seemed like he hovered in the .300's most of his senior year. I definitely remember being a little concerned about it.

[Jacksondevildog]

Reid is a high risk/high reward guy. Lots of swing and miss and some poor at bats, but he will put up power numbers. He's been that way for a long, long time. Reid didn't get Mississippi Gatorade player of the year because his half brother is Tyler Moore.

[KB21]

I've long been an advocate for getting Boras involved with our recruits.

With Speas I just don't think he's serious about going to college. Honestly, I don't think it's a stretch to say that his ceiling is becoming the next Dwight Gooden if he can put everything together like he appears to be doing.

Yep. Cohen has to continue to recruit these types of players though. Much like Vandy, when you recruit at a high level, you will lose some to the pros but will also gain a lot of quality players who will eventually move on to play pro ball. We have discussed losing Austin Riley, Gray Fenter, and Greg Pickett this year. Well, Vandy lost Nolan Watson, Triston McKenzie, Bryce Denton, and Daniel Wilson to the draft from their class. This is on top of losing Touki Toussaint, Cody Reed, Dylan Cease, and Justus Sheffield last year. Mississippi State has lost Austin Riley, Gray Fenter, Greg Pickett, Chase Vallot, Cord Sandberg, and Dale Burdick over the past two years.

[BankerDog]

Todd, Reid and Tyler are half brothers. Same mother, different father. Reid very well did hit .419 but you have to remember some teams in that region were Murrah, Jim Hill, Warren Central, Vicksburg, etc. not great baseball schools.

[KB21]

Vandy also lost Reggie Pruitt from this year's class. He just got a $500,000 bonus from Toronto.

[Schultzy]

Speaking of losing players, going back a little further, Billy Hamilton had four stolen bases and scored three runs in the bigs two days ago.

[bulldogcountry1]

Todd, regarding Reid Humphreys and your premise that he will never hit for average. What do you see that makes you believe that? What is he showing that is drastically different from Hunter Renfroe as a sophomore when his average was almost identical to Reid's?

Hunter figured it out the summer before his Junior year and kept that momentum going. Humphreys hasn't made that leap. I don't know if he has it in him to mike a leap like that. He's making steady progress, but it remains to be seen if he can live up to the hype.

[BankerDog]

Hunter figured it out the summer before his Junior year and kept that momentum going. Humphreys hasn't made that leap. I don't know if he has it in him to mike a leap like that. He's making steady progress, but it remains to be seen if he can live up to the hype.

Hunter also redshirted, so he didn't really find it until his fourth year on campus...

[Homedawg]

Hunter also redshirted, so he didn't really find it until his fourth year on campus...

No he didn't redshirt. Played as a true fr. 3 years and gone.

[smootness]

NWR has a really good baseball website. It seemed like he hovered in the .300's most of his senior year. I definitely remember being a little concerned about it.

So you assume that a well run site kept accurate track of his average all year only to boost it by 100 points at the end of the year?

[engie]

Too early to try to define if Hump can hit for average. There are only 9 guys hitting over .300 in the Cape right now. Hump started out 4-28 with no XBH, no runs scored, and no RBI. He is 10 for his last 30 with 2 bombs, a double, 8 runs scored, and 5 RBI. He has hit safely in 6 of his last 8. We'll see if he goes cold again or not....

[shoeless joe]

I've always thought Reid was a little over hyped coming outta NWR...not that he won't be very good but that he was built up a little more than he was. He was the best player on a team that is among the elites in MHSAA...therefore he's seen as a little more than he is.

HUGE difference between he and renfroe. When renfroe came out he had literally had zero coaching...it was all natural ability. Whereas hump did receive some fairly decent coaching in high school, so his learning curve wasn't at big. Which to me indicates that his ceiling is no where near what we saw from renfroe. But I still expect a solid middle of the line up guy with decent pop next year.

[maroonmania]

Reid is a high risk/high reward guy. Lots of swing and miss and some poor at bats, but he will put up power numbers. He's been that way for a long, long time. Reid didn't get Mississippi Gatorade player of the year because his half brother is Tyler Moore.

I'm still waiting for the reward part. You can live with a lower average and more strikeouts if a guy is hitting 15+ HRs. Not so much when they are hitting 5 HRs like this past season. Yes, it was second most on the team but still a very low number of HRs for a guy you want to be your cleanup hitter.

[Todd4State]

So you assume that a well run site kept accurate track of his average all year only to boost it by 100 points at the end of the year?

Why would their web site have any reason to keep his AVG down all year in the first place?

Baseball stats for high school are fairly difficult to find- you have to take what you can get. And take them with a grain of salt.

FYI- I've actually had some parents of former MSU baseball players come to me before asking where they can find stats on their child for the MSU media guide. And sometimes they are fudged a little bit.

[KB21]

Hunter figured it out the summer before his Junior year and kept that momentum going. Humphreys hasn't made that leap. I don't know if he has it in him to mike a leap like that. He's making steady progress, but it remains to be seen if he can live up to the hype.

Hunter also played in the Cal Ripken League, not the Cape Cod League. As a result, he didn't face the level of pitching that summer.

[CohenSidedWithGreatness]

Thanks for sharing. Love it how information on summer ball is much more accessible these days.

[KB21]

Jheremy Brown ‏@JBrownPG 6m6 minutes ago
Impressed by hit tool of @HailStateBB SO. OF Jacob Robson. Willing to use oppo. lots of barrel, 3 hits to LF includ. 2B off fence #HailState

Frankie Piliere ‏@FPiliereD1 2h2 hours ago
Daniel Brown LHP @HailStateBB showing off a live arm early. 90-92 FB from a tough 3/4 slot @CotuitKettleers

[smootness]

Why would their web site have any reason to keep his AVG down all year in the first place?

Baseball stats for high school are fairly difficult to find- you have to take what you can get. And take them with a grain of salt.

FYI- I've actually had some parents of former MSU baseball players come to me before asking where they can find stats on their child for the MSU media guide. And sometimes they are fudged a little bit.

I'm not saying they were keeping his average down artificially. I'm saying that the most likely scenario is that he got super hot toward the end of the year.

If they were going to fudge it, why wait until the end of the year? Why not just throw a .450 average on him from the jump?

[Todd4State]

I'm not saying they were keeping his average down artificially. I'm saying that the most likely scenario is that he got super hot toward the end of the year.

If they were going to fudge it, why wait until the end of the year? Why not just throw a .450 average on him from the jump?

To make him look better than he was.

[smootness]

To make him look better than he was.

Again, my point is that they could have done that all along. Obviously if they wanted to artificially inflate his average, it would also make sense to do so during the season. I just don't get why you saw an average in the .300's during the season, then went back and saw it over .400 after the season and just assumed they made it up.