We are going to start doing a weekly (or so) group post giving some notes on players that we have seen recently.  Kevin Gallo has been attending quite  a few high school games in southern California and Donald Boyles is at every Texas home game.  I get to a game as often as life permits and see far too many college games on TV, according to my wife, anyway.

Gallo’s SoCal Notes

I saw Colin Winters, a CF for La Costa Canyon that looks very good.  He was clocked at 4.37 to 1B with a quick bat and plays a very good CF.  Winters is batting .579 for the season with a HR and 4 SB

Poway HS’s Tyler Nevin had a good day at the plate going 2 for 4 (.314 with 3 RBI for the Season) and driving in Kyle Dean (who went 1 for 4 and 2 SB with a walk and is at .400 with 8 RBI and a HR, 2B, 3B and 3 SB on the season) Nevin also hit 90 on the gun in relief.

Helix:  Shane Nobiensky, C, showed offensive and defensive guts under pressure.  He hitt a clutch double off the wall,  made two great plate blocking plays in a close game and he also threw out 2 baserunners at 2B.  Nobiensky is batting .317 with 2 doubles so far this year.

Rancho Bernardo’s Gosuke Katoh is hitting well this season, batting .360 with 11 RBI and 5 Extra base hits that including 1 HR.  Alex Jackson is off to a fast start, hitting 450 with 4 HR.  He hit one on Friday that was completely crushed.

Rancho Buena Vista has a few talented underclassmen like SS Cole Heavilin and C Michael Benson to go along with SR 3B Aiden Stinnett.  Heavilin made a brillent play behind 2B for an out on Friday, showing excellent arm strength and agility.  Benson is having an excellent offensive year behind the plate, batting .357 with 2 HR and 7 RBI and defensively he is as solid as they come.  Stinnett is off to good start batting .385 with 3 RBI and archoring their IF.

I made plans to head to Norman to watch the Sooners on Saturday, I did so intending to see Jonathan Gray pitch.  Unfortuntely, Gray’s early season dominance has done more than shoot him up draft boards, it also got him moved into the Friday night starter spot in Oklahoma’s rotation.  His performance against Northwestern State was dominant, striking out 12 in a complete game shutout, while giving up 5 hits and no walks.  He also, reportedly, hit 100 on a number of occasions.

Dillon Overton started on Saturday and looked strong.  He sat 90-92 with his fastball and showed a nice curveball.  He also did an excellent job of mixing his pitches.

I was also looking forward to seeing Oklahoma 1B/DH Matt Oberste, who, of course, went deep on Friday night.  He has been raking to start the season, batting .474 with 6 doubles, 3 triples, and 6 home runs.  Oberste has a quick bat and plenty of power at the plate.  Saturday’s game was my first time seeing him play the field and he did nothing to embarass himself at first base.

Ryne Stanek started for Arkansas on Sunday, giving up 3 runs, 1 earned, in 4.2 innings on 4 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4.  There was nothing wrong with Stanek’s stuff on Sunday, but his command was off in the first and fifth innings.  Two Arkansas errors in the fourth inning didn’t help his cause, either.