Prospect Insider - Scouting notes from the NYPL

Scouting notes from the NYPL

By Andrew H. Martin

By 08-13-2011

The New York Penn League is the east-coast equivalent to the Northwest League and often houses a number of solid prospects, and even some potential stars. This year is no different, so Prospect Insider employed Andrew H. Martin to scout it out and see what the buzz was all about.

Garin Cecchini, a high school shortstop, was poised to become a first-round pick last June after a standout amateur career that included a star performance on the under-18 national team. Unfortunately he blew out his ACL and slipped to the fourth round. Boston gave him a $1.3 million dollar signing bonus anyway and moved him to third base, literally banking on him returning from the injury and putting pressure on the kid's bat to carry him to the big leagues.

After missing all of 2010, the 20-year-old Cecchini is being eased into professional baseball with Lowell this season.

The left-handed hitter's bat is by far his best tool at this point, and the most advanced. He has been hitting well all year, putting up a, .298/.398/.500 triple-slash in 32 games. His hitting coach, Rich Gedman, told me that "he has a very good approach to hitting. He has a middle approach, a middle-away approach. He trusts his hands enough that he doesn't have to pull balls. He stays inside the ball pretty good and hits a lot of line drives to the opposite field."

In the three games I saw, Cecchini went 5-for-7 with three walks. The .398 on base percentage he has posted so far this season belies his patient approach. Gedman has been extremely pleased with what he has seen from Cecchini and believes that he will continue to blossom this year. "I couldn’t be happier with his progress, and I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere during the course of this year if he gets around .300 or .310. He has that type of ability."

On the base paths Cecchini is quick and aggressive. He has 12 stolen bases in 14 attempts and was consistently aggravating the opposing pitcher with his aggressive leads, and drew a number of throws over.

Defense is one area where Cecchini clearly needs more work. His arm is average at best, and he has a three quarters slingshot throwing motion that is not well suited for third base. He is quick for the position, but lacks the natural instincts to confidently project him forward. On one play he let a line drive hit directly at him go over his glove. On another, a sharp ground ball was hit just a couple of feet to his right, but he was unable to react in time to get a glove on it.

Cecchini confirmed that Boston is going to give him every chance to make it at third, which are also his
wishes. "Yeah, that's what their plans are, is to keep me at third base. I'm happy about it. It's my first
year ever playing third, so I'm excited."

Since Cecchini, already listed at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, is still young, there is certainly room for added size and strength, and has a good general feel for the game, so he may be able to stay at third for the long term. Given the skills he already shown, he is a candidate to be a breakout prospect in the near future.

There are scouts that believe he cab play second base or may be headed for a career as a plus defender in the outfield.

Right-hander Madison Younginer is another prospect that the Red Sox gambled on in the draft. Throughout his high school career, Younginer did not have much national exposure, but was known for a plus curveball and a fastball that sat in the low 90’s, touch as high as 98. A $975,000 signing
bonus convinced him to sign with Boston and begin his pro career rather than heading to Clemson.

Younginer pitched for Class-A Lowell last season, scuffling to a 4-7 record and 4.79 ERA over 14 starts. The 40 strikeouts and 31 walks he posted in 62 innings were equally unimpressive. A muscle strain he suffered this winter prevented him from pitching during spring training, and had the Red Sox moving him slowly through extended spring, before ultimately sending him back to Lowell to start this season.

Younginer is 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds, with more room to fill out as he matures, and the Red Sox view him as a long term project and are still ironing out his mechanics. Part of the problem is how he was used in high school; he rarely started and even when he did he rarely threw more than 2-3 innings at a time, which hurt both his draft stock and his overall development on the mound.

I asked Younginer if the Red Sox have asked him to work on anything specific and he told me "we've been working more mechanically. The changeup has come a long way in the past year. The curveball was really good coming out of high school and I'm trying to maintain it, and you always want to improve it, but my changeup is definitely what's improved the most. My fastball command is what we are working
on."

This year Younginer has been consistently sitting in the 90-91 area with his fastball, a tick or two off from where he was last year. "My velocity is down a little bit," he admitted. He believes this is a product of tinkering with his delivery and not because of injury. "I want to get back up to hitting mid-90s during the games. It's not as much strength as it is getting my mechanics smoothed out. Once I get more comfortable with them, I'll start gradually adding back."

Younginer is showing better control so far in 2011, with 28 strikeouts and 12 walks in his 30 innings. The Lowell coaching staff has been pleased with the progress they have seen from Younginer this year, but want to see him continue to mature, and also still believe there are other areas where he needs to improve. Pitching coach Paul Abbott said "he's commanding his fastball extremely well and he's open
for getting better and learning. Like any other young pitcher, he needs to harness his own emotions a
little bit and stay within himself."

Younginer’s mechanics and arm action are clearly still a work-in-progress. He cocks the ball slightly when starting his throwing motion, and has an extreme over the top delivery, that leads to him driving downward in a manner reminiscent of fellow Red Sox right-hander Michael Bowden. He got a number of swings and misses with his changeup while I was in attendance, but his fastball was hit hard and consistently.

The potential is obvious, but only time will tell if Younginer will be able to put it all together and move forward.

One note:
A member of the Red Sox organization told me that they consider Jason Garcia to be the best pitching prospect on the Lowell roster. The right-handed Garcia, a 14th-round pick last year, has pitched well since starting his career last year. He throws both a four and two-seam fastball, along with a slider and circle change. Last year his fastball was in the 88-91 mph range, but this year Garcia told me that has increased that to 91-94, and in his last start touched 95 on the gun. His progress is encouraging given that he will not turn 19 until after the end of this season.

scouting-notes-from-the-nypl

Comments
The following 8 comment(s) for this article are shown below:

1. By: Adam P. Boyd on 08-14-2011 14:38:26
Good stuff, Andrew. Thanks!

Was curious about Cecchini for a while now.

2. By: davelee99 on 08-14-2011 14:55:05
Nice job Andrew.

3. By: safecochatter on 08-14-2011 18:39:49
mlb trade rumors is reporting that vargas has cleared waivers. i wouldn't have thought they would even run him thru after trading bedard and fister.
fister was roughed up today. furbush looked good. and wells is looking like a everyday outfielder too. sure liking that fister trade. maybe get the ptnl this week?

4. By: Andrew H. Martin on 08-14-2011 18:56:09
Thanks, Dave and Adam.

5. By: dawgncarolina on 08-14-2011 19:12:51
3 - No reason not to run Vargas through. Doesn't necessarily mean they're going to deal him but if a contender has an arm go down and gets desperate and wants to overpay? I'd listen, sure.

Agree that the Fister trade looks real nice, should have the PTBNL no later than Saturday.

6. By: LarryL on 08-14-2011 22:31:04
This is a fine article, but I don't get how it relates to Mariners fans. Am I missing something. Where is the discussion of the Mariners draft choices. Isn't the deadline tomorrow?

7. By: Jason A. Churchill on 08-15-2011 00:05:15
Larry,

We branch out and cover other players here some, too. And that is probably going to happen a lot more moving forward.

As for the draft signing deadline ... what's to discuss? They either sign or they don't. When one or the other happens, then there will be something to talk about.

8. By: Mackie on 08-15-2011 11:51:05
Andrew, thanks for the good and informative article. I'm a Mariners fan but I like learning about some of the prospects in other organizations' minors. While they aren't in *our* system, maybe they are ones that might be worth putting deals together for in the future. 8-)

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