Last night I was able to take in my first college action of the young season.  Generally I don't do a ton of college ball, but this game had a pretty interesting pitching match up of Andrew Mitchell for TCU facing off against Dylan Floro for Fullerton.  I begin writing this as some video is processing, and some are being loaded up to Youtube, so I'm hoping to have some good stuff to pop in here before I launch this for the live viewing audience.....

I was kind of excited to get a look at Michael Lorenzen.  I hadn't seen him since high school and was anxious to see how he's developed since then.  He looks good, bigger and stronger and looked good in batting practice, but struggled during the game.  Struggle may be an understatement, as he struck out five times.  Yes, it was against some good pitching, but he didn't adjust to the breaking ball, and he struck out chasing breaking balls away and in the dirt.  I was also hoping to get a look at him on the hill, but TCU plated three in the 8th, so he didn't come into the game to close it out.  I put an early comp of Jeff Francouer on him back when he was in high school and still see that from him.  He can run, throw, hit and hit for some power.  Remember Francouer was once a hot shot prospect, so I think this is pretty high praise.  I'm hoping Lorenzen is a more patient hitter than Frenchy, which slowed his development a bit, and probably will prevent him from being an upper echelon outfielder.

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The pitching match-up was very intriguing, and with two very different types of college pitching prospects.  TCU's Andrew Mitchell is big, strong, powerfully built 6'3" 220 pounder that is epitome of what you think of when you think of a young pitching prospect from Texas.  Mitchell was nearly unhittable in his five frames of work, as he struck out twelve Titans (he struck out every Titan hitter at least once except for Anthony Trajano (walk and groundout).  Mitchell worked primarily with a fastball with life at 91-92 that touched 94 and a slider with great shape at 80-82.  He also mixed in a change that showed promise and generated one strikeout.  This kid was impressive in his five innings, and is definitely a guy to keep an eye on.  The fastball/Slider combo is a nice one/two punch, and if he can get consistency with that change, watch out.

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Dylan Floro took the bump for the Titans, and he matched Mitchell pitch for pitch.  He doesn't have the physicality of Mitchell, but none of his pitches are straight, he uses all of his pitches, and he hits his spots.  Floro isn't a small kid, listed at 6'2" 180 pounds, but I don't see a lot of projection left in him.  He has a flippy delivery and hides the ball very well, and is even more deceptive when pitching from the stretch when he has a more active leg kick.  He gets a lot of action on his fastball from a low arm slot with a little cross fire action.  The fastball was high 80's, topping out at 91.  Floro trusts his secondary pitches, a sweeping breaking ball, and a change, and he commands them well.  The breaking ball was 78-80.  He showed some signs of tiring in the 8th when TCU plated all three of their runs.  There wasn't a lot of hard contact against him, and he was pretty much on cruise control up until the 8th.

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Pre-season All American catcher Josh Elander is a powerful young man.  Like I mentioned to the guys in an email, he's built like a fire hydrant and has a meaty face that BP's Jason Parks would adore.  Elander took a pretty good BP, primarily launching balls from left center to right center.  A few landed at the track, but the ball doesn't seem to carry much except to right field where the wind was blowing out pretty strongly.  Elander looks to be the leader of the team and controls the game well from behind the dish.  Right now he seems fair behind the plate, not a great receiver though.  He blocked quite a few pitches in the dirt, and he had several chances as Mitchell buried the slider quite a bit.  Two sliders in the dirt got passed Elander for wild pitches on strikeouts allowing the Fullerton hitter to reach base.  Elander's arm seemed about average, but he often throws with a short flingy arm action.  He often sailed throws and throws often ran to the first base side when throwing down to second base.

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TCU center fielder Kyle Von Tungein didn't really do much to stand out.  TCU didn't have numbers on their BP tops, so I couldn't tell who was hitting (with the exception of Elander, who stands out quite a bit).  The one thing he did do that stood out was when he made a nice catch coming in on a sinking liner.

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TCU's closer, Kaleb Merck efforted through the 9th inning.  He worked with a fastball at 90-92 and slider at 78-80.  He wasn't exactly sharp, hitting the first batter he faced, but he did fan one Titan (Lorenzen, who reached on a wild pitch) and got a double play ball to minimize the damage.  There's a bit of effort in Merck's delivery, so the pen and the closer role is a good fit for him.  The ball seems to jump out of his hand with some life.

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I'm also going to put a little BP video of Fullerton freshman outfielder Austin Diemer. He didn't get into the game, but he looked like a solid stick in BP.  I asked Baseball America's Aaron Fitt about the kid, and he said he's a guy, but needs some refinement in his approach and just needs some development.  So I'll pop his video on here hoping my gut is right on this guy and a few years from now I can reference this mention.

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Other Notes:

The third base umpire issued balls to both pitchers early in the game for taking longer than 90 seconds to begin the inning.  I don't mind the rule, but if they are trying to speed up the game, they should do something about the hitters, seems half of the hitters step out excessively wasting time.

Fullerton 2b Derek Legg has a pretty boss beard.

TCU reliever Preston Morrison was impressive out of the pen.  He's a lanky 6'2" 160 pounder who throws from a low arm angle that must be a nightmare for right handed batters.  He only allowed two hits in his three innings of work and picked up the win for TCU.

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Made a few other videos last night. . .some bonus video

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