ASU Baseball: The Future Looks Bright as ASU Commits Shine on the Diamond at PG and PBR Showcases
It has been a busy couple of weekends for future Arizona State Sun Devils on the baseball diamond. Perfect Game and Prep Baseball Report hosted a series of tournaments and showcases featuring ASU commits across the country.
This gave scouts and evaluators another chance to see young players in high levels of competition. From various reports, it appears several Sun Devils were standouts.
Starting with the 2021 class, infielder Wes Kath is emerging as perhaps the premier talent from Arizona. In a PBR game on Saturday, he went 3-for-3 with a triple.
At 200 pounds and with a smooth left-handed swing, Kath has shown PBR enough to rank him as the second-best player in the state for 2021.
More from Arizona scouting director for PBR Brett Thorney on Monday:
“Regarded as arguably the top hitter in the state of Arizona. Left-handed hitter with a short repeatable swing, above-average bat speed with consistent feel for the barrel. Stays inside the ball, routinely giving him the ability to use the whole field.”
His future teammate catcher Will Rogers also impressed during this past weekend.
According to Assistant State Director at Prep Baseball Report Andy Sroka, Rogers “makes some of the loudest contact in the Midwest.”
The 6-foot-1, 210 pound senior also made noise on the bump.
According to Director of College Scouting for D1Baseball David Seifert, Rogers was throwing 92 miles per hour with a breaking ball at 76. Perfect Game clocked him at 89 miles per hour at the National Showcase in June, so Rogers has evidently worked to raise his velocity over the past two months. By the time he gets to ASU, perhaps it could rise again.
Kath and Rogers are ASU’s highest-rated recruits for 2021.
Barrett Skaugrud is also in their class, and he showed some promise in Arizona over the weekend.
From PBR Arizona: “LHH with short, smooth stroke, simple approach. Loud poke to RCF, caught at the wall. Quick movements defensively with short arm.”
Going younger, all the way to the class of 2024 younger, two-way player Matthew Champion received a lot of praise this weekend.
The current freshman is already six feet tall and was sitting 84-86 miles per hour at Perfect Game. If he is throwing that hard in 2020, his potential to be a flame thrower by 2024 is high.
Perfect Game called him a “very high upside on the mound” recruit, but he can also hit.
On Sunday, he turned on a pitch down the left-field line for a mercy walk-off double.
While ASU athletics were on the sideline last week as other conferences participated in sports, future Sun Devils put on a show. High school showcase highlights may not be as exciting as football Saturdays, but, as the saying goes, something is better than nothing.
More highlights from Future Sun Devils during the weekend: