Colin Moran(North Carolina) made his triumphant return to the Bourne Braves after a broken hand limited him only 138 at-bats for the Tar Heels.  Granted, while he was on the field, he hit to the tune of .384/.457/.543, 11 doubles, a triple, and 3 homers.  Moran was not drafted out of high school but won ACC Freshman of the Year honors after a .335/.442/.540 line with 20 doubles, two triples, and nine home runs.  A strong .289/.361/.371 showing last summer earned him the right to start at third base for the West squad at Fenway Park.  Now he’s back in Bourne and picking up where he left off last summer.

At 6-4 and 205 pounds, Colin Moran still has room to fill out and that will be crucial to his development.  At this time, I haven’t seen enough of him at the hot corner to determine whether or not he has the actions to play third base.  Moran’s body-type looks like it will handle the position, even as he grows stronger.  He has the quickness and arm required for the position, but I’ve yet to see him challenged in the field to determine his overall defensive skillset.

At the plate, Moran starts with a wide and open stance that he closes as he takes a relatively high stride into the ball.  As this is happening, Moran lowers his hands to their loaded position.  His hands are as explosive as anybody in the league.  For a hitter with less contact ability and barrel awareness, his exaggerated stride could pose a problem, as he would be well out on his front foot and susceptible to offspeed pitches.  Thankfully for Moran, he maneuvers the barrel of the bat through the zone with the utmost precision and carries through the ball with a short swing.  He also has an advanced approach and pitch-recognition skills that allow him to look for his pitch to drive.  In short, Colin Moran was born to hit and there is no limit as to how early his name will be called in next year’s draft.

Colin Moran falls into a trap, though.  He’s not a power hitter, at least not right now, and there is nothing wrong with that.  There are times when he tries too hard to show that he can muscle the ball out of the ballpark.  He’ll rush his swing, pull his head off he ball, and that leads to inconsistent contact.  Moran needs to relax and rely on his ability to barrel the ball.  As his body matures, he’ll grow into more raw power and the ball will come off his bat easier than it does right now.  That maturation won’t happen overnight.  For now, he has the ability to square the ball up as well as any hitter in the league and, arguably, throughout all of college baseball.

On Sunday, I saw Harwich visit Orleans in a match-up between the Mariners’ Corey Littrell (Kentucky) and the Firebirds’ Jarrett Arakawa (Hawaii).  Undrafted out of high school, Arakawa was, as of Sunday, one of the league leaders in ERA.  He’s coming off a sophomore season that saw him throw 97 innings in 15 starts while striking out 70, walking only 18, and supporting an ERA of 2.88.

Standing 6-0 and 180 pounds, Arakawa throws from a low three quarter arm slot from the left side.  His fastball sits between 82 and 84 while his curveball and change-up are both low-70s offerings.  He can throw all of his pitches for strikes which is his one potential strength and tremendous weakness.  His stuff is so non-existent that he has to be perfect in executing his pitches.  His margin of error is razor thin.  If he hits the corners and keeps the ball down, he’s able to stay out of trouble, but if he elevates his fastball, or loses command within the strike zone then he’s going to give up a lot of loud contact.

The far more interesting pitcher on the mound Sunday was Corey Littrell.  Harwich’s 6-foot-3 195 pound lefty was drafted in the 43rd round of the 2010 draft by the Nationals and is coming off of a sophomore season where he had a 2.74 ERA through 98.2 innings, 16 starts, including 87 strikeouts and 25 walks.  Unlike Arakawa, Littrell has the body frame that will hold and benefit from additional weight.

Corey Littrell uses his three quarter arm slot and high leg kick to throw five distinct pitches.  Littrell is very slow to the plate even when there are runners on base, clocking times between 1.64 and 1.94 seconds.  He’s a little long in the back of his delivery and this causes him to rush through the latter part of his delivery even though he stays in line to the plate.

His fastball is deceptively fast at 91/92 early and 89/90 as the game progressed.  There’s some arm-side movement but nothing, yet, that makes his fastball a plus pitch.  His best pitch is his 80-82 mph change-up that shows good arm speed, feel, and consistency.  He’s able to keep the ball low and will use it in any count and isn’t afraid to run it on consecutive pitches.  Littrell’s slider and curveball are a work in progress.  His slider lacks a hard bite as it breaks early at upwards of 84/85 mph.  He’ll vary the speed of his curveball between a slower loopy 73 mph hook and more of a 79 mph power curve.  A scout I spoke with wondered if he’d be better off dropping the slider and trying to add a cutter.

There are certainly things to like about Littrell.  He showed good pitchability and a real feel for the change-up.  His future will be determined by how his body fills out, which should increase the quality of his fastball, and whether or not his curveball gains any consistency.

Hyannis’ Sean Manaea (Indiana State) went undrafted out of high school and now, as one scout I spoke with told me, “I’d be shocked if he wasn’t named the Pitcher of the Year,” for the 2012 CCBL.  The scout’s comment came as we watched Manaea’s start against Harwich on June 30th, during which he struck out 11 across 5.1 innings, including the first two hitters of the game on 6 consecutive fastballs and 5 over the first 2 innings.  More recently, on Friday night, Manaea struck out 9 Bourne Braves in 6 innings without issuing a free pass.

Sean Manaea is a rising junior for the ISU Sycamores.  He had a mediocre freshman year, starting all 15 games he appeared in while sporting a 4.32 ERA along with 82 strikeouts, 48 walks, and 6 home runs allowed in 83.1 innings.  Manaea followed that up with a solid sophomore season that saw him start 17 games.  His ERA dropped almost a full run to 3.34 thanks to a spike in his strikeouts to 115, a drop in his walks to 37, and a reduced home run rate in 105 innings.

Manaea uses every inch of 6-foot-5 frame extremely well as his extension to the plate practically carries him into the batter’s box.  He has a smooth, athletic delivery, with a high leg kick and throws from a low 3/4 arm slot.  Early on, his fastball sat at 92-93 but he was able to juice it up to 95 during the first couple at-bats.  His fastball had good arm-side run and was a true swing-and-miss offering while showing excellent command and deception.

His arm slot creates problems for his secondary pitches.  I think he wants to throw a curve but because he’s coming from a lower arm slot, he frequently gets around the pitch and the result is a slider/power curve without much tilt.  Manaea’s arm slot prevented him from getting on top of his change-up as he consistently left the pitch up and, thankfully for him, out of the strike zone.  The few times he got on top of his change-up, it showed good depth and sink.  This is not uncommon for young pitchers and he’ll need to work hard to develop these pitches like everybody else.

Manaea is deliberately slow to the plate with runners on base.  To limit a baserunner’s effectiveness, pitchers are considered quick to the plate in the 1.20-1.25 range if not quicker.  At his quickest, Manaea went to home at about 1.51 seconds, but he also employs another move where he’ll raise his right leg up high over the rubber and pause before coming to the plate in about 2.25 seconds.  It worked when I saw him but I don’t think he’ll be able to use his slower move as he progresses his career and faces better base-stealers.

Manaea’s velocity quickly tapered off during the start I saw.  As I said, he sat 92-93 and bumped to 95 in the first inning but his second time through the order Manaea’s fastball ticked down to 90/91 before finishing around 87/88 by the end of his start.  What’s impressive is that his fastball still misses bats even at such a reduced velocity thanks to his height, long levers, and fastball command.  The scout I spoke with mentioned that Manaea’s future role on the mound will be determined by his ability to sustain his velocity and the development of his secondaries.

As I wrote yesterday, the 2012 CCBL is likely to be remembered as the year of the home run and no team better exemplifies that than the Harwich Mariners.  Rising junior outfielders Phil Ervin (Samford) and Austin Wilson (Stanford) are two of the three league leaders in home runs with 8 and 5, respectively.  I will tackle Ervin another day but for now I’d like to take a look at Wilson.

Austin Wilson was considered one of the most talented hitters in the 2010 draft but slipped to the Cardinals in the 12th round because teams questioned whether he would sign.  The St. Louis Cardinals took a worthwhile gamble and gave their best effort to sign Wilson but, in the end, he chose to follow through with his commitment to Stanford.  The right-handed hitter put up a line of .311/.348/.423 his freshman year with 7 doubles, 5 home runs, 7 walks, and 56 strikeouts in 196 at-bats.  Last summer he helped Harwich win the league championship despite a pedestrian overall line of .213/.271/.303 with 8 doubles, 1 home run, 7 walks, and 30 strikeouts in only 122 at-bats.  His performance caused me to write the following before the league’s All-Star Game:

There may not be a player with a wider spread between his current ability and his ceiling than Harwich outfielder Austin Wilson (Stanford).  Since I labeled Roache a physical freak, I’m not sure what to call Wilson as he bests Roache by a few inches.  He’s enormous and so physically gifted that it’s impossible not to get excited about his potential.  The ball jumps off his bat more than any player on the Cape but he’s still so raw.  He consistently drops his back shoulder and that doesn’t allow him to fully tap into his power potential.  He’s my pick to win the Home Run Derby tomorrow night.  Look out Lansdowne Street.

Austin Wilson followed up a slightly disappointing freshman season with a significantly better sophomore year.  His line across 221 at-bats of .285/.389/.493, 12 doubles, 2 triples, 10 home runs, 24 walks, 44 strikeouts, and 7 stolen bases was a marked improvement.  Now he’s back on the Cape and is part of an absolutely loaded Mariners lineup.  He’s off to a tremendous start although it’s worth noting the it’s still early in the season so it’s important to not get overly excited or upset by a single player’s line.

If you have not had an opportunity to watch Harwich take batting practice, what are you waiting for?  It’s worth the early arrival to hear the audible contrast in Harwich and their opponent’s BP.  Apples and oranges.  Cats and dogs.  Night and day.  The ball makes a different sound coming off their bats than everybody else and the loudest of them all is Austin Wilson.  I’ve watched a lot of BP and Wilson tends to be a more methodical than most with his approach during BP.  As is customary, he’ll start with a few bunts, then shoot line drives through the infield, followed by line drives from gap to gap, followed by one long and loud home run after the other, and that’s usually followed by me taking a moment to make sure I did not park my car anywhere the landing spot of his numerous bombs.  I’m willing to put his raw power up against anybody else on the Cape.  On the 20-80 scale, it’s an easy 70, if not more.  Impressive?  You bet.

Wilson generates his power from his enormously athletic size as he stands at 6-5 and 240 pounds.  He actually looks more fit this summer than last.  If the team did not wear numbered jerseys and I asked you to find Wilson on the field, you would not have a problem picking him out because he looks more physical than anybody else on the diamond.  He uses his lower half quite well during his swing and takes a small step during his stride into the ball before firing his hips.  His swing can get a little long.  His bat speed is not overly quick and his bat doesn’t stay as long in the zone as you’d like to see.  As is the case with many hitters, he struggles recognizing offspeed pitches.  Wilson is not quick out of the box as he clocks 4.6-4.7 seconds down the line with heavy feet.

In the outfield, Wilson has more than enough arm to play right field, as his throws stay low to the ground with plenty of carry and accuracy.  His arm profiles as another potential 70-grade tool.  He reads the ball well off the bat but his range forces me to question if he’ll end up in left field sooner rather than later.

Austin Wilson remains the highest ceiling position player on the Cape this season.  He alone makes BP worth attending.  He’s the type of player where fans should plan their trips to the bathroom around his at-bats.  He’s the type of player that with a runner on second and two outs you beg for a base-hit to be hit to right field so he can fire his cannon of a right arm.  But, he’s also human, this is still baseball, and there are still many holes in his game.  While he’s an athletic, albeit a tad slow, 6-foot-5 now, he’ll need to work even harder than his peers to maintain his condition as his body matures.  The likelihood of Wilson reaching his ceiling will be determined by how he learns from and adjusts to the game.  If he continues to make adjustments and has a strong junior year for Stanford, he could very well be the first pick in next year’s draft.  For now, let’s enjoy watching him the rest of the season.