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Film Recap: Jordyn Adams, Corey Ray and More

Written by: Trevor Hooth (@HoothTrevor)

Follow us on Twitter! @Prospects365

It’s been a while since the first installment of the Film Study Friday recap and that is a crime. I appreciate Ray for letting it return without hesitation, so a big thank you goes out to him.

The premise of Film Study Friday is to get quick looks and opinions on prospects, with a deeper dive in this recap. I’m hoping to help followers and readers by getting my eyes on players, but also to just talk with the Twitterverse about what they see and think as well. If you want to get involved, I’ll tweet out the call for guys to watch on Wednesdays from my account, @HoothTrevor, or you can find it shared from the P365 account.

Now, let’s dive in a bit.

It started with Jared Shuster, a southpaw from Wake Forest. Per his college bio, he was a Cape Cod All-Star; he was also off the quite the start in his junior season before it was cut short. In 26 innings over four starts, Shuster struck out 43 batters while walking only four. He posted an ERA of 3.76, mostly due to one clunker in the bunch. 

Mechanically speaking, his delivery just looks uncomfortable. It legitimately looks like he pauses for a split second when he lands and has to regain all the momentum he’s built. That’s obviously not the case, because he reportedly runs the fastball up in the low-to-mid 90’s. What I just said aside, I liked Shuster a lot. His fastball gets some arm-side run with a really nice looking slider as a secondary. His draft stock rose during the Cape Cod League, but he will likely have to return to school another year to keep it trending upward. He’s not currently on any top 100 draft lists, so the Demon Deacons are probably getting this lefty back next year.

Corey Ray is as known of a commodity as they come. He’s had the hype around him since Milwaukee selected him out of Louisville. A myriad of injuries has significantly slowed his once promising career.

He’s got a beautiful swing, but there’s a lot of swing and miss. We also saw his ‘breakout’ in 2018, which translates to ‘He finally had a healthy season.’ I hope Ray stays healthy moving forward, especially now that he’s on the 40-man roster. There’s not much else to say other than we still don’t really know what a healthy Corey Ray looks like (if last season’s statistics are an indication….. yikes) and I sincerely want to find out because he’s still a talented player.

Next up is perhaps my favorite of the bunch, Jordyn Adams. This dude can shoot up prospect lists at any time once baseball returns.

This guy has legit speed, and saying it’s a plus-plus tool might not be doing it enough justice. The speed should pair nicely with his pop if he can tap into any of that plus raw power. Adams was a pretty highly sought after football recruit for the University of North Carolina before being swayed to the Angels organization as the 17th overall pick in 2018. This guy is an athlete. What’s even better, he shows patience at the plate already. All that said, every part of his game is raw still. Adams shows plenty of flashes that he can be a toolsy outfielder, but he’s gonna take a little more time to reach that. He’s fun to watch though, and I’m a believer.

 

The next guy I looked into was Dominic Fletcher and he was probably the most interesting in terms of what I was seeing. He’s also the brother of Angels infielder David Fletcher.

In the videos I saw, he looked like he was trying to go to the opposite field on every swing. It was honestly where he was making the best contact too. A glance at his numbers show a pull/center/oppo split of 34.5%/24.9%/40.6%, per FanGraphs. Granted he’s only accrued 239 plate appearances professionally, it still seems like he prefers the opposite field. The hit tool looks okay and the power has a chance to be average too, especially if he truly learns to turn on pitches in his wheelhouse. He’s certainly got the chance to become a decent MLB contributor, and his first full pro season will be interesting to follow.

Keeping in the Diamondbacks organization, Levi Kelly is a pitcher I hadn’t seen before but really liked once I did. 

First of all, his pre-draft delivery was painful looking. His head jerked around violently and it couldn’t have been healthy. That looks to be gone, thank goodness. What is left is guy who has a very nice slider, which might be underselling it. It’s a beautiful pitch. His fastball isn’t the quickest thing ever, it sits in the low 90’s. That two pitch mix will allow him to be successful in a multi-inning relief role. His ability to start will likely be reliant on the development of his changeup, which is commonly reported as a splitter. It’s an okay pitch right now. Kelly is a guy I liked a lot from watching, then I saw his numbers from Low-A last season. He threw 100 innings, with an 11.3 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 to go along with his 2.15 ERA and 2.80 FIP. Wow. 

I’ll be honest with this next guy. I really didn’t know what to make of Brett Conine.

He was a college closer, but he doesn’t have the stuff to do that professionally. He could turn into a back-end starter. Conine’s fastball is in the low 90’s, but he flashes a breaking ball early and often. What I didn’t realize was that he actually has two, a curve and a slider. The curveball is what he relies on the most. He’s also added a changeup and there are very mixed reports on that. Some places love it and others aren’t as high. He seems like a classic innings eater-type to me.

Otto Lopez from the Blue Jays system has a wonderful hit tool and plus speed, which can be a fun profile.

In the video from Prospects Live it’s pretty standard until that last swing where Lopez is clearly fooled and still is able to get bat to ball well and drive the ball the other way. His 12 percent strikeout rate is no joke either. He’s not a big guy, so there will always be below average power. His value will come from getting on base and stealing; last season, he stole 20 bags and was caught 15 times. He’s got defensive versatility too, which helps his case. At best, I think he develops into a decent leadoff hitter. 

The last guy I looked into this week was Andy Pages from the Dodgers farm who has a very smooth swing.

For a 19 year old, this dude already looks pretty built. His power broke out last season as evidenced by his 19 homers in rookie ball. Pages creates nice bat speed and loft in his swing, so when he makes contact, the ball goes a long way. The strikeout numbers will always be pretty high, but evaluators praise his intelligence as a hitter, so as long as they don’t soar out of hand he should be fine. According to FanGraphs, he pulls the ball pretty much half the time he puts the ball into play, which hopefully can even out a bit as he matures. That said, there’s reason to be excited for this youngster. 

That’s it this week, thanks for all the names! Keep an eye out so you can get your request in next time!

Follow P365 contributor Trevor Hooth on Twitter! @HoothTrevor

Follow us on Twitter! @Prospects365

Featured image courtesy of photographer Danny Parker and MiLB.com

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