Scout Day: Carolina Forest Panthers By: Austin Alexander-December 13, 2007 A better December day could not have been ordered to make the drive over to Carolina Forest High School on Thursday morning. It was 78 degrees with sunny skies and green grass covered the Panther diamond…a perfect day to be at the ballpark, especially in the winter! Carolina Forest head coach Jack Jolly had the cones out, bases in, cage rolled up and was ready to conduct Diamond Prospects’ first Scout Day. He even had a boxed pizza waiting on me! (Pictured right, senior Jeremy Knab) Most of the evaluation days that we will cover like this one will be after spring practice officially begins on January 28. However, Carolina Forest offers a baseball class to its students and DP seized the opportunity to get an early look at this year’s club. More importantly, we were able to lay eyes on every player in the baseball program and identified some names that were not on our radar. In less than 90 minutes, we ran every player in the 60-yard dash, players worked out defensively, every pitcher threw in the bullpen and each player got eight swings in BP. Well, actually if they kept requesting “one more”, their wish was usually granted by Coach Jolly. Especially the guys who were banging balls off the light poles and school buses! Over the course of my time at Carolina Forest, I walked away from the yard knowing these three things for a fact: 1) The Panthers have plenty of young talent, particularly in the sophomore class, 2) John Gump and Ryan Stewart have serious juice in their bats and 3) This club should be in the hunt for a 3A Lower State Championship. After working out every player, DP will now crunch the numbers from the day as we breakdown the 2008 Carolina Forest Panthers. -Scout Day Evaluations- 60 Times Name Grade 60 Time Matt Archer 10 8.15 Neal Falvey 10 8.17 Tim Flynn 12 7.73 John Gump 12 7.17 Dylan Hansen 10 7.97 Matthew Jolly 10 7.19 Alek King 12 7.50 Jeremy Knab 12 7.55 Josh Knab 11 7.30 Hunter Melton 10 8.06 Danny Mitchell 11 7.87 Travis Parker 10 7.74 Blake Rothenberg 11 7.47 Conor Schassler 10 8.42 Andrew Scheeler 10 7.97 Tress Shaw 12 7.31 Chris Shover 11 7.83 Ryan Stewart 12 7.07 Jacob Talbot 11 7.42 Cole Thompkins 10 7.60 Caleb Tripp 11 7.49 Justin Turbeville 10 7.36 Sam Unsworth 11 INJ Catchers: Pop Time Name POP Matt Archer 2.00-2.03 Andrew Scheeler 2.30-2.32 Outfield Arms Rank Name 1 Josh Knab 2 Justin Turbeville 3 Jeremy Knab 4 Matthew Jolly 5 Hunter Melton Infield Arm Strength Rank Name 1 John Gump (1B) 2 Jeremy Knab (1B) 3 Justin Turbeville (1B) 4 Chris Shover T5 Ryan Stewart T5 Cole Tompkins Infield Actions Rank Name 1 Cole Tompkins 2 Ryan Stewart 3 John Gump (1B) 4 Jeremy Knab (1B) 5 Travis Parker Best BP Round/Swing Rank Name T1 Ryan Stewart T1 John Gump 3 Josh Knab 4 Chris Shover 5 Justin Turbeville 6 Matthew Jolly 7 Matt Archer 8 Alek King 9 Cole Tompkins 10 Jeremy Knab Bullpens Name Fastball Breaking Ball Change-up Notes Matthew Avery 75-77 61-62 – – Neal Falvey 74-75 57-58 65-66 Late arm-side run John Gump 83-84 74-75 71-72 Improved slider, solid CH Alek King 75-77 63-64 70-71 Cuts CH Jeremy Knab 80-82 69-72 68-70 Good depth with CB Josh Knab 84 67-72 71-72 Live arm, solid slurve Hunter Melton 75-77 65-66 71-72 CB/CH and command show pitchability Danny Mitchell 68-69 52-54 62-63 – Chris Shover 80-82 64-65 61-62 Slider darts late Justin Turbeville 79-80 – 71-72 Projectable FB/CH guy Matthew Jolly 78-79 63 68-75 Fluid arm, solid stuff Note: A Stalker radar gun was used to get MPH. Top Prospects Rank Name Grade 1 John Gump 12 2 Ryan Stewart 12 3 Josh Knab 11 4 Jeremy Knab 12 5 Justin Turbeville 10 6 Matt Archer 10 7 Matthew Jolly 10 8 Chris Shover 11 9 Cole Tompkins 10 10 Hunter Melton 10 Note: Prospect Rankings are based on the player’s current ability level combined with how he projects at the next level. Diamond Prospects is appreciative to coaches Jack Jolly and Doug Soles for their hospitality and assistance during the day. .
