NASHVILLE, Tenn. –Vanderbilt baseball announced the addition of 14 players for the 2008-2009 school year today.
The Commodores class includes six pitchers and eight position players with 12 high schoolers and two junior college transfers.
“We are excited about this class and its future potential,” said Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin. “The class was compiled to help offset the loss of our upperclassmen to graduation and the draft. The incoming group are very talented players and we look forward to seeing them on campus next fall.”
The 14 member class is made up of student-athletes from nine different states, including three ranked as the top player in their state. Below is the list of signees with brief information on each. Rankings were taken from Perfect Game Crosschecker and Baseball America.
Players and Their Bios:
Jack Armstrong • RHP/1B • Jupiter, Fla. (Jupiter High)
Armstrong is the # 1 ranked righthander pitcher in Florida and one of the top two way players in the nation. At 6’7”, he is extrememly athletic and also a Division I caliber basketball player. He is rated the No. 28 player nationally by Perfect Game. His father, Jack Armstrong, pitched at the University of Oklahoma and in the major leagues from 1988-1994 with Cincinnati, Cleveland, Florida and Texas.
Will Clinard • RHP • Cross Plains, Tenn. (East Robertson High)
Clinard is a 6’4” righthanded pitcher that consistently throws 88-92 mph. He is the fourth ranked high school prospect in Tennessee and the 218 ranked prospect nationally by Perfect Game.
Jason Esposito • INF • Bethany, Conn. (Amity High)
Jason is the #1 ranked overall player in Connecticut and one of the top infield prospects in the nation. His best tools are his defense, arm strength, and hitting ability. He is the ranked as No. 63 in Baseball America’s Top 100 High School Prospects.
Grayson Garvin • LHP • Suwanee, Ga. (The Wesleyan School)
Garvin is the #1 ranked lefthanded pitcher in Georgia and one of the top pitching prospects in the country. He has outstanding command, a 86-90mph fastball and a very good changeup. He is the No. 55 ranked high school prospect in the country by Baseball America.
Sonny Gray • RHP • Smyrna, Tenn (Smyrna High School)
Gray is the No. 6 ranked high school prospect nationally by Baseball America. He is a 5’10” and has a power arm that tops out around 96 mph and a dominant 84-86mph slider. He is considered by many experts as the most talented Tennessee High School prospect since David Price.
Andrew Harris • INF • Nashville, Tenn. (Montgomery Bell Academy)
Harris, the brother of current Commodore infielder Brian Harris and son of former Commodore Robert Harris, is a very athletic infielder and a physical left handed hitter. He is extremely motivated, driven and his competitiveness will stand out immediately.
Joe Loftus • INF • Savage, Minn. (Academy of Holy Angels)
Loftus is the #1 ranked position player in Minnesota and one of the premier power hitters in the nation. In three years of high school, he has already broken Joe Mauer’s (current Minnesota Twins starting catcher) Minnesota High School home run record. Perfect Game lists him as the No. 147 player nationally.
Matt Marquis • OF • Annandale, N.J. (Immaculata High School)
Marquis is the #1 ranked position player in New Jersey and one of the top hitters in the country. His best tools are his extrememly advanced hitting ability and natural power. He is listed as No. 67 in Perfect Game’s Top High School prospects list.
Adam Milligan • OF • Savannah, Tenn. (Walters State CC)
Milligan is a returning First Team Junior College All-American at Walters State. He has been drafted twice already by the Atlanta Braves (28th round in 2006, 27th in 2007) and is a physical specimen at 6’3” 235lbs. Last season he hit .395 with 13 homers, 18 doubles and 58 RBIs as a freshman.
Navery Moore • RHP • Franklin, Tenn. (Battle Ground Academy)
Moore was considered by many as the nation’s No. 1 high school prospect before undergoing arm surgery last spring. He is expected to return to action in the spring for BGA. He is listed as the No. 3 prospect in Tennessee and the No. 155 prospect nationally by Perfect Game.
Dylan Pratt • UTIL • Gray, Tenn. (Walters State CC)
Pratt, a freshman this season, is another 6’2” 220lb physical specimen from Walters State along with fellow signee Adam Milligan. He is versatile and can catch and play in the outfield. Pratt was a first-team All-State selection a year ago after hitting .480 with eight homers and 41 RBI at Daniel Boone High.
Riley Reynolds • INF • Lee Summitt, Mo. (Blue Springs South High)
Reynolds is an extrememly athletic middle infielder from the Kansas City area. He has natural raw hitting ability with smooth defensive actions and will progress quickly as he adds more strength. He is listed as the No. 3 prospect in Missouri and the No. 157 prospect nationally by both Baseball America and Perfect Game.
Ryan Westmoreland • OF • Portsmouth, R.I. (Portsmouth High School)
Westmoreland is the two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in Rhode Island and the top position player prospect in New England. His best tools are speed, hitting ability, and arm strength. Baseball America has him at No. 113 nationally among high school players.
Corey Williams • LHP • Huntsville, Ala. (Madison Academy)
Corey is a very polished lefthanded pitcher who has great command of three pitches. He is the No. 4 high school prospect in the state and is ranked No. 327 nationally. He went 9-2 as a junior for Madison Academy with a 1.89 ERA. He struck out 68 with 19 walks in 63 innings.
10 comments
Of note, Anthony Hewitt was one of the prized verbals. The infielder from Brooklyn apparently did not sign.
In addition, it was rumored that Alex McClure (who’s dad is a college HC) was going to sign. He didn’t either.
Hey New York,
That is a large class. How many players will Vandy be losing.
This is Vandy’s year on offense…They lose a ton of talent including Pedro.
Vandy loses:
C: SR Shea Robin
1B: SR Brad French
2B: SR Alex Feinberg (creator of Saturday Soldiers, see CNNsi)
SS: JR Ryan Flaherty
3B: JR Pedro Alvarez
LF: SR Parker Hanks (will likely platoon)
LF: RS JR Jonny White (will likely platoon)
CF: SR David Macias
RF: SR Dom De la Osa
SP: JR Bret Jacobsen (predicted for the late first round)
Bench: SR 1B Adam Cronk
They may lose:
SP/CP: JR Nick Christiani
C/1B/DH: RS SO Andrew Giobbi
They likely wont lose:
RP: RS JR Steve Schwartz (transfer from Yale)
I don’t really know how the roster size arithmetic works, but they may still add the two listed above. That would put Vandy over the roster size cap, I believe, but they also might have a hard time holding on to a couple of the big guns in this class. I’m worried that Sonny might get big money, but hope that his being a kind 5’11” means he makes it to Vandy. The kid is already a local legend in TN and is absolutely the best TN baseball talent since Price.
As a further FYI, Ryan Westmoreland is a possible two-way player and was recruited as such (info from his father). He will do whatever best suits the team and given the pitching pedigree in this class, that looks to be the outfield. His pitching stats are unreal though. Among other things, his record is completely unblemished (as in he’s never lost a game)..
According to Perfect Game, Westmoreland was the eighth best player in the nation for the class of 2008.
Article available at this link.
http://www.perfectgame.org/Northeast/rankings/08_player_rankings_06_12_01.aspx
Those are actually Northeast rankings. But what’s interesting is that Vandy raided the #3 (Esposito), #7 (Marquis) and #8 (Westmoreland) players in the Northeast. Those three were the top three position players in the N.E. Talk about recruiting domination. Mike Rapp at VandySports is fondest about letting in on the fact that Corbin brought 13 people in for official visits and landed 12 of them (only one who didn’t was Connor Mach who stayed in state at Missouri)..
WOW New York
Great work!! Vandy will be a team to watch in ’08.
Side Note
Brian
Can you get th link for players in this region. I can not find it.
The ’09 Dores have the potential to be even better than this last year’s class.
Among the highlights;
Curt Casali is, from all fall reports, a future MVP type of Catcher. He will anchor the plate, possibly splitting time with Andrew Giobbi.
Aaron Westmoreland is an absolute hitting machine and will likely man first (a bunch of others can compete for time there).
Second, Short and Third will likely be some combination of Loftus, Reynolds, Esposito, Gabe Ortiz and Alex Hilliard. All five are front line recruits (barring injury Ortiz is likely going to redshirt this year and Hilliard is a stud RS Freshman this year).
The outfield will be manned by some combination of stud hitters Steven Liddle, big Joey Manning, Westmoreland and Milligan in the corners. Centerfield will be between all-everything Marquis and speedster Jordan Wormsley.
Where the riches don’t end is on the mound. Mikie Minor will be the Friday guy for a second straight year (and I’m still convinced he’s the most underrated ace in the SEC… and he’s not that underrated. When his change was on this year, it was as good a pitch as Price’s slider and Weathers’ 100MPH heat). Throw in some combination of the blue chippers from last class (Reid, St. Luce, Bierman, Hill, Hayes, etc) and all the redshirt freshman this year (Mark Lamm, Richie Goodenow, Caleb Cotham, Russ Brewer) and you’ve got a great start. Add in the talent in this class and you have the potential for up to 4 or 5 legit frontline starters to fill in the 5 game weeks.
What this year is for offense (Vandy’s 3-5 guys are all All-Americans who should hit somewhere close to .400, and the rest of the lineup has great balance), ’09 through ’11 should be for pitching.
Also, there isn’t a ton of info on Navery Moore out there due to his injury, but from all accounts, he was right there with Sonny Gray talent-wise prior to the injury.
I worry most about losing Milligan and Gray in the draft. But this class is so loaded and complementary of the existing players, that it really is irrelevant.
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