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Where MLB scouts, college coaches, and top high school prospects meet.
In today’s installment of the Friday Five Tool Five we recap this week’s episodes of the Five Tool Podcast, talk about the upcoming first annual Five Tool 55 HS Draft, recap the THSBCA convention, and talk about the spring schedule.
Dustin and I spent some time covering some guys that stand out to us from the second half of the 2023 Five Tool Follow List. There are some really good players in this group that we feel have the ability to make a jump as they continue to develop. A couple guys mentioned that star on the gridiron and on the diamond are:
IF Joe Jefferson, Twelve Baseball, Katy Taylor (TX) 2023
No-Doubt BOMB! ? @TwelveRecruits Gold 2023’s Joe Jefferson smashes a two-run home run over the LF wall. #FiveToolPower
James E Taylor (TX) 2023 #uncommitted @2D_Sports @FiveToolTexas Classic pic.twitter.com/t2KNKMqfiM
— ?Five Tool Texas? (@FiveToolTexas) July 10, 2021
RHP/IF Tyler White, Five Star Performance, Southlake Carroll (TX) 2023
.@FiveStarPB 17U National's Tyler White (@tylerwhite2023) finds the hole on the right side for a 2-run single and advances to second on the throw.
Southlake Carroll (TX) 2023 #uncommitted #MattinglyWS pic.twitter.com/JuBLTwaMFW
— ?Five Tool Texas? (@FiveToolTexas) July 7, 2021
With Dustin publishing the re-rank of the original Five Tool 55 list for the 2022 class, we spent a little bit of time discussing some of the movement on the list. Overall, there was not a ton of movement for a couple reasons. First, there hasn’t been that much baseball played for some guys on our list since the initial rankings came out. Second, we feel pretty good with where most guys landed and where they fit. There was one player making his debut with infielder Christian Salazar (Cy Ranch/Trosky Texas/Rice commit) sliding into the list in the 54 slot. Two big jumps were made by outfielders Jeric Curtis (Tomball Memorial/Hunter Pence/Texas Tech commit) and Max Belyeu (Aledo/Dallas Tigers/Texas commit). These jumps were simply made because these two had huge falls and really stood out in ways that warranted a jump into the top 10.
Deep in to the Texas night!
Christian Salazar (@salazar_2022) pummels this baseball WAY out to left center for a leadoff solo home run for @Troskytexas 2022 Ina/Knoblauch. #FiveToolPower
Cy Ranch (TX) 2022 • @RiceBaseball commit@FiveToolTexas Houston Fall Wood Bat Showdown pic.twitter.com/wrBU75IXhm
— Five Tool Baseball (@FiveTool) October 24, 2021
????? That man fast.
On the track at @HPBaseball3 Scout Day, Jeric Curtis (@curtis_jeric) posts a blazing 5.90s 60 time. #FiveToolSpeed
Tomball Memorial (TX) 2022 • @TTU_Baseball commit@FiveToolTexas pic.twitter.com/AdVy18DsGj
— Five Tool Baseball (@FiveTool) November 6, 2021
Toronto Blue Jays DFW Scout team’s Max Belyeu (@BelyeuMax) shoots this ball over the right fielder for an RBI double. Was looking three, but couldn’t make it there safely.
Aledo (TX) 2022 • @TexasBaseball commit pic.twitter.com/ZY45Lq1hQx
— ?Five Tool Texas? (@FiveToolTexas) September 30, 2021
We also previewed our first annual Five Tool 55 High School Draft. Which leads us to…
We are really excited to announce our first ever Five Tool 55 High School Draft. Next Tuesday, live on episode 39, Dustin and I are going to take turns drafting players with the following parameters:
From there, the people will vote on social media for who has the better team between #teamdustin and #teambish to decide who will buy who a hoodie of their choosing. To close the episode, we flipped for first pick with Dustin incorrectly picking tails leading to Drew having the first pick. And with the first pick in the 2022 first annual Five Tool 55 High School Draft, #teambish selects…
The Five Tool staff was out in full force for the THSBCA Convention this past week at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine. Thousands of high school coaches across Texas were in attendance for the event that served as a great kickoff to the 2022 season. With a star-studded list of speakers including college baseball coaching legend Ron Polk, Texas A&M Recruiting Coordinator and #friendofthepod Nolan Cain, and sports psychology guru Brian Cain (no relation). One of the most anticipated sessions was Thursday’s night’s panel of 2021 State Champion coaches. Having pitched for Greg Harvey when he was at Rockwall and having been on staff at Texas when David Denny’s son was on the team, this group was fun to listen to.
We got a good chance to spend time with so many coaches and baseball people across the state that we have relationships with. At Five Tool, we rely heavily on our partnerships with the high schools across the state as they routinely provide us first class facilities and staff to help us run our events. This event always serves as a fun reminder that the season is just around the corner and I immediately went home and started trying to put the finishing touches on my spring viewing schedule…
I got fired up this morning as I began really digging into my schedule for the spring. Things are starting to come into focus as schedules keep rolling in and tournament pairings are set. Dustin and I’s goal is to see all 110 of our 2022 and 2023 Five Tool 55 members. We may be crazy but we think we can pull it off.
Some of the early tournaments we are looking to hit include the Georgetown and Rock Hardball Central Texas First Pitch Classic February 24-26, the Flower Mound tournament March 3-5, the Highland Park tournament and the Tournament of Champions in Frisco both of which are March 10-12.
Once we get our feet wet, we will make choices on the district schedules based on pitching matchups and as always will be picking our Five Tool Texas DFW Game of the Week to cover as well.
Drew Bishop
Five Tool Baseball
National Scouting Director
@drewhbishop
drew@fivetool.org