Baseball season is here, and that means the Five Tool staff is out there working, evaluating and filming. If you know anything about Five Tool, you know we capture a lot of baseball video. A LOT. And that means we see a lot of amazing plays and excellent performances. 

Each week, we’re going to share with readers, fans and baseball junkies 10 of the best plays and performances we recorded and covered from across the nation during the previous week. Now that we’re off and running in Texas, California, Arizona and beyond, we’ll undoubtedly be forced to leave some recognition on the bench to keep this to 10. 

This week’s list includes a frequent selection and top MLB Draft prospect making two ridiculously good defensive plays in the same game, diving outfield catches, impressive shortstop glovework, big bombs, hard heaters and more…

10) Running on Marin Catholic (California) center fielder Maddox Thompson isn’t recommended. The 2024 prospect kept the game scoreless when he fired a perfect strike to home, which easily beat the runner trying to score. 

9) No hesitation. LSU signee and John Paul II outfielder Derrick Mitchell read the ball well off the bat, got a good jump and perfectly timed a diving catch in shallow right field. Understandably, he’s pumped. 

8) Playing deep, Hilltop (California) center fielder Ivan Ortega aggressively and quickly charged a shallow fly ball off the bat and robbed a hit with an excellent, perfectly-timed diving catch. 

7) Hebron star MJ Seo continues to show he’s a true two-way talent. In addition to swinging the bat well, Seo, who signed with LSU, showed his arm strength and baseball athleticism by making a tough play in the hole at shortstop. 

6) When he’s healthy, LSU signee and Hamilton (Arizona) slugger Ryan Kucherak destroys baseballs. Update: Ryan Kucherak is healthy because in his first game back from injury, he destroyed a baseball for a three-run homer. 

5) A Five Tool favorite and a known “gamer,” JC Davis, a Weatherford College signee, used an athletic spin move to complete this beautiful, tough play from shortstop on a hard grounder up the middle. What’s even more impressive? He threw out a runner who ran down the line in 4.05 seconds. 

4) The train passing by got a good look at the two-run bomb Jack Circuit hit for La Jolla Country Day (California) right-handed hitter Jack Circuit. An uncommitted prospect, Circuit showed some impressive juice to hit a pitch out to dead-center field.

3) Down to the final strike of the game, 2024 right-handed hitter Aiden Marquez came through for Pacifica (California) in dramatic fashion. He smacked a hard line drive into the left-center gap that split the outfielders and allowed his teammates to get around the bases to score the game-winning run. Big-time.

2) Magnolia West’s James Ellwanger finished one of the performances of the year, a complete game with 14 strikeouts, by striking out the side in the seventh inning and his final pitch was 96 MPH. Now, Ellwanger, a DBU signee, is the talk of Texas and has professional scouts scrambling to get another look. 

1) We’re running out of words to describe how good Hamilton (Arizona) shortstop Roch Chowlowsky is. Keep this in mind: he also hit an opposite-field home run in this game, which featured two elite plays from deep in the hole at shortstop that only a good athlete with good instincts, impressive glove skill and a strong arm could make. Truly, he’s a special talent and these defensive web gems are the types of special plays you hardly ever see in high school.

Five Tool Staff