The 2023 AABC Don Mattingly World Series was loaded with 64 teams from Texas, nearby states and even Canada. That means the list of notable performances, standout players, and uncommitted prospects is a very, very long one. And we’re thrilled to share the event included 122 scouts from 83 different colleges or professional organizations.

Our scouting coverage from the event will feature eight lengthy stories – hope you packed a sandwich because I wrote a lot of words - to cover the eight pools of teams. While our scouting team couldn’t be everywhere at once, obviously, we’ve also spent hours looking at our excellent video coverage, which you can find on player profiles and under the AABC Don Mattingly World Series event page here at FiveTool.org. 

(Consider all players uncommitted 2024 prospects unless otherwise noted.)

We’ll conclude our extensive coverage with Pool 8 teams, which featured one of the tournament’s most relentless offenses, USA Prime Texas 2024:

USA Prime Texas 2024
As a team, USA Prime Texas 2024 hit an astounding .385/.483/.562 with four homers and as many walks, 30, as strikeouts. Flower Mound Marcus prospect David Hernandez led the way with an absurdly good .550/.640/1.150 slash line with four doubles, two homers, 14 RBI and only two strikeouts in 25 plate appearances. Hernandez’s barrel control was really impressive. Several times he took strong hands to a pitch and drove it the other way with authority, including an opposite-field homer. And other times he showed he could clear his hand through the zone to pull pitches with impact, too. 

While Hernandez will drift forward at times, he does a really nice job of keeping his weight back and rotates quickly to generate some pop. An infielder who can also pitch from a near sidearm slot with a tough slider for right-handed hitters, Hernandez is able to get the most out of his physical traits in the batter’s box. Southlake Carroll left-handed hitting outfielder Grant Moore was an on-base machine. He walked 10 times and finished the tournament with a .500/.727/.833 slash line with an inside-the-park homer and just two strikeouts. Moore did a good job of letting the baseball travel and is adept at controlling the bat to smack line drives to all parts of the field with his short-armed swing. Defensively in center field, Moore, who has a compact, strong frame, made an outstanding running catch at the warning track, threw out a runner at third base, and played the premium position with a natural feel. 

Plano West catcher James Raecek is another uncommitted catcher who belongs on the long list of catching standouts who are undoubtedly JUCO/D1 prospects. With a good, ideal catcher’s frame that includes some strength, Raecek used a good right-handed swing with bat speed to drill pitches loudly. He hit .474/.524/.579. I liked the way his hands worked prior to his swing because they freed up his path to get direct to the baseball. It would be a surprise if he doesn’t continue to fill out and really hit at a high level as a senior. Left-handed hitting infielder Sam Distel (Flower Mound) tracked pitches well from a slightly open stance and showed he could pull liners or smack them the opposite way. A very tough out, Distel hit .533/.667/.600 and didn’t try to do too much as a hitter. 6-2 left-handed hitter and pitcher Alex D’Angelo (Argyle) doesn’t get cheated in the batter’s box and swings with the type of intent that should serve him well as he continues to add strength to his projectable frame. 

Slammers Zavaras
Some of the tournament’s best at-bats belonged to Bryce Robinette (Ponderosa; Colorado), who didn’t strike out once and hit .533/.588/.733. He stayed through the baseball well, which resulted in several hard line drives. Catcher Sloan Steimel had one of the highlights of the event when he mashed a walk-off homer in a wild back-and-forth game against Waco Storm. Infielder Adam Smith, a right-handed hitter from Rock Canyon (Colorado) showed he could generate some impressive impact despite his 5-11 frame when he mashed a line drive over the left field wall. 

Smith finished with a .438/.526/.938 slash line with two doubles and two homers; he did a good job of creating a quick bat with his leg kick and his upper and lower halves worked well together in his swing to get the most out of his physical traits. Smith also moved well as a runner with a quick-twitch suddenness. Smith’s high school teammate Austin Bowker established himself as a right-handed pitcher to follow if he wasn’t already. Up to 90 MPH with his fastball, the 6-3, 200-pound righty struck out eight in 5.0 dominant innings. He’s an exciting prospect because there are still parts of his delivery that could be refined to help improve his velocity and strike-throwing. And he’s certainly a prospect to bet on because he’s an athletic football player with notable traits in his delivery, like ankle flexibility. 

He threw just 3.0 innings in relief, but right-hander Tyler Weston (Cherry Creek; Colorado) was among my favorite pitchers to watch with a fastball up to 90 MPH and one of the tournament’s best sliders, a true swing-and-miss weapon he repeatedly executed to his glove side. 

Texas Angels 2024 Keeton
It's always fun to see players seize an opportunity to perform in front of college coaches and that’s exactly what Smithson Valley left-handed hitting outfielder and right-handed pitcher Zachary Gingrich did. A physical and athletic 6-1, 195 pounds who has added at least 25 pounds of muscle since last summer and is also a football player, Gingrich could put on a college uniform tomorrow, and no one would think twice. With the bat, Gingrich mashed a homer to dead-center and proceeded to hit several loud rockets in other at-bats, which led to a .500/.571/.833 slash line in 14 plate appearances with two walks and three strikeouts.

Since I saw him early in the spring, Gingrich’s rhythm and swing in the batter’s box have improved even more; he’s becoming even better at staying back and using his strong upper and lower halves together with the type of swing that is finding the barrel at a high rate and has just enough vertical attack angle to drill line drives and deep fly balls, which are starting to fly out of the park at a very notable rate. After an impressive Mattingly, Gingrich was back at the Five Tool World Series hammering balls all over the yard. He plays center field for Smithson Valley, but has the offensive profile to also fit in a corner. Long-term, I like him as an outfielder, but he was up to 88 MPH on the mound with a curveball up to 76 MPH that took the shape of a power breaker. Undoubtedly, he’s one of the best uncommitted position players in Texas. 

In addition to being a good athlete with plus-plus speed, Jordan Ballin often looks like he’s thinking a step ahead of the game on both sides of the ball and is never overwhelmed. A longtime UTSA commitment, Ballin hit .636/.692/.818 with zero strikeouts. A shortstop who plays the position with good bend and feet, Ballin has a chance to stick at the position long-term. As a hitter, he can cover the zone; although his swing can sometimes push balls the other way too often, when he truly unleashes his bat speed, it’s among the best in the class; there could be some surprising pull-side juice lurking and the Boerne Champion prospect is certainly among the top infielders in the state. 

Tye Briscoe, a 2025 prospect from Wylie who is committed to Arkansas, showed his two-way ability by drilling a homer and hitting .400 in 10 at-bats. On the mound, he touched 92 MPH with his fastball (2200-2400 RPM spin) during his one inning, which included scattered control. In two appearances on the mound, right-hander Tyler Walton (San Antonio Johnson) threw 4.0 scoreless innings, gave up just two hits and struck out six with four walks. The next week in the Five Tool World Series, his fastball touched 91 MPH and he punched out 10 in 6.0 innings. His curveball and feel for spin stood out during the spring and his curveball created some really ugly whiffs. He’s definitely a pitcher to track closely for college coaches. 

Texas Cannons-2024 Chamblee/Patterson
Gunter prospect and right-handed hitting catcher Colson Wood had one of my favorite right-handed swings and it did damage. With an upright stance and relaxed hands as he tracked pitches, Wood, who hit .455/.500/.818, did a nice job of easily creating some rhythm and took the knob towards the baseball with quick hands before an angry, heavy barrel moved through the hitting zone with a good path. In addition to blasting a majestic homer, he hit a double to dead-center and really pulls balls with authority. But he has also proven this summer he’ll smack line drives the other way against pitches on the outer half. 

I liked the way Jonathan Massengale (Krum) tracked the ball in center field and it was obvious he can play that position well and Reedy’s Nicolas Trujillo had a productive tournament with the bat. On the mound, we’ve reached the point where each Five Tool tournament includes a pitcher from Keller High School who throws really hard. Levi Shaffer didn’t dominate during his 6.0 effective innings, but he looked like he was poised for a breakout in the spring, assuming he finds innings with the other 25 – slight exaggeration – good Keller arms we’ve seen this summer. Up to 90 MPH with a relatively easy delivery and arm that worked well from a three-quarters slot, Shaffer looked like a definite college prospect. 

Waco Storm – Angels
At one point, it was fair to wonder if Hunter Lowry (Coolidge) was ever going to get out. The right-handed hitter finished with a .750/.833/1.750 slash line in 12 plate appearances with six walks, no strikeouts, and an opposite-field homer. Swinging a wood bat didn’t prevent Lowry from showing impact bat speed with an efficient path to the baseball and his feel for hitting stood out. 

Easton Paxton (West) flew down the line from the right side in 4.18 seconds and his quick-twitch suddenness was obvious. Listed at 5-10, 160 pounds, Paxton, a middle infielder, might be undersized but he does have some lean muscle and created some surprisingly loud pop, which resulted in a .625/.700/1.000 slash line with zero strikeouts. This entire team played really hard consistently, and it was a treat to see center fielder and right-handed hitter Jackson Generals (4.28 seconds) fly down the line on a routine grounder to second base. His defense in center field stood out, too. 

Big, projectable right-handed pitcher Cameron Johnson (Midway) showed good stuff during his 2.0 innings and right-hander Cort Lowry (Franklin) touched 87 MPH with a sharp slider that resulted in five strikeouts, three hits and one earned run in 5.0 innings. A two-way prospect, Lowry also hit an opposite-field homer. 

OTHER NOTES
- Wow Factor Gulf Coast’s Jacob Galloway (Live Oak; Louisiana) pitched 5.0 innings and gave up one earned one on one hit, three walks and struck out seven. His feel for spinning a two-plane breaking ball stood out in addition to a fastball up to 87 MPH. But the main attraction was one of the tournament’s best changeups, which featured very late circle-change fade. 

Left-handed hitter Caiden Barcia (Doyle; Louisiana) was an annoying hitter for pitchers to deal with thanks to his bat-to-ball skill, which included poking a single through the infield despite being fooled on a pitch. But he also showed in hitter’s counts he’d unleash some intent and impact the baseball. 

Dustin McComas
Senior Editor