PnRScouting.com is proud to introduce an addition to our staff. Jesse Burkhart joins as a contributing writer and will be providing first-hand scouting and crosschecking in the southeast region. His writing credentials include a little over a year working as an intern with Baseball America and he currently covers amateur baseball and the MLB Rule 4 Draft for Examiner.com.

As his first contribution to PnR, Jesse files a scouting report on Miami prepster Manny Machado.

Next Article: Aflac All-American Game

Next Rankings: Top 10: Aflac All-American Game

Next Scouting Reports: Bobby Wahl, Nick Castellanos and Kevin Ziomek

Back to posting after a long week-and-a-half. Thanks for your emails, and your patience. The good news is that it looks like I'm bringing aboard another writer or two, which should help to keep content coming out even when situations like this arise at the office.

Back to the reason we all log on here -- the baseball. Back in June I attended my first showcase of the 2009 summer circuit, a combined event out here on Long Island consisting of the Northeast Uncommitted (uncommitted 2009 grads) and the Sunshine Northeast Showcase (2010, 2011 and some 2012 draft eligible high schoolers).

Posted now is my Top 5 from the event. I could have comfortably gone as deep as a Top 10 or 15 -- the games were played on one clover leaf with only six teams in game action at the same time. But the current crop of pro prospects was somewhat limited, and we'll dig into a handful of the players that look college bound through our scouting reports section over the next six months. Two arms took the top spots on my list. Cathedral HS (MA) 2011 draft-eligible righty Robert DeCosmo (pictured right) slotted in at number one, while 2010 Half Hollow Hills West HS (MA) righty TJ Pecoraro (pictured left) flashed the best velocity of the group and slotted in at number two. You can see the full Top 5, as well as some brief notes on each, here.

As many of you are probably aware, Perfect Game tends to note some of their top performers from their events, as well. That can be found here. Rosters are posted at perfectgame.org -- roster link here.

Next Article: 2009 Aflac All-American Game

Next Rankings: Top 10 - Aflac All-American Game

Next Scouting Reports: Bobby Wahl, Nick Castellanos and Kevin Ziomek

Due to a work-related emergency, I'll have to push the remainder of this week's content. Hopefully, I clear-up by the weekend and we'll be able to stay on schedule by posting some this weekend and doubling-up on posts to start next week. Sorry to have to do this so early on, but it's an unfortunate side-effect of putting this site together while continuing a demanding legal career. If I can push through stuff at the office quicker than expected, I'll get some stuff up here. So feel free to check-in if you're bored. Content will definitely be back on by Monday.

In the meantime, if you haven't already, you might check out www.DraftAmerica.com. It's a well-done collection of articles and info from various sources -- definitely a site to add to your bookmarks. As an aside, Greg Pappas asked me to provide some content over there, and I agreed. So I'll be giving a quick take on each of his top 50 players (the players I've seen) and putting up a blog post every week or so. Greg and I met through our mutual Baltimore Orioles fandom, and he has a terrific passion for amateur baseball, and I have no doubt he'll do interesting things with Draft America.

Sorry again for my delay -- looking forward to getting back to it shortly.

-NJ

Dylan Covey's scouting report is up -- click here. Tomorrow we'll look at a player that hasn't yet gotten the hype of Cole/Taillon/Whitson/Covey, but has the tool set I look for in trying to identify a breakout candidate. We'll also do a quick recap of the PG Sunshine NE Showcase, which was my first event attended this summer. Thanks!

-NJ

A late departure from the office last night delayed the publishing of the Karsten Whitson scouting report, but it is now up -- you can view it here or by clicking the link at the 2010 Scouting Reports page. Here's the publishing list for the rest of the week and for next week:

Tue (11/10) - Dylan Covey (Scouting Report); Under Armour AA Game Review
Wed (11/11) - Bobby Wahl (Scouting Report); PG Sunshine NE Showcase Review
Thu (11/12) - Nick Castellanos (Scouting Report); WWBA Nat'l C'ship Review (part 1)
Fri (11/13) - Yordy Cabrera (Scouting Report); WWBA Nat'l C'ship Review (part 2)

Mon (11/16) - Drew Pomeranz (Scouting Report); Team USA (Collegiate) Review
Tue (11/17) - Anthony Ranaudo (Scouting Report); Cape Cod League Review (part 1)
Wed (11/18) - LeVon Washington (Scouting Report); Cape Cod League Review (part 2)
Thu (11/19) - Michael Choice (Scouting Report); Aflac AA Game Review
Fri (11/20) - Austin Wilson (Scouting Report); Area Code Games Review

This is the general form we'll be following, with one scouting report and one "topic" post each day. It's aggressive but, I think, manageable. If not, we'll shuffle things up. Thanks again for all of the early interest and feedback -- it really makes it easy to keep motivated.

Finally, I have been asked if I'll be charging for any of the content down the line. There is no plan to create any premium content and there is likewise no plan to add advertising to the site. This site, along with my limited but hopefully expanding scouting work, is a hobby and a passion. It's not meant to be a revenue generator. To that point, I'll make an effort to get content up at the "About Us" page at some point this weekend to more fully describe the aims of the site. 

Again, thanks for stopping by. I'll see you later today with some Under Armour links and this evening with the Covey Scouting Report.

-NJ

Thanks to reader Evan for alerting me to the incorrect link on the AJ Cole scouting report. The correct report is now up -- you can access it here or at the 2010 Scouting Reports page. 

Apologies for the delay on Whitson; I was delayed at the office and am just now in a position to publish. The report will be up this evening, as will the full schedule for this week and next.

Best,
-NJ

Just a brief note -- Part 3 of the WWBA Corld Championship series is up. Links to the all three articles are below. The plan is still to go live on Monday. We'll begin on Monday with some Team USA Baseball links and a review of our coverage this summer. 

WWBA Series: Part 1 | Part 2| Part 3

Have a great weekend.
-NJ

Today Part 2 of my three-part series covering the WWBA World Championship posts here at PnRScouting.com. In Part 1, I gave a rundown of eight players I considered potential selections around Rounds 1 - 4 in the MLB Rule 4 Draft. Part 2 runs through eight more players, this time in Rounds 5 - 8. One such player is Bobby Wahl (pictured), a projectable righty from Springfield, Virginia. One of the more interesting arms in the prep ranks, Wahl hasn't quite broken out yet. But the potential is there for a solid Major League producer, and perhaps more depending on just how much velocity eventually emerges.

A brief scouting report on Wahl and seven of his 2010 Draft Classmates is included here in Part 2 -- I hope you enjoy the read.

Thanks for checking in; the three-part series concludes tomorrow!

Best,
NJ

Hi All,

Hopefully if you're checking-in right now it's because you marked November as the "go live" month for PnRScouting.com. We look to be in good shape and will start next Monday with our coverage of the MLB Draft, specifically, and amateur baseball, more generally. This week I'm going to post a three part series covering my time down in Jupiter, Florida for the World Wood Bat Association World Championship, which took place the second to last weekend in October. This series covers 25 players in total from the event, and discusses them in the form of a hypothetical draft wherein my picks are limited to the kids I saw over the course of the tournament.

Part 1 goes through Rounds 1 through 4, and undoubtedly touches on some draft eligible players you're familiar with if you've been following the high school summer showcase circuit. I'll be back tomorrow posting Part 2.

Thanks for checking-in; I'm looking forward to next week when we officially kick off our coverage.

Best,
NJ