My third edition of live looks with Prospects Live. The draft just wrapped up last week, so the rest of the players I cover will be 2024 and 2025 draft prospects going forward. The games covered here include:
6/28: Hyannis Harbor Hawks at Harwich Mariners
6/29: Cotuit Kettleers at Hyannis Harbor Hawks
6/30: Hyannis Harbor Hawks at Bourne Braves
7/1: Hyannis Harbor Hawks at Chatham Anglers
7/2: Harwich Mariners at Hyannis Harbor Hawks
7/3: Hyannis Harbor Hawks at Orleans Firebirds
7/5: Hyannis Harbor Hawks at Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox
7/8: Brewster Whitecaps at Hyannis Harbor Hawks
7/10: Bourne Braves at Hyannis Harbor Hawks
7/11: Cotuit Kettleers at Hyannis Harbor Hawks
7/12: Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox at Hyannis Harbor Hawks
7/14: Chatham Anglers at Hyannis Harbor Hawks
7/15: Bourne Braves at Hyannis Harbor Hawks
Jack O’Connor, RHP, Virginia, Hyannis Harbor Hawks
Season line: 8.1 IP, 10 H, 5 BB, 5 ER, 8 K
O’Connor was a late addition to the Harbor Hawks staff, but should be able to eat up some innings down the stretch. The incoming Virginia sophomore possesses a starter profile given his 6’5” frame. He comes at the hitter with a low-90s fastball with reasonably good run, but his low extension leads to a lower perceived velocity. It got fairly average results at school, but could become more effective with added velocity as he fills out. His bread and butter pitch is his slider, however. It’s a tight, gyro pitch that doesn’t have tremendous movement, but plays well off his fastball. It generated a 43% chase rate and 71% strike rate at school, showing that he is able to throw the pitch for strikes while also getting hitters to chase outside of the strike zone. This is a legitimate plus offering that should play at the next level. He also features a curveball that is significantly slower than his slider, but is not nearly as effective and will likely be scrapped at the professional level. He rounds out his arsenal with a changeup that he rarely throws, but got hit hard in a small sample. However, it does have good horizontal break and has the potential to develop into a true third offering later. He has struggled to get the same results from his slider on the Cape so far, but this does not worry me because it has maintained its shape and velocity. O’Connor is still only 19 years old and can develop into a premier arm in the 2025 draft with further development.
Hunter Hines, 1B, Mississippi State, Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox
Season line: .278/.372/.598, 9 HR, 30 RBI, 32 K, 14 BB over 113 PA
Hunter Hines is having a season to remember for Y-D this summer. He currently leads the league in home runs with nine and RBIs with 30, both figures twice as much as the next highest player. The power is monstrous. He burst onto the scene as a freshman at Mississippi State in 2022 with 16 home runs and upped that number to 22 this year with similar walk and strikeout totals. He starts with a slightly open stance followed by a slight toe tap in his load. It’s a simple, hitterish-looking swing that generates plenty of bat speed. He doesn’t have to sell out for power either, given that he has plenty of strength in his 6’4”, 220 lb. frame. A change that impressed me about his approach is how he handled velocity during his freshman year as opposed to his sophomore year. He struggled mightily against fastballs at 92 MPH and above during his freshman year, but put up great numbers against them during his sophomore campaign. The only thing that I would knock him on offensively is his swing-and-miss. He whiffs at pitches in the zone more than you would like to see, especially off-speed pitches. He also doesn’t have a set defensive home, but he’s likely a first baseman/designated hitter at the next level given his limited versatility. Hines has continually shown signs of maturing as a hitter from his freshman year of college to now and could be playing his way into a Day 1 selection come the 2024 draft.
Ethan Lanthier, RHP, Transfer Portal, Hyannis Harbor Hawks
Season Line: 11.1 IP, 9 H, 6 BB, 3 ER, 18 K
Lanthier didn’t have huge expectations coming into the year, but he sure has exceeded them. He entered the summer as a Division II reliever who had problems throwing strikes, but has since transformed himself into a legitimate prospect. He was consistently low-90s with his fastball this spring, but came out of the gate touching 96 MPH with reasonably good shape. The difference maker for him has been his slider. He’s been working with the Hyannis development staff since he arrived to improve his arsenal, which has led to much harder bite and sweep on the pitch. Opponents are hitting just around .100 off of it this summer. It plays well off of his fastball, giving him two above-average pitches. He’s mixed in a changeup, but it is more of an experimental pitch currently. His profile screams high-leverage reliever, but his 6’5”, 220 lb. frame may lead a professional organization to attempt to develop him as a starter due to his projectability. Regardless of his future role, Lanthier has been a pleasant surprise for Hyannis and should continue to be a high-leverage guy down the stretch.
Cam Smith, 3B, Florida State, Hyannis Harbor Hawks
Season line: .328/.392/.552, 15 XBH, 10 BB, 16 K over 130 PA
It has been a privilege to watch Cam Smith day in and day out all summer in Hyannis because he just keeps improving. He came into the summer with high expectations, but fit the mold of a player who typically struggles on the Cape given that he’s a freshman with swing-and-miss in his game. That’s how he looked after the first week and a half of the season, but has since turned it up significantly. He is currently slashing .328/.392/.552 with 15 XBH, a minuscule 12.3 K% compared to 28.7% at school, and some of the highest exit velocities in the league. The biggest difference I have seen is in his approach. He looked like he was trying to do too much in the first portion of the year, selling out for power which led to a lot of whiffs and pop-ups. He has since let his natural power do the work, keeping a flat bat path that has led to a ton of extra base line drives. Doing so has also cut his swing and miss down tremendously. His feel to hit has drastically improved since his school season. I would argue that he could have a 50-55 grade hit tool to go along with 60-65 grade power when it’s all said and done. He also moves well at third base for his size and should be able to stick at the position for the foreseeable future. Smith has remarkably improved his draft stock since he joined the Harbor Hawks and is putting himself in legitimate first-round conversation for the 2024 draft.
Cade Obermueller, LHP, Iowa, Hyannis Harbor Hawks
Season line: 10.2 IP, 7 H, 5 BB, 4 ER, 17 K
Obermueller is one of the more intriguing arms I have seen in my time on Cape Cod. Though not the most imposing presence at 5’11”, 155 lb., he attacks the hitter with a low-mid 90s fastball that occasionally touches the upper 90s. It’s almost like a sinker, getting much more horizontal movement than vertical due to his low 3/4 slot. He likes to almost backdoor it to lefties, where it starts out of the zone and tails back into the outside of the zone. He’ll typically do the opposite to righties, using it as more of a chase pitch that runs away from the hitter. His slider is simply nasty. It’s nearly a 3000 RPM pitch with tremendous sweeping movement across the strike zone. It has late bite, making it look like a fastball out of his hand only for it to sweep out of reach for the hitter. All of this comes from a funky, low 3/4 slot with incredible deception. His stuff is undeniably great. However, he does have issues throwing strikes consistently. This has improved in his small sample on the Cape, but is something that he would like to get better at over the long term. It’s a reliever profile given that he’s strictly a two-pitch guy with a small frame, but he fits the mold of a high-leverage bullpen arm at the highest level that could move quickly through a system.
Dennis Colleran, RHP, Northeastern, Hyannis Harbor Hawks
Season line: 6 IP, 5 H, 3 BB, 2 ER, 7 K
Colleran has had a bit of a rollercoaster career thus far. He started getting some draft buzz late in the 2021 draft cycle out of high school, but ended up going undrafted and wound up at Northeastern. Control issues his freshman year followed by Tommy John Surgery that wiped him out for his entire sophomore spring season caused him to become somewhat forgotten in prospect circles, but he has made quite an impressive return this summer in Hyannis. He came out of the gate sitting 95-96, touching 98 MPH in his first appearance of the year. Hitters were simply overmatched. It’s a two-seamer that, like Obermueller, typically gets more horizontal than vertical break due to his low release. It has great run, especially for being thrown as hard as he does. He pairs the fastball with a gyro slider that plays well off the fastball. He lets gravity take control of it as it falls off the table once it nears home plate. While the fastball grades higher, his slider has been the more effective pitch on Cape in a small sample. Colleran is rapidly building his stock back up this summer and though likely a reliever at the next level, someone will take a chance on his stuff in the draft next year. He would fit perfectly in a system like the Dodgers or Braves who have a history of developing stuff-first arms into high-end major league talent.
Brody Donay, C, Florida, Hyannis Harbor Hawks
Season line: .256/.359/.500, 12 XBH, 9 BB, 32 K over 92 PA
Donay is undoubtedly one of the most imposing players on the Cape this summer. The 6’5”, 215 lb. backstop has some of the loudest tools you will see from a 19-year-old. Offensively, he possesses elite bat speed that produces top-tier exit velocities. The home run shown above, which was his first of two on the evening, left the bat at 110 MPH. It is significantly above-average raw power that should turn into more consistent game power as he matures. He also has the strongest arm of any catcher in the league by a wide margin. It’s a legitimate 80-grade arm that could play in the major leagues right now. However, with these loud tools come extremes on the other end of the spectrum. He struck out 29.6% of the time at school and has raised that number to 34.8% on the Cape. He has been able to maintain a respectable batting average thanks to his incredibly high BABIP. He also has issues blocking balls behind the plate. He has a tendency to let low pitches get by him that a catcher at this level should be able to block. Though he is athletic for a catcher, he will need to work on this if he wants to stick at the position long-term. His ceiling is incredibly high, but he needs to make some significant improvements in order to reach it. If Donay can cut down his strikeouts and passed balls, he has a chance to be a star at the highest level.
J.J. Wetherholt, 2B, West Virginia, Chatham Anglers
Season line: .286/.400/.571, 4 XBH, 2 BB, 1 K over 25 PA
J.J. Wetherholt is the best pure hitter I have seen on Cape Cod this summer so far. He possesses an exceptionally advanced approach at the plate that led him to a .449/.517/.787 slash line with 42 XBH in 225 at-bats this past spring at West Virginia. He followed this up by making Team USA, where he just got back from. The first thing I noticed watching his at-bats was his intent on each pitch. He fully looks like he is going to swing until the very last moment on his takes. It’s a blatant “yes, yes, no” mentality that allows him to see the ball deep into the zone. This led him to a minuscule 8.2 K% at school. He rarely swings and misses with a contact rate close to 90%. This number is even better against pitches in the zone. Velocity is a non-issue for him as well, as he hits just as well against 93+ MPH pitches as he does against all pitch types. All this considered, he still had one of the highest average exit velocities in all of college baseball this year. It’s a rare combination of hit ability and extra-base impact all coming from his undersized 5’11”, 190 lb. frame. Defensively, he has played third and second base at WVU, but likely profiles at second. He is solid there and should be where he sticks long-term. It’s very early in the 2024 draft cycle, but Wetherholt would likely be a top-5 pick if the draft were today.