Baseball Recruiting: 2013 In-State Signees

Submitted by Raoul on

The early signing period came and went without Michigan issuing a press release on the signees; they perhaps will do so following the regular signing period in the spring. In any event, it appears that the new staff signed about a dozen prospects and did a great job of hanging onto several players who had committed under Rich Maloney, as well as getting LOIs from several others in the short time they had to work with. The focus here is on 2013, but Erik Bakich and company have already also secured several 2014 commits and one from 2015. Their success on the recruiting trail has led to talk about a faster-than-expected turnaround for the program. In a Q&A posted in November, B1G Baseball blogger Chris Webb got this response from Jordan Banfield, a Texas Rangers scout and coach of an Ann Arbor travel team:

CW: Under Bakich, Michigan has been extremely aggressive and in those early classes [meaning 2014 and 2015] they surged to the front of the conference. Being in that region, what have you noticed first-hand with the approach Michigan has led by recruiting coordinator Sean Kenny?

JB: Aggressive is certainly the right term.  They locked up the top 2013 in Michigan within a couple weeks of being hired and haven’t stopped getting commits since.  Having only been on campus for a few months now and with the sheer number of guys they’re getting it’s obvious those guys are really hitting the road.

I think the biggest difference I see with this staff is that they have three coaches who are always out seeing guys.  When your entire staff recruits it makes an incredible difference in terms of how much ground you can cover.  With the number of kids they’re bringing in from across the country and some 2012 guys who look like early contributors I think there’s the potential for a quick turnaround in Ann Arbor.

This post covers just the seven in-state signees as it proved unwieldy to include the entire class. The signees from outside Michigan will be covered in a separate post. Following the intro below are additional (mostly recent) links and quotes relating to the signees.

The In-State Signees and Their Rankings

Last month, Prep Baseball Report posted a nice summary of Michigan's in-state signees that includes a brief scouting report on each player and links to their PBR profile pages where further information is often available. Below is their list of the seven recruits with their PBR rankings. Michigan signed four of PBR's top 10 in-state prospects, including Jackson Lamb, who is ranked #9 overall by PBR (overall meaning the eight-state region that the site covers).

Brett Adcock LHP-6-1-190 (Bay City Western HS)

PBR State Rank: 3

Overall Rank: 31

Carmen Benedetti 1B/LHP- (Grosse Point South HS)

PBR State Rank: 20

Overall Rank: 150

Hector Gutierrez SS/RHP-6-0-165 (Detroit Western International HS)

PBR State Rank: 9

Overall Rank: 93

Jackson Lamb RHP/OF-6-6-196 (Temperance-Bedford, Mich. / Bedford HS)

PBR State Rank: 1

Overall Rank: 9

TJ Shook RHP-6-3-190 (University of Detroit Jesuit HS)

PBR State Rank: 5

Overall Rank:  38

Johnny Slater OF-6-1-170 (Southfield Lathrup HS)

PBR State Rank: 33

Harrison Wenson C-6-3-225 (University of Detroit Jesuit HS)

PBR State Rank: 17

Overall Rank: 192

Three of Michigan's signees figure in the top 10 of Michigan Baseball Prospects' 2013 rankings:

1. Lamb

7. Gutierrez

10. Adcock

12. Shook

26. Wenson

46. Slater

Brett Adcock

From MLive: Bay City Western's Brett Adcock signs with Michigan—includes a brief video; here's a quote from his coach:

Coach Tim McDonald: “It doesn’t take a baseball genius to figure out he’s very talented and very gifted in terms of natural ability. He’s dominating when things are right, and I’m sure that’s why Michigan is taking a chance on him. He has a huge upside.”

Carmen Benedetti

Brief item from his school's newspaper, with photos of him signing his LOI (including the one below), and another brief item from the Grosse Pointe News.

Hector Gutierrez

I couldn't find anything recent for Gutierrez, so instead here's a video of him pitching, from the Detroit Arsenal RBI site.

Jackson Lamb

Mick McCabe wrote a nice feature on Lamb for the Free Press, focusing in part on his choosing baseball over basketball. Also, as the article mentions, Lamb is likely to be selected in the 2013 draft, so there's a possibility he won't end up playing for Michigan—maybe a good possibility given his choice of words when asked about it:

His shot at baseball is so good, he will likely be chosen in the baseball draft, but he might not be a high pick since signing to attend U-M.

"You can't really tell until it actually happens," Lamb said. "You don't want to get your hopes up too much and then you're disappointed. Worse case scenario, I go to Michigan, which is a great opportunity."

MLB Prospect Guide has Lamb ranked #223 on its list of the top 300 prospects for the 2013 draft. (Side note: Michigan junior outfielder Michael O'Neill is listed at #56.)

One last item on Lamb: In the B1G Baseball Q&A mentioned above, Banfield selected Lamb as one of the top Big Ten commits in the 2013 class:

CW: Not every standout participates in fall ball, Michigan commit Jackson Lamb, for example, was not in Jupiter. With all prospects on the table, as the fall concludes how would you rank the top five or so Big Ten commits out of the Great Lake states that you’ve seen?

JB: Assuming we’re talking strictly about the 2013 class, Farmer and Lamb to me are in a league of their own as prospects.

I talked quite a bit about Farmer earlier, Jackson Lamb is a guy that isn’t all that well known nationally because so much of his time has been spent playing basketball and not traveling the country attending showcases/tournaments.  We’re talking about a talent that doesn’t come through the state of Michigan very often.

First off, he’s 6’7 and extremely athletic, a legitimate 2-way player in college, people don’t think guys that tall can hit, well I’m here to tell you he can.  His swing is incredibly short for being as big as he is and he’ll be an above average defender in right.  As a pro prospect he’s obviously a pitcher who is extremely raw right now but throws strikes and I have no problem projecting him to throw 95-98 with low effort.  Everyone knows about Trey Ball who’s way more polished than Jackson but the tools really aren’t that far off.  Presently Farmer is way closer to being a B1G contributor on the mound, but in the long run I can’t pass on Lamb.

T.J. Shook

Here's a quote from a U of D Jesuit signing day press release:

Shook did not disappoint in 2012 either. The number 5 ranked player in the state of Michigan according to Prep Baseball Report, Shook was named to the All League and All District teams in 2012.
 
“I am blessed to have the opportunity to be a student-athlete at the University of Michigan. It has always been a dream of mine to play at a high level Division I university. I am really looking forward to playing under Coach Bakich and the rest of his staff.” Shook adds, “Go Blue!”

Johnny Slater

A MIPrepZone signing day article features a brief video and this:

“I’m very excited to become a Michigan Wolverine,” said Slater after penning his letter of intent. “I focused on improving my skills every year since I was a freshman and that focus paid off. I’ve made a big jump in my play and I intend to keep making further jumps over the next year, prior to getting up to Ann Arbor.”



Slaters’ versatility might be his most appealing attribute. A smooth and savvy lefty, Slater is a specimen, terrorizing opponents whether pitching, hitting, running the base paths or on defense in centerfield.



Last season, he sported a whopping .576 batting average.



Darren Mosley, the Chargers’ skipper, can’t say enough about his star player.



“Johnny is a great kid, a great baseball player and a great student, what more can you ask for?,” he said. “He’s incredibly humble and he leads by example. We’ve put a lot of pressure on him these past couple of seasons and he’s always delivered.”

Harrison Wenson

Wenson, a teammate of Shook at U of D Jesuit, also figured in the press release linked above:

Wenson is coming off an All-State season, as well as being named to the Dream Team in 2012, after hitting over .400 during the spring.

“I chose the University of Michigan because I have grown up in a Michigan house. My father played baseball there and I am proud to carry on that tradition,” Wenson said. “I feel honored to play at such an elite university and am excited to learn under Coach Bakich and his staff.”

Wenson's father, Paul Wenson, played baseball at Michigan in 1985–86 before spending three years in the Detroit Tigers minor-league system, including playing for the Mud Hens for part of the 1989 season (see his Baseball-Reference.com page).

Comments

Lampuki22

January 15th, 2013 at 4:42 PM ^

I am a football guy but have found myself coaching/managing youth travel baseball because, as it turns out, my 10 year old can hit 300ft bombs but  doesn't like any other sports. :)

I attended the meet the players event with the 2013 Michigan Baseball team last month and my three sons loved the itneraction with the players. W hen they announced who they were and where they were from it was pretty interesting to see how many were out of state (california, maryland, texas) and hear where the local prospects come form within the Michigan.  Bay City must be a mecca--very few from Oakland County where we reside, despite some of the local team's perceptions of themselves. 

Now I'm just rambling but thanks for the baseball posts--keep 'em coming.   We plan to attend quite a few games this year and it will be interesting to know some of the players histories like we do in football.