One could probably make a pretty strong case that you shouldn’t really care what I have to say about players.
Could make a case for it, certainly, given 24 years in pro ball and now ten on the amateur side, but…I’m not an evaluator. Don’t claim to be, don’t want to be, and that’s coming from someone who spent two years with a big league club as an associate scout.
The numbers, though? You should care. It’s not an opinion. It’s hard data. There is no “I think” here. The numbers are what they are.
So, in taking a look at the data from our most recent adventure into the Dominican Republic, in which we saw ten different academies play in three different locations over the course of five games played over three days, let’s just present you with the cold, hard facts. With that said, it should be noted that this hitting data is strictly from batting practice and is not from the in-game action, and is just a very, very small sample of what big league clubs are scrambling to acquire in terms of what’s available overall from these events.
TOP EXIT VELOCITY — Anderson Vargas (pictured), Banana Baseball Academy; 102.19 MPH
This was our first look at Anderson Vargas, a 2028-signing eligible outfielder with Banana Baseball Academy who is a 6-foot-2, 160-pound righty bat. It may be one that’s tough to top. He was the only player who topped the 100 MPH plateau in exit velo, and did so on six separate occasions. Our scouts see that “the power potential is real, the swing path is good when it all works together…it’s an easy quick swing with leverage behind it (with) future ability to drive the baseball out the other way.”
Vargas had seven of the top eight exit velos we saw in ten teams worth of BP, only IBI Academy’s Alfred Laureano broke up the leaderboard with a 98.24 MPH exit velo on the last day down in La Romana; you could argue his feat is more impressive as a 2029-eligible player at just 14 years old, with an October 2011 birthday for the six-foot, 174-pound outfielder.
Others worthy of note here? Esmerlin Rosario (IBI), Keilin Figuereo (IBI), Josue Tineo (Marmolejos), Josue Polanco (LF Martinez), Albert Castillo (Marmolejos), Carlos Amparo (Candy Valdez) and Leosdany Tabio (Capital) all cracked the 95 MPH-plus barrier.
DISTANCE — Albert Castillo, Marmolejos; 375.85 FEET
Who hit it the furthest? That would be Castillo, who we saw hit some blasts in Santiago on the second day in the DR in one of our more unique locations, with a baseball field on the back end of a farm. The horses in the background of some of the BP video you see from there would need to track down some of the balls he hit; Castillo is a 15-year-old outfielder out of the Marmolejos Academy who turns 16 in October, is eligible to sign in 2028 and is currently listed at six-foot-three and 195 pounds.
Scouts see a “physical player for his age group (who) has a chance if it all comes together,” but Castillo, who we saw for the first time last August in El Naranjo, wasn’t alone in some prodigious swings of the bat. Polanco had two balls land over 360 feet away, while Cristopher Alvarez (Yuan Pino) also cracked the over-360 club with a 362.75 foot shot. Figuereo had the longest blast on the third day, with the 2027-eligible sign OF sending one 355 feet away during one of his BP rounds.
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Since 2003, he has six World Series and has worked high-profile events ranging from the MLB All-Star Game to the World Baseball Classic. In addition to his role working for the Future Stars Series that he's held since 2017, Ashmore currently serves as the beat writer of the Double-A New York Yankees affiliate, the Somerset Patriots, as well as national hockey writer and New York Jets game day beat reporter for The Trentonian.
A regular contributor to Baseball America, Ashmore has worked eight Super Bowls, 13 Stanley Cup Finals, the 4 Nations Face-Off, the NBA Playoffs, the NCAA D1 Men's Basketball Tournament, College Football Playoff National Championship Game, Frozen Four, Daytona 500, major UFC events and much more as he approaches 3,300 games covered in his career.
An avid trading card enthusiast and motorsports fan, he lives with his wife, Sarah, their son, future No. 1 overall draft pick in 2042, William, their beloved dog, Bailey, and occasionally well-behaved cat, Smokey.
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