LATEST PG SHOWCASE REPORT
2003 National Showcase
French, a strong, athletic southpaw, created quite a stir during infield drills the first day of the National Showcase. Playing first base, French fired the ball across the Nebraska diamond at 88 mph. With his listed position as pitcher, everyone was anxious to see what French would do on the hill. Maybe he threw too hard during infield. He only touched 86 from the mound during the game and had sort of a John Rocker type arm action, much stiffer than he showed throwing across the infield. His secondary pitches, a 75 mph slider and a 73 mph change up both showed some quality and French mixed his pitches and threw quality strikes with them, but we were left with the impression that there was a lot more left unseen. In any case, he is a big time DI lefty at the very least. On a very positive note was French’s bat. He hit a couple of balls out during batting practice and showed good bat speed and power potential. In fact, we liked his bat even better than his outstanding pitching ability. He stays under control with a well balanced swing that creates excellent bat speed. He has wood bat power already even though he could best be described a line drive hitter.