MALIBU, Calif. – Pepperdine’s Matt Bywater, Tyler Hess and Nick Gaudi were named Thursday to the Baseball America Summer College Leagues Top Prospects List. The national publication ranked the top 10 prospects for 19 different summer leagues as well as the top 30 prospects representing the Cape Cod League.
The complete list of prospects on the Baseball America web site can be found here.
Sophomores Hess (Alamo, Calif./De La Salle HS) and Bywater (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) both pitched for the Danville (Ill.) Dans and were ranked first and third, respectively, as the top prospects coming out of the Central Illinois Collegiate League.
Gaudi (Lancaster, Calif./Paraclete HS) competed for the Alexandria (Minn.) Beetles and was listed as the Northwood League’s #10 prospect.
Hess made 14 appearances out of the bullpen for Danville and was 4-1 with a 2.84 earned-run average. The 6-foot-4, 240 pound righty struck out 17 in 19 innings with a 90-94 mile per hour fastball and limited opposing batters to a .179 average.
Bywater, who utilizes a 90 mph fastball along with a changeup and curveball, did not surrender a home run in nine starts for the Dans and struck out 53 batters in 54 innings. In his final appearance of the summer, the lefty pitched eight shutout innings of one-hit ball and struck out eight in Danville’s 2-0 win over Springfield in game two of CICL Tournament.
Bywater’s effort, in which he did not allow a runner to reach second base, earned him Pitcher of the Tournament Honors.
Gaudi relies on a devastating hard split-finger for his chase pitch and is projected by Baseball America as a future middle reliever in professional baseball. He posted a 1.35 ERA and a 31-3 K-BB ratio in just 26.2 innings of work for the Beetles this summer while converting 13 saves.
According to Baseball America, summer college leagues offer a great snapshot of which players are primed to succeed in pro ball, thanks to wood bats and denser schedules than players are accustomed to in the spring.
