Florida Diamond Club 2016: Team East (Blue Jays) Breakdown
October 19, 2016
By Doug Freeman and Mike Maerz
Lakeland, FL- The Florida Diamond Club takes place each year the weekend before the Jupiter tournament and consists mostly of the top draft prospects for the 2017 class in the state of Florida and Puerto Rico.
Diamond Club is a three day event that consists of four teams. Each team goes through a pro-style workout, BP and two 10 inning games over the course of the three days at Historic Henley Field.
Today we break down Team East (Blue Jays) led offensively by No. 1 Overall prospect Brady McConnell (Merritt Island HS, FL), Connor Allen (Merritt Island HS, FL), and Chris Seise (West Orange HS, FL). Jack Leftwich (TNXL Academy, FL) stood out on the mound where he struck out three batters in his two innings of work.
McConnell continued to show why he is one of the top draft prospects in the nation with a combination of skills that ranges from advanced, athletic actions all over the field, above average bat speed, and aggressive base running. With a projectable frame and the high baseball IQ he already possesses, look for McConnell to continue to stay high on the draft board and be a possible day one draft pick.
Allen is strong, physical left handed hitting first basemen that showed the ability to drive the ball with authority into the gaps while also displaying pull side power. During batting practice he put a couple balls over the right field wall while in the game he drove a ball the opposite way for a base hit.
Seise stood out this weekend as he showed improvement on his swing with better consistency and feel for the barrel while displaying gap-to-gap power as he had two triples during the game. He displayed his athleticism by running a 6.65 60-yd dash time. The Central Florida recruit also showed displayed advanced actions, a quick transfer, and plenty of arm to stay at short.
Leftwich has been a major riser all throughout the summer and continued to show why he one of the top arms in his class. The Florida recruit worked quickly and efficiently on the mound striking out three in his two innings of work by using a fastball that sat 90-91 mph, touching 92 while also using slider at 79-81 mph.
Check out below for the full breakdown of all of the players mentioned above and the remaining players on Team East (Blue Jays):