PBR FL Limited Series: Preview No. 4

May 30, 2018
PBR Florida Staff

On Friday, PBR Florida will be hosting its first annual Limited Series tournament, held from Friday, June 1 through Sunday, June 3. The Limited Series was created to give teams a platform to play in an exceedingly competitive atmosphere in a tournament setting that will allow their players greater visibility within a smaller setting, all taking place at IMG Academy.

Each game will be thoroughly promoted and scouted by both the national and state directors on our PBR staff – and teams will play four games each at minimum. In an endeavor to establish more exposure for teams and players, our staff will provide roster packets and information for all attending college and professional scouts, as well as generate pre- and post-event content. And, as always, we’ll be updating our Scout Blog throughout the tournament where we will write reports on the participating players and overall game recaps.

For the complete schedule, teams, and rosters CLICK HERE.

Today, we’ll continue our pre-tournament coverage by highlighting some potential standouts in this next group of six teams invited.

FTB TUCCI – BERRYHILL

Participating in the 16U tournament, Florida Travel Baseball’s Tucci – Berryhill team is the fourth FTB represented at Limited Series. This roster is packed with nationally ranked 2020 prospects as well as one of the nation’s most heralded 2021 prospects, Jayden Melendez (Westminster Academy; Florida International). Melendez is the country’s No. 31-ranked prospect in his class, as well as the No. 4-ranked catcher. The rest of the roster is made up of some high-level 2020 prospects like 1B T.J. Curd (Treasure Coast; Florida), RHP Jamar Fairweather (Westminster Christian; Florida International), 3B Connor Morgan (Hernando; uncommitted), OF A.J. Shaver (South Lake; Florida State), C McGwire Holbrook (Bishop Moore; West Virginia), and 2B Dante Girardi (Calvary Christian; uncommitted). Curd, Fairweather, and Morgan are each ranked in and around the top-150 national prospects within the 2020 class, and all of them are roughly top-50 prospects within Florida.

GATORBALL 16U

Gatorball’s 16U team at Limited Series has plenty of budding talent on its roster, and even a few nationally ranked names. Two 2020 Florida commits, SS Tyler Shelnut (Fort White) and OF Kishon Frett (North Marion), are ranked on the national board. Frett is the No. 168-ranked 2020 prospect, No. 28 at his position, while Shelnut is within the top-300 nationally and ranked in the top-50 within Florida’s class. Joining them is C Jonathan Santiago (Dunnellon; uncommitted) and SS Sterlin Thompson (Forest; uncommitted), and both are top-110 Florida prospects. The rest of the roster is mostly made up of players we’ve yet to see in person, so we’ll be eager to report on our findings regarding the Gainesville-area 2020 talents.

BASEBALL UNIVERSITY 16U

Baseball University is sending three teams to Limited Series, two to compete in the tournament’s 16U bracket: a 16U and a 15U team. Their 16U team rosters the Perez brothers from Jesuit, Donnie and Devin. Neither are committed nor ranked, but both offer intriguing upside – Donnie as an outfielder and Devin as a left-handed pitcher. The headliner on this BU team is RHP Carlos Rodriguez (Sickles; Miami). He’s the No. 15-ranked 2020 in the country, No. 4 in the state. We haven’t had the opportunity to see him in person, so this weekend will mark our first live look. The rest of the roster offers some interesting break-out candidates as well, including a number of 2021s, so we’ll see how this group performs over the weekend.

TOP TIER AMERICAN 2020

Just like the 17U bracket, Top Tier will be sending two teams to IMG Academy to participate in the 16U tournament: American and National. The 16U American roster is filled with top-100 Florida 2020 prospects, all of whom remain uncommitted: LHP Mason Miller (J.W. Mitchell; No. 58), OF Alexander Haire (Berkeley Prep; No. 65), SS Blake Wright (Clearwater Central Catholic; No. 97), and OF Parker Stoyan (Berkeley Prep; No. 98). Johnathan Bruno is also listed as a member of this squad – he’s the No. 28-ranked 2021 in Florida and the No. 7-ranked second baseman.

SWFL NATION 2019

The Fort Myers-based SWFL Nation is also sending a team to the 17U tournament – we covered their 16U team here. There are three top-100 Florida 2019s on their roster: No. 63-ranked SS Jorel Ortega (Spanish River Community; Tennessee), No. 75 LHP Brandon Gielow (Lemon Bay; Tennessee), No. 82 SS Darell Hernaiz (Americas; Texas Tech). We just saw Ortega at an event for the first time at the ProCase, where he looked very good, and ranked highly among his infield peers. Gielow was also a ProCase attendee, and we’ll have more detailed notes on him soon. And as for Hernaiz, we’ve not yet seen him in person, so we’re excited to see how he stacks up compared to the rest of the athletes he’ll be competing against. A couple other prospects on this team to take note of are OF Jake McKee (Estero; uncommitted) and 1B Tyler Kreissler (Lemon Bay; uncommitted).

ACADEMY BASEBALL CANADA

Joining us at Limited Series all the way from Montreal, Canada, will be the Academy Baseball program – or Académie Baseball Canada. The Canadian squad is registered for the 16U tournament and is, at present, one of the only non-Florida teams set to be in attendance. Their roster is a mix of 2019s through 2021s, so it’ll be one of the tournament’s most compelling storylines to see how this team from out of the country performs against some of the best talent in the state of Florida.