Cj
Sumner

Sumner is a young incoming freshman with a short compact build. Thick throughout and shows present strength for his age. Sumner had a solid round of BP and shows a conventional even prop upright stance with his hands held below the shoulder and rocks the barrel from a vertically held position. The barrel and front foot at landing, gets to a solid launch and separation with his hands. Drives the knob inside and through the baseball with a short compact to and through strike, into a two and one hand finish at times, depending on contact with the baseball. The bat shows some whip through and out front, and does have some loop that keeps his barrel from maintaining plane efficiency. The hips come through the swing, but not as violently as you would want. Needs to focus on some core strength areas and fire his back side better. A 90 mph EV now is sufficient for his age and the ball jumps through the gaps now with more pull side power to come as he gets older and stronger. The defense shows some flashes of foot syncing behind the plate, with a below to fringe exchange into a solid position to throw. The ball exits the hand clean at times with well below arm strength now and will only get better as he matures. Can one hop on a line and then pop one “to” the bag with a bit of hump now, but carries the target at 2.03-2.12 pop times and a near 70 mph arm velocity. Not a runner for a catcher, although with a better strength and agility program, as he ages, he needs to keep up in this department, so as not to slow down and be a base to base runner. One to definitely follow with the bat as he stands out with the swing over the next handful of years.