Prep Baseball South Alabama Showdown: Scout Blog

The Prep Baseball Alabama Scout Blog provides insider information and scouting notes from the Prep Baseball Scouting Staff during the season. Today, we shine the light on standouts from this weekend's Prep Baseball South Alabama Showdown, a marquee event in southern Alabama that helped kick-off the 2024 high school season. It was a loaded field of teams with talented players throughout, many of which are featured inside this article. This running blog will feature information on underclass prospects, unsigned seniors, draft prospects and anything else that is notable. We will provide a wide range of information, including player evaluations, velocities, pop times, home to first times and much more.

Also, be sure to check out the pitching leaderboards from the event to see the top fastball velocities from the two days of action in the Birmingham metro area.

+ RHP Eli Driskell (Faith Academy, 2024) is regarded as one of the top right-handed pitchers in the state of Alabama and a two-time PBR Future Games alumni. An Auburn recruit, the senior right-hander has seemed to make noticable strides in the abiliy to harness his command and has seen a bit of an uptick in velocity since the previous viewing. Listed at 6-foot-1, 205-pounds, Driskell is a control over command, but showed no issues with the ability to fill up the strike zone during his start facing an offensive lineup with mutliple Division 1 commitments. Utilizing an up-tempo, free-flowing delivery that gradually builds pace, the right-hander consistently ranged 90-92 mph with carrying life throughout his first few innings before settling into more 88-90 mph during the later innings. Possessing a three-pitch mix, the senior went to the off-speed often, showing a hard, late-biting 79-80 mph slider (2550 RPM) with swing-and-miss and a diving changeup in the low-80's that he sells well off the fastball. Arm speed is above-average with plenty of whip to the stroke, and delivered some big pitches in tightly-contested ballgame to earn the win. He finished going 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, ER, 2 BB, & 11 K's on 96 pitches, 62 of for strikes.