Utah Player and Pitcher of the Week: Lauaki, Taylor / Harris, Johnston

Three days after returning home from the PBR Future Games, Lauaki made the commitment to play for the Oregon Ducks. Junior should jump to the top in the 2024 Ducks recruiting class. With an arm and bat, but more so the arm, Junior should be an immediate impact type rotation piece right away. Although with two years of HS remaining, Lauaki will jump to the #2 spot in the class of ‘24 rankings when they are released in 2 weeks. Lauaki made his presence felt right away on workout day with a couple of long HR’s during BP, as he launched an event best 404’ shot to deep LCF and threw EZ bullets across the INF from 1B. But it was on the mound that sealed the deal for his college choice, as he showed his best stuff to date. Lauaki has been 86-88, 88-91 T92 this summer, as he’s played all around the country. But it was in the humidity of Atlanta that he featured one of the two best FB’s recorded at the Future Games. Lauaki displayed an EZ effort, med kick to delivery with a fluid arm stroke, the FB sat 90-92 and topped out at 93.1 on the Trackman system and held his velocity in his 3 innings of work vs a very good hitting Team Kentucky. But the secondary pitch was just as lethal, with his SL coming in at 80-82 with late sharp tilt, that bottomed out. The pitch is a put away pitch, as he has abv avg feel to land and bury beneath bats for swing/misses. With an imposing 6-3 240 Lb build, Junior is not even close to gaining his man strength at 16 yrs old, it’s easy to dream of a mid to high 90’s heater as he reaches campus. The sky's the limit for the incoming junior at Springville HS. 

2021 PBR Future Games

Taylor has been one of our mainstays at our invite only events and was a breakout prospect at the Future Games in 2021. A toolsy player over skill right now, but soaks up instruction and lives and breathes the game. Once Taylor stepped in the box for the BP portion of the workout, it got quiet, as he launched a few high and deep to straightaway left and LCF, that brought rain on a couple. A fast bat that can produce bat speeds from 73-79 mph, with a slight uphill path and HR type stroke. Spreads out in an even prop square stance with his hands held deep and over his back foot to get his bat into a ready position, to just turn the barrel as he loads into his backside. Gets to quality separation and explodes his hands into the baseball with very projectable strength and future big raw power. The defense continues to improve. Still young and just turned 17, Taylor, still with two years left in HS, the best is yet to come. 

The physically imposing corner bat, and future power arm, had a really good showing as he stung balls in the BP portion of the workout, with a powerful, quick and slightly uphill path to elevate and lift the ball. Has present avg raw power and is in line, with his man strength to come, to develop into plus raw. Showing a max EV of 100, with a 75% rate of sweet spot contact. During game action, Harris got a FB middle-middle and crushed it, high and deep to LCF and out of the park. On the mound, Harris has been working on  staying back and separating out of the glove earlier and over the rubber. This helped him stay back as he kept his front side closed and drove the slope and plane of the mound. Lands sound and the arm is a HTQ whippy arc, with a loose wrist to finish pitches. The FB was 86-89 with late finish and hop. The CB 73-74 had an avg MLB spin of 2451, and as his velo climbs, so will the spin. The SL 77 takes on quick lateral action, though can blend at times with the CB and create a hybrid look. A definite two type talent at the next level with a commitment coming in the next two weeks. Stay tuned…