Eli
Larson

Richmond commit; game vs Branson School, Larson is about as good of a senior shortstop as I've seen all spring. He's a lean and long and lithely built player with all the defensive tools to play this game for a long time. He displayed plus range and angles, played the slow roller in a text book fashion, threw from multiple angles and on the move, as well as making the routine play. The arm is above average now and will rate as a plus arm during his college career. Throws from multiple angles and locations in the infield were right to the chest accurate. Offensively he showed plenty of bat speed and was on-time to 87-89 mph (reached via E6). Battled long in at-bats and didn't chase, working two walks. Later in game vs a lesser pitcher and runners on he got a middle fastball and ripped it to left for a double. The swing works easy, his athleticism plays all over, at the plate, in the field and on the bases where he stole some bases.

Game at Cardinal Newman - Richmond commit; Long athletic 6-foot-1, 175-pounds; caught my eye during pre-game warm-ups. His footwork, soft hands, along with loose and strong arm show pretty noticeably. Watching between innings it’s apparent that he likes his arm and he doesn’t take between inning reps for granted. He moves well to both his left and right, though going to his right he loses a bit too much on throws that necessitate more raw arm strength. Larson fed the double play turn nicely and showed the ability to throw from different angles, though the ball got stuck in his glove on a couple of transfers. Offensively he has enough bat speed and there is some aggressiveness, though he twice lost control of the barrel at contact, resulting in lazy fly balls to right field and then got too aggressive in his last at-bat, going out of the zone to pop up a pitch to the 1st baseman. A smaller approach would serve him better. That can all be worked out in time. The tools are there.