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There are the tell-tale signs that spring is here, or at least around the corner, as I look at the snow on the ground here at home. One, of course, is pitchers and catchers reporting and the start of action in Florida and Arizona.

Another is the kickoff weekend of college baseball which just took place. It’s always so exciting to see the top Draft prospects in action, meaning the first data of the 2024 season coming our way. It’s especially true this year with so many college guys (nine of the top 10, 13 of the top 15) as potential top half of the first-round candidates.

Rather than just do a simple roundup of who did what, I decided to reach out to our good friends in the scouting community, namely scouting directors and national crosscheckers, to see where they decided to spend their first weekend of evaluating talent. I asked these five questions and have collated responses from four scouts, all anonymous, below.

Where did you go/what games did you attend for this opening weekend?

With some opening weekend tournaments in action, it was a good way to see many teams at once. Two evaluators were in Arizona and checked out the Desert Invitational (Boston College, BYU, California, Georgetown, Grand Canyon, Kansas State, Ohio State and USC) in Mesa and Scottsdale, but they could also swing over to the College Baseball Classic (Oregon State, CSU Bakersfield, New Mexico and Minnesota) in Surprise or head to the University of Arizona, which was hosting Northeastern.

One hit Texas, to see the Shriners Children’s College Showdown at Globe Life Field (Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Baylor, Tennessee, Nebraska and Oregon) and also shot over to see Texas Christian.

One headed to the University of Georgia, but also went to check out the Georgia high school tournament with a number of prospects at LakePoint.

Who were the primary players (i.e. early-round potential type players) who you evaluated?

I’m listing them in order of their current Top 100 ranking.

Travis Bazzana, 2B, Oregon State
Charlie Condon, OF, Georgia
Mike Sirota, OF, Northeastern
Caleb Lomavita, C, Cal
Drew Beam, RHP, Tennessee
Kaelen Culpepper, SS, Kansas State
Anthony Silva, SS, Texas Christian
Billy Amick, 3B, Tennessee
Christian Moore, SS, Tennessee
Dylan Dreiling, OF, Tennessee
Rodney Green Jr., OF, California

Who stood out to you performance wise and why?

“Lomavita: offensively and defensively.”

“Condon smoked a couple of balls as expected, and the high school guys played well.” (The scout mentioned Top 100 prospect Arnold Abernathy along with Bryce Clavon and Alex Hernandez.)

“Christian Moore stood out in a positive way; professional at-bats, showed some more raw power compared to last spring, made some nice plays at shortstop.”

“Bazzana: hit, run, power, everything but defense is above-average.”

Who disappointed performance wise and why?

“Beam has the same question marks he had entering the year; throws a ton of strikes but stuff was just okay and fastball was flat.”

“Sirota: underwhelming BP, didn’t run well, one soft single.”

Bryce Martin-Grudzielanek, 2B, USC: “Poor all-around play.”

Who was someone that perhaps wasn’t as much on the radar who surprised you (in a good way) and why?

Green: “Showed all the tools and performed.”

Mason Marriott , RHP, Baylor: “Still not the best athlete but controlled his entire arsenal and showed feel for a swing and miss fastball and breaking ball.”

“No surprises for me in my live looks.”

“Nobody in particular jumped up out here in my opinion.”

That’s just a small smattering of opinions gathered from a small cross-section of national evaluators. The reports will keep coming in as we really get going here.