Bad weather chased me around Texas — or so I choose to believe — but I did manage to see my main target for the trip, Colleyville Heritage shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., for one game on Saturday before leaving town (his team’s Friday doubleheader was washed out). Witt, the presumptive top high school player in the draft class and the son of the No. 3 overall pick in the 1985 draft, went 4-for-4 with four singles in his team’s 20-1 victory over Midlothian. (You might say their win by mercy rule ripped out … the heart of Midlothian. Or you might not.)
Witt is a gifted athlete who certainly shows three of the five tools and very good instincts on both sides of the ball. His swing is simple and direct, and he shows excellent hand strength for hard contact. His load and setup are fine, but his swing gets long and he collapses his back side on nearly every swing. There might be power here from his strength and swing path, but he’ll swing and miss quite a bit with that kind of finish and can be vulnerable in several ways to pitchers with decent offspeed stuff.
In the field, however, he’s smooth and definitely projects to stay at shortstop with a plus arm, good range to his left and soft hands. He’s also a plus runner and seemed to steal bases at will against a weak opponent, even with lefties on the mound the entire game.