TAFT, California —— As far as discovering a diamond among the rough patches of junior college baseball in California, Taft College‘s Richard Ortiz might just be the real deal. A commitment to Grambling State University will have him headed to NCAA Division I baseball in the fall, and once there he’s likely going to fight for an everyday job as a catcher or first baseman. Working in Ortiz’s favor is an impressive power stroke that is both short to the ball and mechanically focused on getting good lift.
Put simply: he hits the ball a long way.
We’ll have a great deal more about Ortiz coming up very soon in the form of a feature piece on his time at Taft, his Puerto Rican roots, and his imminent transfer up to Grambling. Stick around for that later this week; in the meantime, enjoy more of Ortiz’s sweet swing on video (below):
And watch the bomb Ortiz blasted on Tuesday afternoon against Porterville College:
Here are Ortiz’s swing mechanics in GIF form, both open- and closed-face during recent games against Porterville and the College of the Sequoias:
Again, stay tuned for much more on Ortiz from our end; his story is an interesting one and we’ll have lots on him, in his own words, in a few days. In the meantime, watch Richard Ortiz on video at the top of this post as well as within it, above, and subscribe to Baseball Census on YouTube for more prospect videos.
In this Richard Ortiz article:
Central Valley Conference | Taft College | Porterville College | College of the Sequoias | Richard Ortiz
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