Pivetta and Schuknecht named top prospects by Baseball America

Nick Pivetta

At least two Victoria HarbourCats made the cut in Baseball America's list of the top 25 junior college prospects. Our hometown boy, Nick Pivetta, was named as the 6th-best prospect, while catcher David Schuknecht came in at number 22.

Pivetta turned heads this fall by consistently throwing his fastball in the mid-90's and topping out at 97 MPH. The big right-hander will suit up for the New Mexico Junior College Thunderbirds this season, the third-ranked junior college team in the nation according to Baseball America. Pivetta could easily end up being drafted in the first five rounds of the MLB draft in June.

Scouts will be watching Schuknecht closely this spring to see how he has recovered from a torn labrum injury. He'll be under the tutelage of HarbourCats' head coach Dennis Rogers at Riverside City College (RCC) this season. Spring can't be far away, because the RCC Tigers kick off their season on Friday with a game against East Los Angeles College.

You can read more about both of these HarbourCats in the blog post that reported the signing of the team's first six players.

HarbourCatNip

• Jackie Robinson was born 94 years ago today and Google commemorated his birthday with the doodle shown on the right. Incidentally, Robinson played baseball at Pasadena Junior College before transferring to UCLA. 
• The other co-head coach of the HarbourCats, Bob Miller, is the head coach at Cuesta College. On Tuesday, Dennis Rogers' RCC Tigers will take on the Cuesta College Cougars in what should be an interesting match-up.