Some notes from three days spent in southern California seeing players and fighting traffic …

• Right-hander Reggie Lawson of Victor Valley High School in Victorville, California, was a favorite of many scouts last summer thanks to his loose arm and easy delivery, as well as a fastball up to 95 mph in short stints. On Saturday morning, in a game moved up four hours to avoid some rain that never arrived, Lawson showed the loose arm and great projection, but the delivery has gone a bit backward and will need to be cleaned up.

Lawson was mostly 88-92 mph on Saturday, touching 95-96 about three times over the course of his too-long seven innings, getting a lot of swings and misses on the pitch but also giving up too much hard contact because he had little deception and left the ball up frequently. His curveball has good rotation and two-plane break, ranging anywhere from 66-74 mph; at the upper end of the range, it's a good pitch, potentially plus, but a 66 mph curveball is cute and not very effective regardless of who's throwing it. He flashed a slider and changeup but barely threw either pitch, going with the curveball when he wanted a called strike.

Lawson's frame is projectable and he's very athletic, so it's a shock to see that his delivery has regressed since last summer.