MLB Prospects Clint Frazier, Austin Meadows Share Friendly Rivalry

SYRACUSE — The motto of Loganville, Ga. is, “Where People Matter.” That’s fitting because two players from high schools in the small suburb of Atlanta already matter very much to scouts.

Outfielders Austin Meadows from Grayson High and Clint Frazier from Loganville High were the two top-rated high school players in Baseball America’s early look at the talent for the 2013 draft and the two were teammates on the Braves team last week at the East Coast Professional Showcase.

Playing together is nothing new for Meadows and Frazier. The pair first played against each other when they were 9 years old, in Little League. Eventually, they joined together on the same summer team.

“We played against each other all the time,” Frazier said. “I mean, we were 10 minutes away from each other. And then finally his dad hooked up with my dad and asked for us to come over there to play with them.”

They first played together on the South Gwinnett Storm and are now summer ball teammates with Team Elite. Meadows said Frazier always stood out as one of the best players on the field.

“He was the home run hitter on our team and I knew that he was going to be something good someday,” Meadows said. “And he is. He’s proven it.”

The praise was mutual.

“When we were younger, he was definitely one of the bigger kids and he was one of the kid who was hitting home runs early,” Frazier said of Meadows. “You could just look at the kid and tell he had a lot of potential in the future.”

Now, going into their senior year of high school, Frazier is still the same home run hitter. He hit 24 home runs last year for Loganville and was a Baseball America first-team All-American. A righthanded hitter, Frazier isn’t the most physical player on the field at 6 feet and 185 pounds, but he has extremely strong hands and wrists, which leads to tremendous bat speed. Frazier is also one of the fastest runners in this year’s draft class and ran a 6.57-second 60-yard dash at the event. In addition to his tools, the Georgia commit stands out for his all-out hustle on the field.

Meadows, a Clemson recruit, has a bigger frame at 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds and is a lefthanded hitter. He shows a quiet approach at the plate with good plate discipline and easy loft power. Meadows can also run, turning in a 6.63-second 60-yard dash time himself.

“We’ve always just been good buddies,” Meadows said. “Even though we’re down the road, we’ve always been able to just talk to each other and help with each other’s problems and all that stuff.”

The two players also spend time together off the field and Frazier agreed that it’s beneficial to have someone nearby who is experiencing many of the same things.

“It helps because it’s a friendly competition,” Frazier said. “There’s not many friends of mine that I can talk to about what I go through with baseball. So having someone so close to me and going through the same thing I’m going through helps.”