New Arrival: Nolan Souza, if, Punahou High School
Today there was a scrimmage between prep players from Oahu and the Big Island. It was a low-eye event at Central Oahu park, so the fact that I had to drive 10 minutes to get there was nice. And it only took me about 20 minutes to get the player that I wanted, Punahou infielder and MLB draft prospect Nolan Souza.
Some 2023 MLB draft lists are coming out, and Souza, who plays at Punahou High School and is an Arkansas commit, is cracking the Top 50. That is very exciting. Hawaii has had a nice run recently of high-end high school players, notable Aiva Arquette (St. Louis, now at the University of Washington) and Beau Sylvester (Kamehameha-Kapalama, now at Oklahoma), but none were projected to be this high coming out of High School.
There is a good reason too. Souza is a solid defender up the middle and has a smooth left-hand swing that every report I read is going to develop into legit, in-game power. While power-hitting middle-infielder are not quite the unicorns they used to be, it’s still a special tool set that no team is going to pass up on. If he ends up going to Arkansas and develops as expected, he will be shooting up draft lists.