Despite his layoff, his fastball ran from 91-94 mph and he backed it up with a hard curveball and an effective changeup in a 3-2 loss to the Shockers.

"Other than being a little rusty in the first inning, he was good," said Bears assistant Paul Evans, who has coached eight Missouri State pitchers who have advanced to the major leagues. "You could tell he was a little jittery at first, but then he settled in. I was very pleased with what I saw."

Before his forearm strain, Johnson was working at 92-94 mph and topping out at 96 with his lively fastball. The 6-foot-3, 180-pounder is doing a better job of repeating his delivery and commanding his pitches than he had in his first two college seasons. A 15th-round pick by the Rays out of a Colorado high school in 2009, he has a 2-4, 2.28 record with 80 strikeouts in 55 innings over eight starts this spring.

To follow-up on that posted article from a few days ago on Pierce Johnson, he did in fact return on Sunday. He struck out 9 and walked none in 6 innings of work while giving up 3 earned runs against Wichita State. Jim Callis had some tidbits on Baseball America's Draft Blog on the start:

The alternative, for me, is Miami-area high school center fielder Albert Almora. Ideally the Buxton alternative would be a polished college bat, but Almora has more hitting polish than many college bats this year. One scout told me Almora was the first high school hitter he's graded who projects to eventually develop a 70 bat. There isn't a college hitter in the draft close to that.

Some scouts have compared Almora to Carlos Beltran. While Beltran was faster and Almora is a right-handed hitter, the upside and profile are very similar. Almora has the history of hitting and, most importantly, the upside and certainty necessary to consider passing on the even more tremendous upside Buxton offers.

I agree the odds are against him getting to us, but if he did, wouldn't it be torture to pass him up even knowing what a difficult sign he'd be?

It's not impossible for Russell to stick at shortstop, but it seems likely he will fill out his frame, move to third and be above-average or more defensively at the hot corner.

...

Russell's swing is his meal ticket and there are some clear pluses and minuses here. He has big bat speed, explosive hips, strong wrists, leverage and loft in his bat path to create massive power. His swing has a good rhythm to sync all the elements for power: It's the best raw power I've seen all year and may be the best I've seen since Mike Stanton. Russell was hitting with a wood bat in BP and was hitting balls out to left field and center. One ball almost cleared the parking lot behind the center field wall, traveling about 425 feet.

The hitting tools and swing can be conducive to hitting for average in time, but will need some work. Russell has some length to his swing created by an unusually late arm bar (lead elbow locks). His load is created when his body moves forward while his hands stay in place, so the bar only happens when Russell moves far enough forward, which he doesn't always do.

...

I can stomach the risk because the upside is so high; I have Russell as a solid first-round pick and with Scott Boras on board as his advisor, I'll bet Russell will find a team willing to pay him handsomely in the first round.

The Pace HS star has dropped about 20 pounds and improved his conditioning to the point he now "looks like a shortstop." He may not stay there long term, but would be a plus defender at third (if not better), and his bat would profile there as well.

Russell is surprisingly athletic for his size with the potential for plus power, but the Auburn commit from Pace (Fla.) HS has fought some minor injuries and, like Buxton, won't see a lot of great pitching this spring.