PBR Ohio's Top Stories For The Year 2014: Adam No Longer A One-Man Wolfpack
December 22, 2014
By Dylan Hefflinger and PBR Staff
Ohio Editor in Chief/NW Scout
Top 12 Stories for The Year 2014
PBR Ohio started up on May 3rd, 2011 as seen here. From that day, Chris Valentine has had a goal to promote high school baseball in Ohio at the highest level possible. Chris has been able to do this thanks to the help of parents, coaches, and the talented players throughout the state of Ohio.
Chris has also built a staff that has the drive to make Ohio one of, if not the top viewed website for Prep Baseball Report as well as put on some of the best showcases in the nation to help promote the high school talent that resides in the Buckeye State.
Dylan Hefflinger, PBR Ohio Editor in Chief/NW Scout, along with JD Heilmann, PBR Ohio Director Scouting take a look back at the year in review and put together a list of the top stories for 2014.
To start off the countdown, we chose a piece that touches JD, the Midland Baseball Organization, and the city of Cincinnati at heart, as one of the most well respected men in all of baseball passed away this year.
To follow that up we looked at "The Recruiting Trail" which updates where all the prospects across the state have been visiting, who they are getting attention from, and who they have committed to.
After that we looked at the "Cam Varga Experience".
Now we have a story on what hard work can do for an athlete in: Adam no longer a "One-Man Wolfpack".
Each day we will reveal the next story on the list. A hint for the next story are the words "losing a brother".
A rundown of the stories: Note: We will be conducting a Twitter contest to vote on the top 12 stories for 2014 once the 12 stories have been posted.
adam No Longer A "One-Man Wolfpack"
It all started back on August 25th, 2012. This was the first time us at Prep Baseball Report got to see this 6-foot-4, 165-pound southpaw with a thin, lanky frame.
As an incoming sophomore, Adam Wolf was very raw, having to still learn how to use his body. But all the potential of being one of the top 2015 prospects was there as you can read in this report from the Toledo Open ID.
Just over six months later we had the pleasure of seeing the improvement from Wolf, but still it was not all there as Adam was still not incorporating his lower half to its full potential. However, we did see a good jump on the fastball velocity despite the lower half. The jump was from 78-82 to 81-85 mph as you can see in this report from the Last Showcase of the Winter.
Heading into his junior year as still a raw but very promising left-handed pitcher, Wolf started to hear from some impressive schools in Ohio and the surrounding states as you can read in this interview from February 5th, 2014.
Later that month, Adam showed up at the Northeast Preseason Preview Showcase as a 6-foot-5, 210-pounder looking to show he had improved on his deficiencies, and that was most definitely the case. The tall, lanky lefty made big strides as he continued to grow into his body while also developing repeatability in his delivery as you can read from this report.
Just a week later at the Final Event of the Winter Showcase, the projectable lefty showed us his best performance to date. There were signs of improvement in his lower-half, and there was still even more room to improve. Despite being far from his ceiling, Wolf sat consistently 85-88 mph with good cutting action to his fastball as seen in this report.
After an impressive performance at the showcase in late February, Adam started hearing from more schools including Louisville, Kent State, Ohio State, Cincinnati, and Miami (OH).
Now it was time for one of the top showcases for Prep Baseball Report, the Ohio Top Prospect Games.
Here is a report from the TPG:
"6-foot-5, 210-pound southpaw has cemented himself as the top left-handed pitcher in Ohio's class of 2015. Three-pitch mix. He throws with long arm action through a 3/4 arm slot. Obvious quickness in his arm. Good angle to his ball. Regular effort to his delivery. Sat 87-90 mph with good run to his ball. Mixed in a sharp 1/7 breaking ball coupled with a 77-80 mph fading changeup sold with good arm speed."
After a strong spring season as a junior for Milan Edison High School and an impressive performance at the TPG, Wolf joined the Ohio Elite in hopes of having a successful summer season.
The word "successful" would definitely be an understatement. The lefty sat in the mid-to-upper-80s and even touched 92 mph during the summer.
Now more and more schools started to take notice and wanted to get in on the talented lefty including: West Virginia, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Bucknell, Xavier, Central Michigan, Michigan, Louisville, Harvard, West Point, Penn, Butler, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Pitt, Kent State, Miami, Harvard and Morehead State as noted in his recruiting update as seen here.
After pitching at the World Wood Bat 17U Championship in July, National Supervisor for PBR Nathan Rode wrote a nice piece about how Adam's improved delivery helped boost his velocity. To read the article please click here.
This improved delivery had Wolf ranked as the 22nd ranked prospect in the entire 2015 class for Prep Baseball Report. Adam is now ranked 28th in the latest rankings as seen here.
All of this had Wolf ready to visit Duke, Louisville, North Carolina State, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia in July and August.
On August 1st, at the East Coast Pro Midwest Showcase in Syracuse, N.Y. at Alliance Bank Stadium, Adam struck out five of six batters which made Wolf an even more incising prospect who started to hear from some big time schools like LSU, UNC, Florida State, and Arizona State among others.
In mid-August, Adam finally made his choice, with the lefty selecting the University of Louisville. To read the Q and A with Wolf as regards to his commitment to UL please click here.
Now entering his senior year at Milan Edison High School, it will be interesting to see how he progresses and leads his team this upcoming season. It will also be interesting to see the type of interest Wolf will garner as it relates to the MLB draft.
After a long, wild, and incredibly satisfying recruitment for Adam, all of us at Prep Baseball Report wish the best for Mr. Adam Wolf in all of his future endeavors.
