On Sunday, Feb. 26, the PBR Illinois team hosted the Joliet Preseason ID at Rhino Baseball Academy in Shorewood, Ill. The event featured almost 130 players from the surrounding area and gave our staff an in-depth look at numerous prospects before the IHSA season takes off.

Monday, we took a closer look at some of the immediate standouts who caught our attention with our Quick Hits. Yesterday, we published our statistical analysis, where we broke down the stat leaders from the more traditional categories. Today, we will take a further in-depth look at the top pitchers with the help of our tech partnerships, broken down by the categories down below: 

TRACKMAN

FASTBALL

VELOCITY (MAX)

Rank	Name	State	School	Class	Pos	Velocity (max)
1	Keegan Waters	IL	Morris	2024	RHP	88.2 mph
2	Ryan Exline	IL	Tinley Park	2024	RHP	87.0 mph
3	Elliott Alicea	IL	Burlington Central	2024	OF	85.9 mph
4	Ryan Sobun	IL	Joliet West	2025	SS	85.8 mph
5	John Meier	IL	Glenbrook South	2024	RHP	85.6 mph

Max Fastball Velocity: This metric calculates the speed of the pitch as it’s released from the pitcher’s hand.

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

Rank	Name	State	School	Class	Pos	Spin Rate (avg)
1	Matthew Szyska	IL	Prospect	2024	RHP	2304 rpm
2	Lucas Grant	IL	Joliet Catholic	2025	LHP	2240 rpm
3	Jack Zlogar	IL	Providence Catholic	2023	RHP	2234 rpm
4	Braydon McKendrick	IL	Brother Rice	2026	LHP	2202 rpm
5	Bode Bregar	IL	Oswego East	2024	RHP	2186 rpm

Spin Rate: This metric calculates the rate of spin on the baseball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand, measured in revolutions per minute (rpm). Historical data shows that high-spin fastballs lessen the impact of gravity, allowing for more ‘rise’ (or less fall, in other words) as it carries through the zone. Low-spin fastballs typically indicate the pitch has greater horizontal action, often making it tougher to square up, but generally easier to make contact with, leading to more ground balls, while high-spin fastballs show a correlation with swings and misses.

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

Induced Vertical Break: Used in short form as "IVB," this metric is most important on fastballs for creating rise and on curveballs for creating depth – it can also have some use when measuring sliders and cutters as well. Sliders tend to be closer to zero inches while cutters are generally between 5 and 15 inches. Usually fastballs and curveballs with large IVB have higher spin efficiencies as well. Sliders generally have very little (closer to zero) IVB and very low spin efficiency. You could also categorize IVB into spin rate as this is part of the “useful movement” you’re looking for. IVB is also a huge part of the vertical approach angle.

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

Horizontal Break: Outlined on TrackMan’s own website: “... horizontal movement is measured in inches between where the pitch actually crosses the front of home plate side-wise, and where it would have crossed home plate side-wise if had it traveled in a perfectly straight line from release. A positive number means the break was to the right from the pitcher’s perspective, while a negative number means the break was to the left from the pitcher’s perspective.”

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

Average MLB pitchers throw 62% strikes, and better pitchers throw strikes 65% of the time, or roughly 2:1 strikes to balls.

 

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CURVEBALL

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

 

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SLIDER

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

 

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CHANGEUP

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

+ CLICK HERE for a look at the complete statistics from the event.

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