On Tuesday, June 20th the PBR Illinois team hosted the South Suburban Open at Ozinga Field in Crestwood, IL. This open event was for all high school classes (2024-27), and gave our staff a chance to get a look at 30+ uncommitted prospects before the summer gets into full swing.

For a closer look at the showcase details and the technologies we'll have on-site to assist our in-person evaluation for all in attendance, click here. For a complete look at those registered to attend this event, view the most up-to-date version of the roster by clicking here.

Friday, we took a closer look at some of the immediate standouts who caught our attention with our Quick Hits and 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	Andrew Dawson	IL	Oak Forest	2026	RHP	86.5 mph
2	Wilson Wemhoff	IL	Hampshire	2025	OF	86.1 mph
3	Brady Backes	IL	Lasalle-Peru	2025	RHP	85.6 mph
4	Ethan Highfill	IL	Sandburg	2024	OF	83.6 mph
5	Jack Wilson	IL	New Trier	2024	RHP	83.3 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	Jack Wilson	IL	New Trier	2024	RHP	2389 rpm
2	Nicholas Cutaia	IL	Lincoln-Way East	2024	RHP	2292 rpm
3	Hunter Johnson	IL	Oak Forest	2024	SS	2252 rpm
4	Brady Backes	IL	Lasalle-Peru	2025	RHP	2201 rpm
5	Gabriel Kotwasinski	IL	Fenwick	2024	RHP	2147 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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