Prep Baseball Report

Top Prospect - St. Louis: TrackMan Files


Diego Solares
Staff Writer, Associate Scout

On Tuesday, June 15, the PBR Illinois and Missouri scouting staffs hosted the annual Top Prospect - St. Louis event in St. Louis, MO at the Lou Brock sports complex on the Lindenwood University campus. This invite only event fielded a total of 35 athletes from Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas that primarily represented the 2022 graduating classes, although a handful of 2023s also attended.

We published our Quick Hits from the event shortly after, providing a few highlight performances that stood out last Tuesday and followed that up with our traditional Statistical Analysis, an article that looks at some standouts from a pure numerical standpoint.

Today, we'll be taking a look at batted ball and pitch data captured by our portable TrackMan units that allow us to provide more data-filled information from this event.

MAX FASTBALL VELOCITY & PEak SPIN RATE

Rank Name State School Class Pos Velocity (max)
1 Joseph Swanson IL Pekin 2022 RHP 88.8 mph
2 Jackson Chu MO St. Charles 2022 SS 87.5 mph
3 Christopher Bieniek IL Notre Dame College Prep 2022 RHP 87.0 mph
4 Luke Wickenhauser IL Calhoun 2022 RHP 85.4 mph
5 Gavin Sitarz IL St. Charles East 2022 LHP 85.0 mph
6 Dominic Voegele IL Columbia 2023 RHP 84.6 mph
7 Luke Aubuchon MO Fort Zumwalt East 2022 SS 84.2 mph

Rank Name State School Class Pos Spin Rate (max)
1 Joseph Swanson IL Pekin 2022 RHP 2435 rpm
2 Christopher Bieniek IL Notre Dame College Prep 2022 RHP 2366 rpm
3 Gavin Sitarz IL St. Charles East 2022 LHP 2332 rpm
4 Luke Aubuchon MO Fort Zumwalt East 2022 SS 2290 rpm
5 Luke Wickenhauser IL Calhoun 2022 RHP 2260 rpm
6 Evan Abercrombie MO Montgomery County 2022 RHP 2237 rpm
7 Ryan Ball IL Lincoln-Way East 2022 RHP 2192 rpm
8 Isaac Vedder MO St. Francis Borgia 2022 RHP 2001 rpm

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

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.

AVERAGE FASTBALL HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT

Rank Name State School Class Pos HM (avg)
1 Evan Abercrombie MO Montgomery County 2022 RHP 17.3
2 Luke Wickenhauser IL Calhoun 2022 RHP 10.6
3 Joseph Swanson IL Pekin 2022 RHP 10.5
4 Evan Meurer MO Francis Howell Central 2022 OF 9.4
5 Jackson Chu MO St. Charles 2022 SS 9.0

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.”

AVERAGE SLIDER SPIN RATE

Rank Name State School Class Pos Spin Rate (avg)
1 Joseph Swanson IL Pekin 2022 RHP 2186
2 Gavin Sitarz IL St. Charles East 2022 LHP 2174
3 Isaac Vedder MO St. Francis Borgia 2022 RHP 2141
4 Dominic Voegele IL Columbia 2023 RHP 2006

AVERAGE CURVEBALL SPIN RATE

Rank Name State School Class Pos Spin Rate (avg)
1 Joseph Swanson IL Pekin 2022 RHP 2271 rpm
2 Dominic Voegele IL Columbia 2023 RHP 2162 rpm
3 Christopher Bieniek IL Notre Dame College Prep 2022 RHP 2151 rpm
4 Luke Wickenhauser IL Calhoun 2022 RHP 2100 rpm
5 Isaac Vedder MO St. Francis Borgia 2022 RHP 2046 rpm
6 Gavin Sitarz IL St. Charles East 2022 LHP 1977 rpm
7 Evan Meurer MO Francis Howell Central 2022 OF 1946 rpm
8 Evan Abercrombie MO Montgomery County 2022 RHP 1888 rpm
9 Ryan Ball IL Lincoln-Way East 2022 RHP 1834 rpm
10 Luke Aubuchon MO Fort Zumwalt East 2022 SS 1812 rpm

AVERAGE CHANGEUP HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT

Rank Name State School Class Pos HM (avg)
1 Evan Abercrombie MO Montgomery County 2022 RHP 19.7
2 Gavin Sitarz IL St. Charles East 2022 LHP -14.4
3 Joseph Swanson IL Pekin 2022 RHP 7.9
4 Luke Wickenhauser IL Calhoun 2022 RHP 7.3
5 Ryan Ball IL Lincoln-Way East 2022 RHP 6.4
6 Cayden Drum MO Jackson 2022 RHP 5.7

AVERAGE EXIT VELOCITY (HITTING)

Rank Name State School Class Pos Exit Velocity (avg)
1 Wyatt Miller MO Francis Howell Central 2023 3B 90.2 mph
2 Nicolas Neal MO Pattonville 2022 OF 89.0 mph
3 Ryan Capps MO Louisiana 2022 1B 87.3 mph
4 Max Harris MO Marquette 2022 SS 86.1 mph
5 Parker Davis MO Fort Zumwalt East 2022 OF 85.8 mph
6 Grant Campbell MO Lafayette 2022 3B 85.6 mph

Exit Speed: Also according to TrackMan’s own website: “The speed of the ball, measured in miles per hour, as it comes off the bat at the moment of contact.”

PEAK EXIT VELOCITY (HITTING)

Rank Name State School Class Pos Exit Velocity (max)
1 Max Harris MO Marquette 2022 SS 96.1 mph
2 Nicolas Neal MO Pattonville 2022 OF 94.4 mph
3 Parker Davis MO Fort Zumwalt East 2022 OF 94.4 mph
4 Dominic Voegele IL Columbia 2023 RHP 93.5 mph
5 Ryan Ulm MO Fort Zumwalt West 2022 C 93.5 mph
6 Ryan Capps MO Louisiana 2022 1B 93.4 mph
7 Wyatt Miller MO Francis Howell Central 2023 3B 93.2 mph
8 Mason Lawson MO Seckman 2022 1B 92.9 mph
9 Jackson Chu MO St. Charles 2022 SS 92.7 mph
10 Ethan Milam MO Francis Howell 2023 SS 92.6 mph
11 Zac Fruend MO Lutheran St. Charles 2022 SS 92.4 mph
12 Cyrus Mehmedi IL St Patricks 2022 C 92.2 mph
13 Grant Campbell MO Lafayette 2022 3B 91.6 mph

PEAK ESTIMATED BATTED DISTANCE (HITTING)

Rank Name State School Class Pos Distance (max)
1 Wyatt Miller MO Francis Howell Central 2023 3B 344 ft
2 Parker Davis MO Fort Zumwalt East 2022 OF 343 ft
3 Ryan Capps MO Louisiana 2022 1B 342 ft
4 Nicolas Neal MO Pattonville 2022 OF 338 ft
5 Jackson Chu MO St. Charles 2022 SS 337 ft
6 Grant Campbell MO Lafayette 2022 3B 333 ft
7 Blayne Holman MO Francis Howell 2022 1B 329 ft
8 Cyrus Mehmedi IL St Patricks 2022 C 325 ft
9 Dominic Voegele IL Columbia 2023 RHP 324 ft
10 Aidan O'Connell IL St. Charles North 2022 C 320 ft

For a complete look at each of the statistics measured at this showcase, CLICK HERE.

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