Prep Baseball Report

Unsigned Senior Showcase: Quick Hits


By Illinois Staff

On Sunday, Oct. 6, the PBR Illinois staff hosted its annual fall Unsigned Senior Showcase, providing 2020 grads with the platform to perform ahead of the final offseason of their prep careers. Year after year, this event always seems to spotlight a handful of Illinois seniors who have flown under the radar for too long, bringing them some much-deserved attention.

Today, in our rapid post-event analysis, we’re sharing our thoughts on the best things we saw from the 2020 showcase. Pitching stole the show on Sunday, and more than a dozen arms touched a velocity of 85 mph or greater.

We’ll get into everything you need to know in the fallout from this senior-only showcase. Stay tuned tomorrow for additional analysis from a more statistical perspective. For now, here are our findings from yesterday.

ATTENTION: ARMS

+ RHP Will Jaynes (Waubonsie Valley) was one of the more intriguing arms of the day. The 6-foot-2, 180-pounder sat an easy 86-88 mph, looking like there’s plenty more in the tank. Last we saw Jaynes, he was 80-84 mph at the Senior Games in August and showed a ton of athleticism at shortstop, too. If this progress continues for Jaynes, he could likely head into the offseason as one of the more sought-after arms in the state.

+ RHP Cooper Herold (Minooka) came into Sunday as one of the top available arms in Illinois’ 2020 class. His lively fastball, 86-88 mph, has a lot to do with it. He showed it again on Sunday and paired it with a swing-and-miss changeup. 

+ Lincoln-Way Central’s Harrison Dubois showcased a heavy fastball with improved velo since last spring. Sitting 86-88 mph, Dubois works exclusively from the stretch and gets hard sinking action at times to go with a firm power changeup at 81 mph.

+ At 6-foot-5, 180 pounds, Mason Kottmeyer (Kaneland) was one of the longer arms in the attendance, his lanky frame and delivery creates long levers and lively action out front. Kottmeyer topped at 87 mph. 

+ Southpaw Daniel Kawiecki (Riverside-Brookfield) stands 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, and showed the best fastball of the day from any left-hander. He showed feel and arm-side run, at 83-85 mph, and coupled it with above average spin and feel for a 1/7 breaking ball.

+ RHP Finn Kibby (Saint Ignatius) also put his name on the map with an 85-87 mph heater. Kibby has a strong build at 6-foot-2, 190 pounds, and gets into his lower half to generate above-average fastball velocity.

+ RHP James Severson (Lyons Township) put some impressive outings together for us this summer and did it again here at the Unsigned Senior Showcase. Severson has a stocky build with strong lower half, at 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, and matched it with a heavy fastball that works down in the zone at 86-87 mph.

+ Marian Catholic’s Ethan Alexander has a lively arm and a projectable frame. He’s 6-foot-4 and a slender 150 pounds, but he creates above-average arm speed that helps produce a fastball that topped at 86 mph, combined with an intriguing splitter.

+ Kyle Anderson (Minooka) is another righty with improved fastball velocity. He’s got an easy arm and generates arm-side run at 85-86 mph.

+ Last time we saw RHP Michael Sclafani (Montini Catholic), he was carving up the Dixon Dukes in the 3A State Semifinals, scattering just one earned run across a complete-game effort. Sclafani is a strong, wide-shouldered two-way player who showed some big arm strength, topping out at 88 mph on the bump. His strength plays across the infield, too, as well as the batter’s box, having posted an event-best 99 mph exit velocity from the tee.

+ Another two-way player who showed well on the mound was Carson Roberts (Wheaton North). We’ve only seen Roberts work out as a position player in the past, but he took his arm strength to the mound on Sunday and it certainly caught our staff’s attention – it comes out easy and heavy at 86-87 mph, touching 88 mph. He showed a hard breaking ball as well at 74-76 mph and good feel for a running changeup, at 81-82 mph. 

CATCHING THE HEAT

+ Of the backstops receiving these aforementioned bullpens, there were a few who stood out, including St. Charles North’s Michael Davis. He showed the best arm strength from out of the crouch (topped 79 mph) and his catch-and-throw helped him produce the day’s lowest pop time (1.97).

+ Joliet Catholic’s Joseph Batusich is a physically imposing 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, and he uses that strength on his throws through the infield, as well as the batter’s box. Batusich showed big arm strength that carried well out of the crouch, while proving to be a tireless worker behind the dish with a commanding presence. A switch-hitter, Batusich also showed some gap-to-gap pop from both sides of the plate.

SPEED AND BARRELS

+ There were some speedsters were on display Sunday as well. With 10 sub-7.00 marks in the 60 recorded, including the top time from Oak Park-River Forest’s Alan Brown, who ran a 6.77. Brown is a highly athletic outfielder whose speed should play well in center and he brings with him a compact swing in the right-handed batter’s box.

+ Among the other sub-7.00 runners in attendance was infielder Tommy Shaw (Kaneland). Shaw has an uber athletic frame at 6-foot-1, 175 pounds, and he runs extremely well. He posted a 6.86 in the 60-yard dash and showed loose, easy bat speed at the dish. His hands play just as athletic as his feet and he also created hard gap-to-gap contact in BP.

+ The multi-faceted Colin Gorz (Benet Academy) raised some eyebrows in BP. His compact stroke plays well for repeatable hard contact to the middle of the diamond. He seemed to be on every barrel showing, above-average hand/eye skills. Defensively, he showed smooth actions both on the infield and outfield.

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