Sean McGrath
Scouting Director, New Jersey

The Prep Baseball Report rankings for New Jersey’s 2017 class have been updated. After watching a summer full of high quality New Jersey baseball, including many talented ball players at our events, we have decided to expand the 2017 rankings to include 100 players. Moving forward, we understand as a staff that players mature and grow as players so these rankings can and will change.

The top 10 remains untouched but there was a shakeup with the remaining spots which is cause for excitement. Below, we will take a look at a pair of Pope John XXII pitchers that made a big first jump in the rankings, as well as two pitchers, Justin Fall and Daniel Raglievich, who are making impressive debuts on the list.

Pope John Duo Rises

Sean Miller, RHP, Pope John XXIII
+ Miller has been a pitcher who I’ve followed closely this summer as I’ve waited for him to really piece it together; and at the Underclass Games this past Sunday, he did. Miller has a prototypical pitcher’s build, checking in at 6-foot-3, 180 pounds. He has a highly rhythmic and low effort directional delivery and a clean, fast arm action from a ¾ arm slot. He repeats well and has a feel for filling up the bottom third of the strike zone with three pitches. His fastball has some late bite to his arm side and sits 82-85 miles-per-hour. His breaking ball is already an advanced pitch with hard depth at 74-76 MPH. He also flashed the ability to throw his changeup with arm speed and conviction. It took the same late action as his fastball and was 8-10 miles-per-hour off pace.

Sean Roberts, RHP, Pope John XXIII
+ Roberts is a player who first flashed his ability to me during the late night game at Diamond Nation. What stood out about the 6-foot-1, 185 pound right-hander is the amount of athleticism in his delivery. His movements are not at all mechanical. Instead, they are loose, dynamic, and largely easy. He pitches with tempo and an explosive lower half. His arm is extremely loose and the ball jumps out of his hand from a deceptive ¾ arm slot. He pitches with sink and run to his fastball at 83-86 miles-per-hour and combos that with a curveball which is slurve in action at 72-73 MPH. He also has a potentially plus changeup which displays late diving action to his arm side at 71-74 MPH.

Impressive Ranking Debuts

Justin Fall, LHP, Toms River South
+ Fall checks into the top 20 thanks to a high level of projection. The left-hander is long and lean, checking in at 6-foot-5. He pitches with minimal effort, repeating his mechanics well with a clean arm action from a ¾ arm slot. The southpaw’s fastball was 78-82 miles-per-hour with more still in the tank. His breaking ball was 69-71 MPH with depth when he stayed on top of the baseball. His best offering in his outing two weeks ago was his changeup, which mimicked the action of his fastball, tailing to his arm side. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Justin in the spring at 84-87.

Daniel Raglievich, RHP, Dumont HS
+ Raglievich is another very projectable arm as he stands 6-foot-4, 195 pounds. This weekend’s event at Don Bosco Prep was the right-hander from Dumont High School’s first taste of exposure and he capitalized. He pitches with some rawness to his delivery but with solid natural actions. He shows a clean, smooth arm action with obvious hand speed. He throws from a ¾ arm slot and generates some run and sink on his 82-84 mile-per-hour fastball. He struck out the first three hitters he faced on sliders, which possessed hard sweeping action at 71-73 MPH. Still raw, Raglievich has a high ceiling.

To view the updated and expanded New Jersey2017 class rankings, and to view the breakdown by position, follow this link: New Jersey 2017 Rankings.