Prep Baseball Report

Wisconsin 2018 Rankings Updated: Final Edition


Steve Nielsen
Scouting Supervisor - Wisconsin/Illinois

The 2018 WIAA spring season is in the books and with the year coming to an end we put our finishing touches on the Class of 2018 Rankings with our final update for the senior class.

CLICK HERE for complete Wisconsin Class of 2018 Rankings.

OF Jarred Kelenic (Waukesha, WI) finishes his high school career holding on to the top billing for a wire to wire lock on the top spot in the state. The Class of 2018 Rankings were launched in late April of 2015 with Kelenic headlining our initial top 20.Three years later, Kelenic has cemented himself atop the state of Wisconsin in more ways than one. Kelenic made history this June in the MLB Draft as the highest selected prep star out of the state of Wisconsin, Kelenic was selected No. 6 overall by the New York Mets.

Kelenic’s accolades over his high school career, not only span the state, or even the country, but the globe, as a two-time USA Baseball gold medalist, and the MVP of the Pan Am Games as one of the youngest members of the 18u team. In fact you may find more Kelenic hardware outside the Badger State than within its boundaries, considering Kelenic has never played a WIAA sanctioned game. Waukesha West HS has played summer baseball the last four years, and Kelenic took his talents to a national level from year one with the Hitters Baseball club team, USA Baseball, and several other national circuit events. His dominance as the top prospects in Wisconsin’s 2018 rankings goes without question, recently signing his professional contract, we will now see how long it will take him to be one of the top prospects in all of professional baseball.

RANK   NAME STATE SCHOOL CLASS POS COMMITMENT
1 Jarred Kelenic WI Waukesha West 2018 OF Louisville
2 Jacob Campbell WI Janesville Craig 2018 C Illinois
3 Alex Binelas WI Oak Creek 2018 3B Louisville
4 Max Alba WI Franklin 2018 RHP North Carolina
5 Jeff Holtz WI Arrowhead 2018 C Indiana
6 Tanner Kohlhepp WI Eau Claire Memorial 2018 SS Tennessee
7 Gunner Peterson WI Wilmot 2018 OF Illinois State
8 Dillon Nowicki WI Stoughton 2018 RHP Michigan
9 Randon Dauman WI Columbus 2018 RHP Ohio
10 Alan Roden WI Middleton 2018 C Creighton

 

Moving on through our final top ten, there’s an impressive list of names, that I would feel very comfortable calling serious draft prospects after three years in the college ranks. At No.’s 2, 3 and 4 respectively, C Jacob Campbell (Janesville Craig), 3B/1B Alex Binelas (Oak Creek), and RHP Max Alba (Franklin) were all selected in the late rounds of this year’s MLB Draft, but keep an eye out for them to be much higher selections in 2021.

At No. 5 C/1B Jeff Holtz (Arrowhead) put n a fantastic farewell tour in his senior season, In the running for PBR Player of the Year, Holtz led Arrowhead to a second place finish out of the four-hole, hitting .481 on the year with 10 home runs, 39 RBI and 24 runs scored. The Indiana recruit put his final stamp on the argument of the top right-handed bat in the class, Holtz will be taking his talents to Bloomington, IN where his bat will have a legitimate shot of impacting the Hoosier lineup as a freshman.

 

Jeff Holtz 2.4.18

Our final rankings list expands to 150 with more than 50 names added to the list and for now our PBR Wisconsin staff waives goodbye to this laundry list of talent, handing it over to our collegiate staff headed by David Seiffert (@DSeifertD1PBR), where many of these names will resurrect themselves in PBR headlines come the 2021 draft year.

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