Wisconsin 2020 Rankings: Risers

Yesterday we refreshed the 2020 Rankings in Wisconsin, leading up to today’s launch of the 2020 Overall Rankings comprised of players from all 36 PBR-represented states.

Today, we’ll dissect the list’s biggest risers in the top 50, after we covered the 2020 class’ risers within the top 10 yesterday. We broke down the preseason performances from SS Michael Seegers (Home School) and 3B Max Wagner (Green Bay Preble), namely, but we’ll move on outside the top 10 in our notes below.

Next on the list of notable risers is SS/RHP Eric Erato (Sussex Hamilton). Erato is a 5-foot-11, 170-pound left-handed hitting two-way player, who made visible gains in his physicality. He put that newfound strength to good use. He’s always had easy actions in his two-way game, but those easy actions are producing harder contact now, with more carry, added speed, and a livelier fastball. Erato saw his biggest gain on the mound where he’s now up to 87 mph, but we still feel his highest ceiling may belong to his bat and position player profile. He has loose hands that create easy bat speed that continues to make harder and harder contact every time we see him.

Eric Erato (2.25.18)

SS TJ Manteufel (Union Grove) jumped almost 10 spots in the latest update. He’s turned himself into a plus runner (6.68) and significantly improved his defensive actions in turn. He’s always been advanced with the bat and looks as though the rest of his game is catching up.

Taiten Manriquez (Waunakee) carries a similar profile to Erato’s, minus the left-handed bat, and he showed similar gains this winter as well. His fastball improved to 87 mph, just like Erato, and Manriquez shows even better upside in the middle of the diamond, both with his glove and bat.

LHP Kaden Krueger (Appleton West) cracked the top 20 as the sophomore southpaw made big improvements to his body, growing two inches and putting on 20 pounds in the last year. Fresh off of basketball season, Krueger ran his fastball up to 84 mph, and there’s clearly more in the tank. It works short and quick, and as the season progresses, he should add more polish to his offspeed.

Kayden Krueger (2.17.18)

SS Zach Storbakken (Sussex Hamilton) and OF Gunnar Doyle (Oak Creek) round out the new top 20 moving up a handful of spots since last update. Storbakken shows he can stay on the left side of the infield and has gotten bigger and stronger while Doyle answered any positional questions there may be on him, running a 6.90 and looking longer and leaner roaming the outfield, while still swinging a high-end left-handed bat.

Tomorrow we’ll examine those who made their debuts on the list altogether. And keep an eye out for a closer look at Wisconsin’s representatives on PBR’s Updated 2020 Overall Rankings.

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