Jake
Karst

2016 All-AVCTL-I - 1st Team
2015 All-AVCTL-I - Honorable Mention

2/16/15 - Karst is a strong-framed 6-foot, 185-pound catcher that attends Maize HS in Central Kansas. Class of 2016. Right-hand hitter, balanced set-up at the plate, rolls weight back, minimal hand load. Short, quiet stride. Short, level path out front, bat speed. Maintains balance throughout, finishes with extension through the ball. Simple. Hard gap-to-gap line drives in batting practice round. Recorded a 93 mph exit velocity, ran a 4.39 home-to-first. Quick, athletic footwork behind the plate, clean exchanges, top pop time of 1.82. Throwing velocity high of 79 mph, best mark among catchers, accurate throws. Talented class of 2016 catching prospect that made a statement at this event with his across the board improvement and will move up the state player rankings in the next update accordingly.

6/18/14 - Karst is an athletic 6-foot, 175-pound right-hand hitting catcher.  Throwing to second base during defensive evaluations he showed quick feet, clean exchanges and an accurate arm with pop times to second base clocked from 1.96 to 2.07.  His throwing velocity high was 76 mph – the top mark of all catchers at the event.  During hitting evaluations he showed a tall, athletic set-up and inline stance.  He hits with no stride, minimal hand load and showed good balance.  He has a repeatable swing with little wasted movement and a gap-to-gap approach.  His exit velocity high was clocked at 84 mph.  His home-to-1B time from the right side was 4.59.  In the games he singled once in five at bats.  Karst is a solid catching prospect with experience catching upper level high school pitching this past spring for traditional powerhouse Maize HS – a team that finished runner-up at the 6A state tournament.  He will be ranked in the 2016 class when we expand and update this group later this summer.