By Nathan Rode
National Supervisor

School is back in session, temperatures are dropping and playoff races are heating up. Despite what the calendar says, summer is essentially over. It was another busy one in the amateur baseball world, filled with big events and highlights from the country’s top prospects. Summer started for me at the conclusion of the 2016 Major League Baseball Draft. After that, I started to look ahead at the Class of 2017 and beyond. The biggest events on my schedule were the Under Armour Classic, Tournament of Stars, Metropolitan Baseball Classic, Under Armour All-America Game, East Coast Professional Showcase, Prep Baseball Report Future Games and Area Code Games.

To wrap up our summer coverage, I’m sifting through all my notes and highlighting some of the standouts. We started with the top two-way players last week and continued with hitters. We’re now onto pitchers and will follow with underclassmen and more.

Below are reports on 10 pitchers that stood out this summer and should factor prominently in the PBR Draft 100.

Any stats referenced in the reports are ones that were recorded myself or come from trustworthy sources and don’t include days I was not physically present. Specifically, the schedule didn’t allow for me to see the entirety of East Coast Pro and the Area Code Games.

Shane Baz, RHP, Concordia Lutheran HS, TX
At 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, Baz has a long, lean and projectable frame. He has a shorter arm action and comes through a 3/4 slot with regular effort. His fastball sits 91-94 mph with arm-side run. For his best secondary pitch, he goes between a slider and cutter. The cutter has short break and can sit in the mid to high 80s while his slider is sharp with bigger break and is 77-80. Later in the summer, he showed a mid-80s changeup with fade. He does struggle to throw strikes and walked nine in 7.1 innings between TOS and the Area Code Games. A Texas Christian recruit, he can also handle the bat and has some power from the right side.