Prep Baseball Report

Year Review: Rotational Acceleration


Brett Thorney
State Scouting Director

YEAR REVIEW: BAT SPEED

It was indeed a strange year in 2020, the spring HS season shut down early and players across the state found themselves trying to get games in wherever they could. The state of Arizona was luckier than some states out there and was able to show some consistency throughout the summer and fall seasons. From a scouting perspective, the players that got to work during some extra time off really stood out towards the end of the summer and during fall competition. Some players were able to make some big physical transformations during that time while some prospects were able to make some big improvements to their swings or mechanics. PBR Arizona was able to get out to see some of these improvements, having spent hundreds of hours at the baseball field while holding plenty of their own events throughout the year. 

The biggest question mark in 2020 was what was going to happen to college recruiting. Scouts all over the country have had to get clever with their approach but there has been plenty of recruiting still going on. At this time last year, there were about 3 commits in the 2022 grad class committed to DI programs. This year, there are already 16 prospects committed in the 2023 class. College coaches are finding a way to get it done and Prep Baseball Report has been there to help provide resources to those scouts to aid in the process. We are looking forward to continue covering prospects in the future.

In 2020, another key tool Prep Baseball Report started to implement at its events was the use of Blast Motion sensors. During batting practice, Blast Motion helped our staff capture important Swing and Impact Metrics across several categories. Swing metrics measure pre-impact mechanics centered around plane, connection, and rotation while Impact metrics measure pre-impact performance outcomes based on ball contact.

We continue to wrap up 2020, we will be looking at some of the top Blast data metrics collected from the past year. Today, we will be taking a look at the top Rotational Acceleration averages:

RANK   NAME STATE SCHOOL CLASS POS ROT. ACC (AVG)
1 Austin Mittelstedt AZ Horizon 2023 RHP 28.38 g
2 Austin Mittelstedt
AZ Horizon 2023 RHP 27.70 g
3 Andrew Vasquez AZ Hamilton 2021 OF 27.50 g
4 Alec Bressler CA Beaumont 2021 OF 27.50 g
5 Jackson Geck AZ Scottsdale Christian 2022 OF 25.20 g
6 Tate Roderick AZ Cactus Shadows 2021 OF 24.06 g
7 Landon Penney AZ Brophy College Prep 2023 LHP 23.66 g
8 Lucas Cardy AZ Canyon Del Oro 2022 RHP 23.40 g
9 Jacob Cano AZ Shadow Ridge 2023 OF 23.15 g
10 Xavier Delgado AZ Pinnacle 2022 SS 22.50 g
11 Jack Rogers AZ Salpointe Catholic 2021 1B 22.16 g
12 Victor Londono AZ Salpointe Catholic 2022 C 22.09 g
13 Garrett Sloan AZ Estrella Foothills 2022 3B 21.97 g
14 Lucas Brutsche AZ Basha 2023 RHP 21.89 g
15 Bryce Stanton AZ Shadow Ridge 2023 SS 21.83 g
16 Ricky Rodenberg CA JSerra 2022 3B 21.82 g
17 Jayden Bracy AZ Canyon Del Oro 2021 1B 21.76 g
18 Jake Kingsbury AZ Brophy College Prep 2021 LHP 21.48 g
19 Braden Lovett AZ Liberty 2021 SS 21.29 g
20 Julian Alemany AZ Brophy College Prep 2021 3B 21.14 g
21 Pablo Araujo AZ Nogales 2022 OF 21.13 g
22 Austin Schulz AZ Queen Creek 2022 SS 21.10 g
23 Rodolfo (RJ) Molina AZ Salpointe Catholic 2021 2B 21.03 g
24 Marshall Mastrantuono AZ Sunnyslope 2022 SS 20.95 g
25 Nico Rijo-Berger AZ Sandra Day O'Connor 2023 3B 20.78 g


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