Follow @PrepBaseballBC

Interested in attending a PBR British Columbia event? Check out our schedule by clicking here.

IP Showcase: By The Numbers - Part 4

The Inside Performance Showcase took place on February 24 at Inside Performance Facility in North Vancouver. 54 invites were sent out to BC's most talented players from 2020-2023, including multiple D1 committed athletes, and almost a dozen Junior Team Canada Members. All data was recorded by Rapsodo Baseball.

PBR's Young Guns

This article is the fourth and final part of IP Showcase: By the Numbers; profiling hitters from the IP Showcase last February. This article discusses the top 2022/23’s at the event, being judged by projectability based on Rapsodo data, and on the consistency of their swing and adeptness in the box at a young age. There are 5 Future's in this article, Auguste Turner, Carson Latimer, Declan Pender, Sam Shaw, and Wylie Waters. 

Term Glossary:
EV = Exit Velocity; aEV = Average Exit Velocity; AVG = Average; LA = Launch Angle; HHB = Hard-hit ball

Auguste Turner RHP / SS / NA, BC / 2022 AVG LA – 17° HHBLA – 19° AVG EV – 83.2 mph Max EV – 94.2 mph Report: Turner will be a hitter. Plain and simple. He has a smooth and repeatable swing, an easy load with good weight transfer without landing too heavy on his front foot and is very simple. Turner can turn in a tight window, initiates his hips well and doesn’t get cheated. Occasionally, he allows his arms to disconnect to contact, especially when going the other way, which could be resolved with added strength and body control. He used the whole field relatively well, hitting 21/34 gap to gap with good launch from left-center to right-center (LC: 20° @ 86 aEV; CF: 24° @ 85 aEV; RC: 23° @ 89 aEV). At 6’2” 200 lbs with his good LA and playable exit velocities, added strength will turn him into a legitimate power threat.

Carson Latimer RHP / Sands, BC / 2022 AVG LA – 32° HHBLA – 23° AVG EV – 66.4 mph Top EV – 89 mph Report: Latimer is very projectable. He is tall and skinny, has plenty of room to develop into his body and fill out. He has some sneaky pop right now, topping at 89 mph, and possesses a very quick swing. With long limbs, he should develop into a tall body with good levers. He moves decently well in the box, and with strength, he will become more repeatable with his movements. Currently, his swing plane is too steep, which could be a reason for his 30.8% pop up rate on the day. Matching plane earlier and creating a longer path in the zone will help him, as his rotation is tight and quick out of the zone on the other side. Strength and maturity could turn Latimer into a Michael Saunders type with the bat with his body quickness. Latimer will be one to keep tabs on going forward.

Declan Pender C / NA, BC / 2022 AVG LA – 18° HHBLA – 14° AVG EV – 79.1 mph Max EV – 88.1 mph Report: Pender was a keener at the showcase. He chatted with pitchers, was happy to be catching bullpens, and appeared to be very happy to be there. Offensively, he shows flashes of what he could be. When he squares up a ball it is easy to see that there is something there, as 88 mph at his size is a good indication that there are some strength and fast-twitch quickness there. However, he has some inconsistencies with his swing that need to be ironed out. Occasionally, he gets stuck in his backside and ends up trunk rotating with nothing coming from the bottom of his body. He frequently armbars in his load which leads to a disconnect in his swing, causing barrel drag and leading to 10 of his 14 recorded swings being hit to the opposite field. When he is on time and has anticipated correctly the location of the ball, his swing is fluid and he crushes it for his size; when he is forced to adjust, you begin to see where he will need to improve. His EV should not be ignored and should serve as proof that there is a spark here that if fanned properly could develop into a solid young right-handed hitter. As a 2022, he has plenty of time to develop and to fix up some mechanical shortcomings from his swing.

Sam Shaw SS / 2B / Lambrick Park Secondary, BC / 2023 AVG LA – 22° HHBLA – 26° AVG EV – 78.1 mph Max EV – 86.1 mph Report: Shaw had potentially the nicest swing out of all the Future’s and as a 2023 grad, he was the youngest player in the room. There are a lot of things to love about Shaw; he has a good hip hinge and holds it through his forward move until foot strike, his bat path is efficient, smooth and quick, and he blurs the barrel at the top with no hesitation in his swing. He has great posture in his swing and showed repeatability in his movements with 67.6% HHB % with comfort in hitting with an elevated LA, at 50% Bombs on BIP rating, at one point hitting 6 ‘bombs’ (HHB with a 20+ LA) in a row. He was able to consistently spray the gaps, hitting 23 out of 34 recorded swings to the gaps, with consistent launch and velocity to left-center, straight away center field and right-center. A very intriguing Future's prospect and could emerge as the best prospect in BC's next wave.

Wylie Waters SS / NA, BC / 2022 AVG LA – 12° HHBLA – 11° AVG EV – 89 mph Max EV – 95.1 mph Report: Waters is a highly projectable and toolsy hitter. At 6’1” and 160lbs, he is stringy and has plenty of room to fill into his build. He already moves very well and was one of the most intriguing hitters on the day; as a 2022 graduate, he is extremely exciting. He syncs up well in his swing and has a fluid motion in his load that is easily repeatable. He handles high pitches well, as he has good posture approaching the top of the zone. However, he could get behind and under low pitches better. His low LA appears to correlate with the lack of depth in the back of his swing, as his linear move in his stride tends to blend with his swing plane, causing more of a downward angle, and with little shoulder tilt in his posture, he tends to stay on top of low pitches and meets them out front at the beginning of his swing plan plateauing. He lit up the radar gun consistently, hitting at an HHB% of 76.9%, and eclipsing the 90mph mark 7 times out of his recorded 13 swings. Out of those 13 recorded swings, 12 of them were hit up the middle, with 5 of them being classified as either a low line drive or a high line drive. Out of all the Future’s prospects, Waters had the highest Average EV and Max EV, and as he adds strength and weight to his frame, he will transform himself into an absolute with the bat. A must watch for 2022.