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Ventura, Calif. - The Uncommitted Spotlight Series continues as we forge ahead in the 2024-2025 school year and the looming JR. High School baseball season for our '26 class. With than in mind Prep Baseball California is highlighting some of the top uncommitted class of '26 athletes. The player featured today is one of the top players in the state of California and figures prominently in our Class of 2026 Rankings. All players featured within our Uncommitted Spotlight series are ones that college coaches and fans should be keeping their eyes on over the coming months.

We invite you to get to know them through the eyes of our Prep Baseball California staff of scouts both through our in person looks at players and/or the data-backed numbers collected at our events with our partnered companies. TrackMan, Blast Motion, and Swift Performance provide comparable data to project and evaluate players. All of these systems come together to give a clear picture at what colleges will get when a players steps onto their campus.

Today, we put the spotlight on the number 106 ranked player in the 2026 class in NorCal '26 INF/RHP Julian Oliver from Novato High School. Oliver cuts an athletic present frame at 6' 175 lbs. which has some present strength but show room to add throughout as he matures. Oliver cemented his spot on the Prep Baseball radar with an outstanding 2-way performance at the CA State Games which backed up a strong summer on the travel circuit as a member of the NorCal U travel program and at Novato High in the spring.

Oliver attacked hitters with feel for an emerging 3-pitch arsenal that shows a present quality foundation with room to continue adding life/power to his arsenal as he matures. With a smooth lower effort operation that moves down the mound with easy athleticism and quickness to his arm speed which as he continues to add more arm speed will come with additional velocity. Oliver effectively maintains his direction in the delivery with good use of his lower half and the ability to block his lead leg. During his outing at CA State Games he worked off a FB that sat at 82-85 that he shows present feel to spin with peak spin rates above 2500 RPMs at its peak with 2300 RPM range average. As well, there is ability to ride the FB above barrels, 25.3" of IVB at peak while averaging 22" of IVB. As good as the quality of his present FB shows Oliver has feel for a both a solid SLD that works at 77-79 consistently. The shape of his SLD is more of a sharp tight offering with 3.6" of horizontal movement on average with a peak of 6.3". Oliver throws his CHG at 77-78 which he can throw for strikes, but will need to polish his feel for killing spin on the pitch to get a better movement profile. There is still some polish needed to his arsenal and ability to miss bats, but he shows an intriguing ceiling on the mound

As good as Oliver's profile is on the mound what he did as a position player might be even more interesting for college programs. With a left side of the INF defensive profile he shows the athleticism (6.94 60 - 20 MPH max run speed), footwork, hands and accuracy to his arm to potentially stick at SS, but will need to polish his consistency and arm strength, but profiles to slide to 3B or even 2B and be a solid to impactful defender at either spot. The RH hitting Oliver takes an aggressive, but balanced swing with feel for the barrel that shows well both on Blast Motion and Trackman with the data he generates. His swing shows present bat speed (76.8 MPH) quickness to the hands (22 MPH) while generating torque in the turn (15.1 G's of rotational acceleration). With the present quality foundation of his swing and emerging approach/timing Oliver collected multiple hits in the game play portion of the CA State Games while also taking an impressive batting practice. Oliver reached a peak of 97.1 MPH on exit velocity while averaging 94.5 MPH with 86% hard hit rate.

Oliver is preparing for his JR. campaign at a strong NorCal based Novato program where he will look to build on a Soph. campaign which saw him get significant playing time to show flashes of success and his potential. Oliver homered twice as a Soph. while walking as many times as he struck out showing his power potential. As well, he punched out 1 batter per inning pitched as a Soph. (18 IP / 18 Ks) on the mound. He will look to again figure in a prominent place for Novato as they look to put together a strong 2025 CIF High School season next spring. With his arrow pointed up Oliver is a name that should have eyes firmly fixed on him as a talented uncommitted '26.

College coaches and fans be sure to click on Oliver's profile to see full video and information.

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