Prep Baseball Report

Chicagoland Open: Statistical Analysis


By Andy Sroka
Staff Writer, Associate Scout

On Sunday, Aug. 25, the PBR Illinois team visited Triton College in River Grove, Ill., to host its annual Chicagoland Open showcase – a late summer event that perennially produces high-level prospects to continue to follow.

This weekend helped shine a light on an emerging number of players and we published a huge set of names in yesterday’s Quick Hits post. Today is for a deep dive into all of the measured data we took in River Grove, and we’ll be detailing the day’s top statistical performances in the tables below.

Keep an eye out in the next few weeks when videos from the events are live, and in roughly a month’s time, we’ll have scouting reports posted on each of the prospects who made it out to this showcase.

TOP FASTBALL VELOCITY

Two prospects were able to touch 85 mph with their fastballs on Sunday: RHP D.J. Morand (Loyola Academy, 2021) and RHP Ryan Smith (Nazareth Academy). Morand’s fastball was among the day’s best, regardless of velocity, and he backed it up with a couple different offspeed pitches which give him one of the highest ceilings of the arms in attendance. Smith brought with him some premium arm strength, which worked from the rubber and in the infield.

TOP 60-YARD DASH

Cody Hultink (Pennfield, MI, 2021) was one of the stand-outs coming out of this event. The prospect from Michigan starred all day at Triton after starting the day with an event-best 6.85 mark. A pair of other 2021s, Nicholas Mulvihill (Hinsdale Central) and Gavin Arseneau (Oswego) also ran sub-7.20 times, at 7.15 and 7.19, respectively. Both stood out elsewhere on the diamond, too.

TOP EXIT VELOCITY

Hultink, again, made his presence felt loudly at the exit velocity station, where he topped the leaderboard with an 100 mph mark. The speed/power combo in conjunction with his natural twitch make him a high-follow in Michigan’s ‘21 class moving forward. Jake Staub (Plainfield South) also topped 93 mph from the tee, a hefty high, while Ricky Pospisil (Lockport, 2021) trailed just behind by a tick. Nazareth’s Smith is also on the leaderboard here, topping 89 mph, tied for fourth with Brett Macak (Monticello, 2020).

TOP INFIELD VELOCITY

And here’s Smith’s name again, sitting atop the infield velocity leaderboard. We mentioned before how his arm strength worked well on the mound, and his 89 mph mark from across the infield was the best of the day by seven ticks. Jacob Griffin (Riverdale, 2021) topped 82 mph, good enough for second, while Hultink’s 81 mph put him near the top of another one of the day’s leaderboards.

TOP OUTFIELD VELOCITY

Pospisil topped the charts with an 81 mph high from the outfield and Aidan Williams (Marmion, 2020) just trailed him at 80 mph himself.

TOP CATCHER VELOCITY

Michael Rastarelli (Mundelein, 2021) was one of the big winners on the day and his work behind the plate during catcher evaluations set him apart from his peers. He recorded the top velocity of the day from the dish, at 78 mph.

TOP POP TIMES

It was Rastarelli again lighting the way in this area, recording both the average- and single-lowest pop at Triton. It was a strong group overall and Jacob Bialecki (St. Francis de Sales, OH, 2020) and Jared Griffin (Riverdale, 2020) both tied for next best on this board.

CLICK HERE for a look at all of the stats from the event.

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