On Sunday, March 10th, the Prep Baseball Nevada staff hosted it's first Rising Stars ID of the season with the Las Vegas Rising Stars ID at Desert Oasis in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event featured roughly 28 players from the Las Vegas area in the 2028 and 2029 classes with all players running through a full workout alongside our tech partners TrackMan, Blast Motion and Swift Performance.

Rising Stars events serve as an introductory showcase for players and also serves as an identifier for Team Nevada in the Jr. Future Games Tournament in late July at Lakepoint Sports (Emerson, GA).

Earlier this week we began our post-event coverage within our Statistical Analysis articles. Now, we will take a further in-depth look at the top pitchers with the help of our tech partnerships, broken down by the categories down below:

For complete event results, click here.
To view upcoming event schedule, click here.

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FASTBALL

MAX VELOCITY (MPH)

Max Fastball Velocity: This metric calculates the speed of the pitch as it’s released from the pitcher’s hand.

SPIN RATE (AVG)

Spin Rate: This metric calculates the rate of spin on the baseball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand, measured in revolutions per minute (rpm). Historical data shows that high-spin fastballs lessen the impact of gravity, allowing for more ‘rise’ (or less fall, in other words) as it carries through the zone. Low-spin fastballs typically indicate the pitch has greater horizontal action, often making it tougher to square up, but generally easier to make contact with, leading to more ground balls, while high-spin fastballs show a correlation with swings and misses.

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

Induced Vertical Break: Used in short form as "IVB," this metric is most important on fastballs for creating rise and on curveballs for creating depth – it can also have some use when measuring sliders and cutters as well. Sliders tend to be closer to zero inches while cutters are generally between 5 and 15 inches. Usually fastballs and curveballs with large IVB have higher spin efficiencies as well. Sliders generally have very little (closer to zero) IVB and very low spin efficiency. You could also categorize IVB into spin rate as this is part of the “useful movement” you’re looking for. IVB is also a huge part of the vertical approach angle.

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

Horizontal Break: Outlined on TrackMan’s own website: “... horizontal movement is measured in inches between where the pitch actually crosses the front of home plate side-wise, and where it would have crossed home plate side-wise if had it traveled in a perfectly straight line from release. A positive number means the break was to the right from the pitcher’s perspective, while a negative number means the break was to the left from the pitcher’s perspective.”

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

CURVEBALL

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE %

SLIDER

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE %

CHANGEUP

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE %

UPCOMING EVENTS

SHOWCASE	STATE	DATE	LOCATION
Reno Rising Stars ID	NV	03/30	Reed High School - Sparks, NV
Idaho Rising Stars ID	NV	05/05	Middleton High School
Las Vegas Top Prospect Games (Invite-Only)	NV	05/21	College of Southern Nevada
Idaho State Games (Invite Only)	NV	06/04	College of Southern Idaho - Twin Falls, ID
Reno Top Prospect Games (Invite-Only)	NV	06/12	University of Nevada - Peccole Park

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