Prep Baseball Report

2024 Super 60: Data Dive, Pitchers


By Andy Sroka
Managing Editor, Scouting



On Feb. 4, Prep Baseball Report hosted its 22nd annual Super 60 Pro Showcase at The MAX, in McCook, Ill., on the outskirts of Chicago. Since the event’s inception in 2003, more than 400 players have been selected in the MLB Draft, including nearly 30 first-round picks.

This year’s event made for another exciting first stop on the road to the 2024 MLB Draft, featuring some break-out performances that surely expanded the follow lists belonging to the professional scouts in attendance, as they outline their next six months. The 2023 event featured a handful of all-time performances, and yet, this year’s event managed to rival those same record-breaking showings.

The 2024 Super 60 saw a fastball tie the firmest max velo of all-time – and another that came close – the fastest 60-yard dash in three years, two of the hardest throws by a backstop to second base ever, as well as the highest average exit velocity of all-time.

Today, our next step in the Super 60’s post-event breakdown will come in the form of a statistical analysis. We’re taking a look at all of the measured data collected at the Super 60, assessing the traditional stats and the leaders among them, beginning with the pitchers. We’ll have additional analysis and scouting reports published in the coming days and weeks, so keep an eye out for that content on the site, as well as the state’s individual landing pages.

Here’s a look at the pitching leaderboards from the 2024 Super 60.


FASTBALL

MAX FASTBALL VELOCITY

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

Last year, RHP Blake Wolters (IL; 2023 MLB Draft, Royals, No. 44 overall) set the all-time record with a 97.7 mph max fastball velocity which propelled him way up MLB draft boards, and he was ultimately a second-rounder in the summer’s draft. We’ll see if RHP Chris Levonas (Christian Brothers HS, NJ; Wake Forest commit) follows a similar track after he tied Wolters’ record fastball mark at this year’s Super 60.

What Levonas lacks in physicality, as compared to the 6-foot-4 Wolters, he made up for in pitchability, considering he showcased a real five-pitch mix in his ‘pen, starting with a fastball that did not dip below 94.6 mph.

Meanwhile, RHP Cameron Sullivan’s (Mt. Vernon HS, IN; Notre Dame) fastball was actually a bit more consistently firm, ranging from 95.2 mph to the 96.9 max that is now No. 3 all-time at the Super 60. He’s just one of seven arms to hit the 96-plus mph threshold in the event’s 22-year history, and it was in the zone 87 percent of the time, a rate at which comfortably led this year’s event.

(Cameron Sullivan; 2/4/24)

There’s another noteworthy tie on the all-time leaderboard after this year’s Super 60 too: Brady Kehlenbrink (Parkway South HS, MO; LSU) reached a 95.5 mph max fastball velo, which tied Ohio’s Gavin Bruni (Alliance HS; Ohio State) max by a left-handed pitcher, delivered at the 2021 event. Kehlenbrink and one other southpaw from Sunday’s event each recorded two of the best-ever vertical fastballs ever at a Super 60 event as well.

The powerful 6-foot-5, 230-pound right-hander from Minnesota, Jake Reigert (East Ridge HS; Ole Miss) was the only other pitcher to breach the 95-plus mph mark – though for context, there have been four such pitchers to do so in the previous two Super 60s. Reigert’s fastball was among the heaviest at the event as well, moving over 17 inches to his arm-side on average.

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