Closing Out 2014: A Look Back At Our Year's Predictions

December 31, 2014

By Steve Nielsen
Scouting Supervisor – Wisconsin/Illinois

At the beginning of 2014 we came out with five bold predictions for the 2014 calendar year, Ringing In The New Year: A Look Ahead At What May Come In 2014. Follow the link and you can see our predictions from earlier this year and see exactly how we did.

As 2014 comes to a close today we look back at the year that was and a recap of our five bold predictions for the year. Here’s a look at our five predictions and whether or not they came true.

5. More than 15 prospects from Wisconsin’s Class of 2015 will sign Division I NLI’s at the early signing period in November of 2014.

CORRECT: Well this one got blown out of the water. When we made the prediction there were just six verbal Division I commits. At the end of the early signing period we counted 29 Division I commits which almost doubles our prediction of 15. Looking back at the 2014 signing class of 11 Division I commits, 15 would have been good progress in the right direction of bringing more attention to Wisconsin’s high school baseball scene. But 29 is an astounding number and really speaks to the direction of recruiting in Wisconsin, as more and more Division I programs will not be overlooking the Badger State in the future.

4. The Prep Baseball Report Wisconsin will get over 100,000 visits in 2014.

CORRECT: In 2013 the Prep Baseball Report website got just over 80,000 visits from the state of Wisconsin, so a 25% increase to 100,000 visitors would have been a nice upgrade. Not only did we surpass that mark but we doubled it at over 160,000 Wisconsin visitors in the 2014 calendar year. With that we would like to give a big “Thank You!” to you the reader for helping us surpass this number as we continue to strive to bring you the most comprehensive coverage of high school baseball in the state.

3. Jeren Kendall will be drafted within the top five rounds.

INCORRECT: We fell a little short on this one. Although Kendall was taken in the 30^th round by the Boston Red Sox it fell short of our top five prediction. Although Kendall’s profile and tool set were there to be that high of a pick, ultimately his commitment to Vanderbilt was too strong to buy him out. Kendall is sure to make his mark on the Commodores over the next three-plus years and we’ll visit this again when he’s draft eligible in 2017.

2. Two of 2013’s State Champions will repeat in 2014.

INCORRECT: We were close again on this one. Sun Prairie was the only 2013 champion to repeat in 2014, in fact for Coach Rob Hamilton and the Cardinals it was a three-peat. Oconto made it close and would have been the second team to repeat as they reached the title game for the second year in a row, this time falling short to Wisconsin Heights 6-0.

1. By the end of 2014 the Class of 2016 will have more Division I commitments than the Class of 2014 did.

INCORRECT: Well we started off hot, but again fell short of this one. The mark we were shooting for was 11, which was the number of Division I commits from the 2014 class at the early signing period of 2013. The 2016 class finished the calendar year with nine Division I commits, falling two short of our prediction. We still feel that the 2016 class will be an extremely strong class, to put it in perspective the 2015 class had six verbal commitments at this time last year. With the 2016 class already three ahead of that there’s a good chance they could surpass the 29 commits the 2015 class had at the early signing period.

So we finished two-for-five which would be a failing grade, but in the baseball world hitting .400 would be a shoe in to the Hall of Fame. Happy New Year!