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West Milwaukee Preseason I.D.: Quick Hits

February 22, 2021
By Wisconsin Staff

On Feb. 21, the PBR Wisconsin team hosted its second event of 2021, the West Milwaukee Preseason I.D., at STiKS Academy in Waukesha, Wis. This was an open event for all high school classes (2021-24), and gave our staff an ample look at the area's top players.

Today, in our first post-event piece from this event, we’ll publish our biggest takeaways and highlights from Sunday’s showcase within this Quick Hits story. Throughout the rest of this week, we’ll be taking diving deeper into all of the data we collected, too, with the help of our Blast Motion and TrackMan devices.

For now, check out our notes and findings from Sunday’s event in Waukesha.

QUICK HITS

CLASS OF 2022

+ From Wauwatosa East, RHP Thomas Harper (2022) burst out of the offseason in his pitching session Sunday. There, the former Team Wisconsin right-hander sat exclusively 88-89 mph, reaching an 89.6 high, per TrackMan. While the added velocity is a prominent takeaway from his performance at the West MKE I.D., Harper’s offspeed he showcased helped round out a viable three-pitch mix that makes it easy to visualize him thriving at the next level. Harper effectively utilizes a changeup that mimics his arm speed and slot well, and his slider features slurve-y action and bite that flashed late, with feel to locate it under the zone. And even still, at a lean 6-foot-4, 194 pounds, Harper offers some added physical projection to monitor prior to his junior spring season, ahead of a key summer for the uncommitted Tosa East righty.

+ Catholic Memorial’s Charlie Jarvis (2022) also represented Team Wisconsin at the recent PBR Future Games last August and is currently a top-20-ranked prospect in the state’s junior class, and among the top uncommitted players in the area. Built at an athletic 6-foot-1, 195 pounds, Jarvis is also a noteworthy football recruit where he stands out in the secondary as a safety. His catch-and-throw skills showcase as his biggest asset, with plus arm strength that plays accurately to the bag. The combination of defensive tools that he exhibits helped him average the event’s lowest pop times. Offensively, Jarvis swings a fast, loose right-handed bat, and his innate strength impact the ball loudly – he recorded a 98.7 mph max exit speed during his round of batting practice, per TrackMan, and nine of his batted balls left the bat at 90-plus mph.

+ C Heath Venne (Muskego, 2022) is a muscle-bound backstop with a wrestler’s physique, listed at 5-foot-11, 195 pounds. His proportional strength does not inhibit his athleticism, as he’s still able to generate explosive actions from the batter’s box to the crouch. Venne started his day by running a 6.84 in the 60-yard dash, underscoring his quickness from behind the plate, where he took improved reps on defense, popping in the low-2.00s consistently. Naturally, his premium physicality allowed him to hit five balls over 96 mph on Sunday – and his best batted ball was measured at a 96.4 mph exit speed, and it travelled 310 feet.

+ North Fond du Lac OF Landon Behringer (2022) is another ranked prospect in the state’s junior class that we saw on Sunday. Behringer has a lean, wiry 5-foot-11, 165-pound frame and he's a natural, quick-twitch athlete, and it shows in both his foot and hand speed, from the outfield to the batter's box. He started his day off by running the 60-yard dash in 6.76 seconds, the fastest of the event. Behringer backed that up by taking one of the day's cleanest rounds of batting practice, working gap-to-gap, driving six balls into the outfield at 90-plus mph – and his best travelled at an estimated 330 feet. Defensively, Behringer showed smooth, sure-handed actions that pair well with his speed up the middle, and his throws home topped at 88 mph.

+ Alec Campbell (Milton, 2022) was another catcher to earn some praise on Sunday. The long-levered 6-foot-2 backstop added some muscle to his stature over the offseason which he directly applied to his offensive profile. His short right-handed stroke produced an average exit speed of 91.1 mph, which was the day’s highest. Campbell favors the left-center gap with controlled, repeatable swings through contact in a balanced finish. His path and approach are simple while staying on top of the baseball with minimal effort, creating top-end exit velocities.

+ LHP Willard Peterson (Evansville, 2022) has a unique profile to his repertoire, cutting and creating angle to everything he throws. He’s a durable 6-foot-3, 240 pounds, and he works from a ¾ slot. His fastball has jumped this winter, and it topped at 87 mph on Sunday, while sitting mostly 84 mph – but the natural cut action he creates while working from a wide angle, while still finding the zone, are the traits that makes Peterson’s fastball stand out. His changeup shows cut action as well, and his curveball flashes well-above-average spin (averaging 2,522 rpm).

+ RHP Kaiden Forsyth (Oconomowoc, 2022) showed well again after catching our eyes a few months ago at the Southern Wisconsin Open. Forsyth sat 83-84 mph, touching 85, with above-average feel for a cut-type fastball. His best secondary is a heavy, sinking changeup that plays firm and below the zone. Forsyth has power-arm characteristics as a 6-foot-1, 240-pound righty with a loose, quick arm and clear, inherent strength.

+ Rounding out the strong catching crop at yesterday’s West Milwaukee Preseason I.D.: Salavatore Zizzo (Muskego, 2022), who is a potential addition to the next rankings update. There’s some raw pop in his right-handed bat and his arm played up with above-average accuracy to the bag for a pop range of 2.04-2.19.

+ The bat strength and blossoming raw power inside the right-handed swing of 3B Fred Pierce Jr. (Brookfield East, 2022) was a bright spot from Sunday’s showcase. Pierce Jr. has taken demonstrable strides to his entire game in between looks, from last summer to now – and most obviously from the batter’s box. The Brookfield East corner infielder is listed at a strong 6-foot-1, 198 pounds, and he utilizes that size and strength well on offense, where his short swing generated easy, hard contact with frequency and a low effort. Pierce Jr. reached a 97.0 mph max exit speed on Sunday, and hit one ball an estimated 345 feet. We’re eager to see Pierce next, considering how far he’s come in such a short period of time.

CLASS OF 2023

+ RHP Jonah Conradt (Hortonville, 2023) is the state’s top-ranked sophomore pitcher, and he attended Sunday’s showcase having recently committed to Arizona. Conradt capped our day off with a repeat performance of what we saw at the end of last fall. At 6-foot-1, 157 pounds, he’s got a ways to go to fill out, but it's those wiry loose levers that create his aptitude for spin and life through the zone. His fastball takes off to his arm side sitting 87-89 mph, touching a high of 90. His curveball remains his best secondary offering, featuring big spin, measured at an average of 2,567 rpm in the 73-76 mph range.

+ RHP/OF Dylan Questad (Waterford Union, 2023) is another one of the state’s top-ranked sophomores, and he’s committed to Notre Dame. Questad put together one of the more polished bullpens we’ve seen out of the right-hander to date. A balanced, repeatable delivery with lower effort from a long, high ¾ arm action. The 6-foot, 190-pound Questad sat comfortably at 88-89 mph, a steady 2-3 mph uptick from last July, and improved feel to work around the zone.

+ RHP Luke Agnew (Marquette University, 2023) has skyrocketed into a group of the state’s best arms in its 2023 class. Sunday marked his PBR event debut, and Agnew made excellent use of it. There, he sat right around the 85 mph range, and reached 87-88 to close his ‘pen out. He attacked the strike zone with all three of his pitches, too, with a fluid, loose, athletic arm action that offers significant upside while attached to his projectable 6-foot-2, 203-pound stature. Agnew’s changeup featured like his best offspeed offering on Sunday, though his curveball projects with its depth as he continues to sharpen its action. Expect Agnew to make a splashy debut within the state’s 2023 rankings inside our next update following the winter.

+ In just three months time, LHP Gavyn Bowen (Pewaukee, 2023) has added approximately 5-6 mph of velocity to his fastball. Bowen opened our eyes at the Southern Wisconsin Open in October, and he made a leap on Sunday while sitting 84-86 mph, touching an 86.8 high from the left side. Bowen’s a thin, wiry 5-foot-11, 165 pounds, and he works from a lower slot that helps him generate substantial arm-side action that breaks late consistently. His changeup features similar arm-side fade and run out of that same ¾ slot. And while he’s still gaining the feel to locate it, Bowen flashed the ability to snap off curveballs with rates over 2,500 rpm, producing swing-and-miss action. His slight stature, quick/loose arm, and live mix make Bowen among the top-ranked left-handed pitchers in the state’s 2023 class.

+ 1B Eli Pantzlaff (Waukesha West, 2023) was responsible for one of the day’s most efficient and revelatory rounds of batting practice. The sophomore is an aggressive right-handed hitter with a willingness to attack the baseball with a purpose. He showed above-average bat speed that jumped the baseball to his pull side and he recorded one of the day’s highest average exit speeds (90.5 mph), regardless of class.

+ Anthony Chung (Homestead, 2023) is a projectable right/right infielder, standing in at 6-foot, 165 pounds with a wiry build. His lanky frame stays quiet in the box and worked a repeatable middle-of-the-field stroke. Defensively, Chung showed above-average actions that play through the baseball with an athletic arm that can play on the move.

+ The lean and lanky RHP Samuel Wronski (Marquette University, 2023) projects to break out at some point this year or early next. He touched an 80 mph high on Sunday, but his 6-foot-2, 165-pound frame and loose arm signal velocity to come in the not-too-distant future. Additionally, Wronski’s fastball metrics were favorable, with above-average spin and carry, and he demonstrated some feel to spin his breaking ball.

CLASS OF 2024

+ In the 2024 class, a few prospects emerged as follows going forward. Left-handed-hitting OF Issei Takahashi (Arrowhead) showed an innate feel for the barrel with excellent hand-eye skills and timing in the box. Cooper Kamlay (Franklin, 2024) is an all-around athletic right/right infielder, and he was up to 81 mph on the mound. Kamlay also showed some upside in the box with flashes of hard line-drive contact, and he also took an efficient round of infield defense after running a 6.91 to open his day. C Ryan Dummer (Burlington, 2024) is a physical 6-foot, 180 pounds, and he uses it to create easy bat speed, resulting in some of the hardest contact among the 2024s in attendance.

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