Utah HS Team Preview: Bingham HS

Utah HS Team Previews - Bingham Miners

Opening Day and the weekend has arrived! The Utah High School Activities Association has announced that opening day of the 2022 season will commence on Monday March 6th. Jeff Scholzen (Utah Scouting Director) begins the 2023 season coverage with our annual preseason team previews, where we will take notes from coaches, and highlight returning players, newcomers, and some sleepers. Over the next couple of weeks and leading up to opening day, we will be highlighting some of the top programs in the state with our team previews.

As our ardent readers are aware, Team Previews are answered by the Head Coaches of those programs and the scouting reports embedded in the PBR player profiles of the top players, are written by state scouting director Jeff Scholzen, the states only full-time MLB Area Scouting supervisor ever. 

With data partners Trackman Baseball, the leaders in measuring the ball flight and its characteristics off the bat for position players and out of the hand for pitchers. No one does it better. Blast Motion captures key swing metrics in evaluating the efficiency of the swing and where a player's swing is good or bad and what needs to be worked on. Swift Performance measures power output as an athlete with the EZ jump mat and collecting not only the 60 yard dash, but the 10 and 30 yard dashes as well. 3M technology measures key pitching mechanics and how the delivery through the body moves in sequence to produce and provide a more effortless and efficient delivery. 

This season as in every past season, stats are collected across the state at the end of that week's play, with input from coaches, assistant coaches and ultimately myself in putting together comprehensive player content on a weekly basis with the following. 

1. Weekly Utah Power 25 Overall Team Rankings (Monday)

2. Player and Pitcher of the Week, along with other notable player performances (Tuesday)

3. Player Spotlights throughout the spring of top players who are making their mark on the HS scene in capturing college recruiting looks. 

4. I will be scouting games throughout the state and posting player videos on Twitter for college marketing purposes on a weekly basis and in some cases where action is flowing and games are staggered, such as the preseason tourneys down south on a daily basis. 

Quick Footnote: Only 7% of all HS baseball players will play college baseball and the elite of that group, which consists of only 2% will play at the D1 level. These are the players I’m watching and gleaning information on. This is determined by objective data from events, as well as the subjective eye evaluations, honed from my 30 years at the college and professional level. 

Bingham by the Numbers

Head Coach: Joe Sato (31st Year)

One of the most decorated HS coaches in the country!

2014 Was inducted into the National High School Baseball Coaches Association HALL OF FAME. 

UHSAA Classification: 6A (Region 3)

State Tournament Appearances in the past 10 years: 2013-2022 (10)

Number of Final 4 State Tournament Appearances in last 10 years: 7

Number of State Title appearances in last 10 years: 3

Number of State Titles in last 10 Years: 2 / 3 over last 12 years

Recent History 

The Bingham “Miners”, aptly named after Bingham Canyon, also known as Kennecott copper mine, which is located near Salt Lake City, UT, and is one of the world’s largest man-made open pit copper mine excavations. Not only is this copper mine visible from anywhere in the Salt Lake valley, but its baseball program is just as much visible to the state of Utah, the region and is always in contention for a top 50 national ranking, year in and year out. 

The Miners have appeared in numerous west coast invitational tournaments over the years, and are a regular at the San Diego Lions Tournament and have played in the USA Baseball NHSI Tournament, consisting of 16 of the top HS programs in the country. The tournament is annually hosted in Cary, NC at the USA Baseball Complex, and is attended by dozens and dozens of MLB scouts, as the field of teams is not only selected because of their winning ways, but the amount of D1/college and potential pro talent these elite programs produce. 

In addition to the Miners winning ways, they are a college producing haven for the state and routinely pump out D1 talent and also produced 2012 18th Rd draft pick, RHP-Brady Lail, who originally had signed with the U of Arizona, before opting to sign with the New York Yankees for a then sizable $250,000 bonus. Lail made his MLB debut on August 12, 2019 for the Yankees

Key Returners with Class/Position

Maddax Peck RHP / Bingham, UT / 2023 Rankings  State Rank: 14 / POS: 6   Committed: Brigham Young U 11/21/21 An athletic two way stud, that could develop either way in CF or on the mound, as he shows a fluid on line bat with hand speed and bat speeds of 20 and 67, though shows big EV’s of 93 and ran a 6.93/60 at the All-State Games. It was a catch in CF during the game that drew raves, as he leaped and crashed into the wall in dead center for a spectacular play. On the mound and with some time off, he reached 86, but has been up to 88 during the summer. The delivery is clean and the HTQ arm stroke is pure. As scouts say, “smooth and easy, gets better faster”. Look for big things to come for the newest entry into the upcoming Top 10 rankings!

Bridger Slade LHP / 1B / Bingham, UT / 2023 Rankings  State Rank: 28 / POS: 3   Committed: Salt Lake CC 2022 PBR West Coast Games One of the most improved players in the state over the course of the last 4-5 months. Slade took off this past summer playing for CBA Summit out of St. George, UT and had a great summer, being invited to the Top Prospect Games, the West Coast Games and finally the All-State Games. Slade is strong and put together and can punish the ball from the left side of the plate for a 17 yr old, with consistent 100+ mph exit velos and he saved his best for the end of fall event on Sunday with an event best 104.4, after an event best 102 at the Top Prospect Games. The hand and bat speed have remained impressive as he gets the knob turned, with a slight barrel wrap. This will need to be fixed, but the bat speed is elite at 86 mph and the hand speed gets the barrel started at 25 mph. What Slade is able to do is really release the bat head out front and accelerate his hands and the barrel to contact, which produced a line shot that left the ballpark at 389’ to RCF and out of the park. It was 3-4 balls that he blistered during the BP portion of the workout. Look for a big season in 2023 out of Bridger! 8/14/22 A physical broad muscled athlete with a two way profile. Tough to say where he fits on one side of the ball yet vs the other. Does show really good hitting metrics with present power and an unorthodox style to hit. The load is a deep hand launch w/the bat laid back and flat in back as he starts his hands and knob to the ball, which creates torque and bat speed, though it could be difficult to catch up to better pitching at the next level, but he does show 100-103 mph exit velos and has hand and bat speed with strength to impact the ball. Plays 1B/OF and looks to be more comfortable as a 1B’man. Fields out front, but can get choppy on his actions and foot work. Does have tools, yet just needs to translate into game performance, #’s wise. On the mound, the delivery is flexible with a high kick up top and stretches out down the rubber to use the slope and pitches downhill with angle. The arm action is short and compact thru a TQ/HTQ slot and has a loose wrist to finish the FB 82-84 and can spot up to both sides. Can have some inconsistent command at times, yet showed really well at the West Coast Games and made quick work of hitters in his 1st inn of work. The CB has the beginnings of some shape, though can spin w/some looseness in spin and back up at times. Needs added depth with getting over and on top of the pitch better, as he tends to get around the pitch and create sideways spin, creating some flat plane. May be a candidate for a SL in his future. The intrigue here is a physical put together build with well defined muscles, and impacts the baseball, while sitting at or near the top in EV at every event, while the LH arm pumped K’s. Is a great teammate and is eager for instruction and wants to get better and learn!

Boston Jacobs C / 1B / Bingham, UT / 2023   Committed: Salt Lake CC

Dallen Martinez, Sr. SS

Key players lost to graduation 

Jon Hatch (Serving a 2 year mission to Taiwan / Signed with Salt Lake CC)

Maxton Peck (Salt Lake CC)

Rylan Marti (USU-Eastern)

Preston Jacobson (Colorado Northwestern CC)

Israel Diaz

Gage Sundloff

Matt English (Colorado Northwestern CC)

Logan Timothy

Luke Leatherwood

Who is your X Factor to your success

Any Junior/Soph pitchers who step up 

Returning players who were named All-Region / All-State 

1st Team All Region >  Boston Jacobs

2nd Team All Region > Maddax Peck

Honorable Mention All-State > Dallen Martinez

Players who are now playing College Baseball from 2022

Maxton Peck (SLCC)

Rylan Marti (Utah State Eastern) 

Matt English and Preston Jacobson (Colorado Northwestern CC)

Jon Hatch (SLCC/LDS Mission)

List players you feel have college baseball potential*

Maddax Peck, Sr. (BYU)

Bridger Slade Sr. (Salt Lake CC)

Boston Jacobs Sr. (Salt Lake CC)

Jake Wallin, Sr.

Andrew Dabo, Jr.

Kam Beck, So

List players in your region you feel have the potential to play professional baseball, either out of HS or College

Check Riverton HS entire roster

Copper Hills > Gage Olson 

Mountain Ridge > Jaxson Reiser

Coaches Summary and Outlook

Lost most of the offensive production from a year ago;  Rough fall offensively so a lot of work to do there.  Boston Jacobs is a quality bat and hoping a couple of talented juniors and sophomores will mature early and help provide some offense.  Similar losses on the pitching staff, but the bright spot is having BYU commit Maddax Peck returning.  Much thinner on the mound than in past years, so with putting it all together, Miners will have to rely on a lot of ghosts from the past to scratch out some wins.

• Joe Sato (Head Coach)

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