Wisconsin 2017 Rankings: Risers And New Additions

November 18, 2015

By Steve Nielsen
Scouting Supervisor – Wisconsin/Illinois

Yesterday we released Wisconsin’s updated 2017 rankings and today we take a deeper look at some new names and some prospects who are trending upwards.

This update didn’t see a ton of movement but a few guys improved their stock in the last few months. Most notably, C Jack Thelen (West Bend West) climbed into the top 20 after an impressive performance at the Southern Wisconsin Open. Thelen has always been a strong follow in this class with a highly projectable game and is starting to reach those projections.

This update saw 10 new names to the list and here’s a quick look at some of those. LHP John Vanderploeg (Sheboygan Falls) is the highest new addition. We were tipped off to the lanky 6-foot-2, 185-pound southpaw earlier this summer, then tracked him down this fall when we saw him in tournament action with an 82-84 mph fastball.

After Vanderploeg, a couple more southpaws made the cut. LHP Tanner Smith (Kettle Moraine) and LHP Matthew Osterberg (Coleman) both stood out at events earlier this summer.

More recently several standouts from the Southern Wisconsin Open made the rankings including C Rusty Murphy (Cudahy), RHP/INF Brandon Komar (Elkhorn), C Ryan Zizzo (Muskego) and OF Chase Davis (Milton).