Wisconsin Class of 2021 Rankings: Risers
September 4, 2019
Late last week, we updated the state’s class of 2021 rankings for the first time since April and detailed the prospects currently sitting in the top-10. We then expanded on the prospects who were making their rankings debuts in our Newcomers post. Today is reserved for the Risers, the prospects who were previously ranked in April but have only been trending north since.
The summer between these prospects’ sophomore and junior school years is an important one for many reasons, but considering there are a handful of invite-only, premium showcase events that lead up to the incoming junior-centric PBR Future Games, it’s arguably the most important for us and our team of evaluators.
Below, we have notes on all the prospects making gains on the ‘21 board, headlined by a couple familiar faces we’ve discussed in previous posts.
RISERS
A pair of top-10 prospects headline this lists of Risers: OF Q Phillips (Brookfield East; Michigan commit) and SS/3B Ryan Taylor (Verona; uncommitted). Phillips was previously ranked No. 8 in the state, but after a stellar summer in which the tools started to gel together into one premium athlete, Phillips climbed four huge spots up the board to No. 4 overall. Taylor assumes the vacant No. 8 spot on the rankings, making the most substantial climb in the class, 27 tremendous spots. His strong summer with STiKS Academy, playing shortstop for with the 17U team, earned him an invite to LakePoint where he was arguably the most interesting next-level prospect on Team Wisconsin.
Fellow uncommitted Future Gamers OF/RHP Liam Stumpf (Mineral Point), LHP Jared Lessman (St. Croix Falls), and C/OF Josh Caron (Sun Prairie) all saw slight bumps to their prospect stock – Stumpf the most notably. Again, we elaborated on his work this summer in our top-10 story, since he’s the new No. 10 in the state, but his all-around athleticism and sneaky pop has him on plenty of radars. Lessman saw a huge uptick in velocity this summer when we got our latest look of him at All-State Games, where he touched 87 mph with relative ease. Caron was a big winner in Georgia for Team Wisconsin, quick and clean from behind the plate with some right-handed pop in BP.
Jared Lessman (7/31/19)
LHP Blake Read (Muskego; uncommitted) was also a member of Team Wisconsin, and his work down at LakePoint helped boost his ranking to No. 20 in the state. He put together a couple of sharp outings in front of a big crowd, and his rise is reflected on the rankings.
Lastly, there are two other Risers from Team Wisconsin to discuss: C Kaden Kosobucki (West De Pere) and OF Luke Nowak (Menomonee Falls), both uncommitted. Kosobucki looked back to full strength after a wrist injury hampered both he and the Phantoms in the state playoffs. He’s a compact and reliable backstop with a quick, short right-handed stroke geared for low-lying line-drive contact. As for Nowak, he’s one of the biggest Risers on the board. He jumps 14 spots to No. 31 in the state. He’s a lean athlete with live tools and a smooth left-handed swing with an innate feel for the barrel. Nowak’s also a sub-6.90 runner and he uses it well on the outfield grass and fits the center field mold at the next level.
Luke Nowak (7/31/19)
Breaking away from Future Games talk, Madison Memorial’s 3B Kyle Yu (uncommitted) had a stand-out summer for his club team, STiKS Academy, in front of our staff. He was a Newcomer on the ‘21 board back in April and he’s only enhanced his stock since. He’s an athletic and projectable 6-foot-2 with a steady glove at the corner and a loose right-handed bat that was constantly on the barrel. Yu is now the No. 34-ranked prospect in the state’s junior class.
Last but far from least, our next Riser is someone we just saw at our most recent event, the Eastern Wisconsin Open, in Sheboygan: RHP Aaron Rice (Brillion; uncommitted). He’s 6-foot-2, 173 pounds, and sat in the 83-84 mph range there with a quick arm and offspeed feel. He’s up 11 spots to No. 43 in the state.