2/9/2016 5:26:04 PM
With the 2016 just on the horizon and teams throughout the country are making some final adjustments in anticipation of opening weekends, recruiting coordinators are staying busy and looking to fill voids in future opening day lineups. Monday night was a rather busy one in terms of commitments, particularly from the SEC as Tennessee, Auburn, and Vanderbilt all added a quality piece.
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We’ll begin with Auburn as the Tigers made the longest trek for their latest in Ontario-native and ultra-projectable righthander Jordan Balazovic. Coincidentally, should he make it to campus he’ll be the first of the three Monday night commits to suit up in college as he’s a late 2016 commit, but undoubtedly a quality sign. Young players from Canada don’t typically commit as early as their counterparts from the States as we see with Balazovic, though there have been a couple of 2017s from Canada who’ve been committed for almost a year ago now.
The first time I personally saw the 6-foot-4 Balazovic take the bump was at the Perfect Game Sunshine East Showcase from which he earned an invite to the National Showcase a couple weeks later in front of hundreds of scouts. Balazovic, ranked No. 401 nationally in the 2016 class, came out and touched 90 mph in both events, quite the uptick from what we had seen the prior October in Jupiter where the then 6-foot-2, 160-pound righthander sat 81-84 mph with his heater. His slider is another pitch that’s progressed nicely with tight rotation and late tilting life when he stays on top of the ball. He’ll show batters a third pitch with his changeup, a 79-81 mph offering with which he shows similar arm speed and slot with late fading life and deception out of the hand.
With added physicality to his frame there’s reason to believe more velocity is in store for the newest Tiger, especially given his 7 mph jump in exactly a calendar year. Overall, Balazovic is the 12th commit in Auburn’s 2016 class and the fifth righthanded pitcher, a position led by No. 15 overall Alex Speas.
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The 2017 class is still relatively small for Coach Dave Serrano’s club as their most recent, righthander Sean Hunley, is the fifth of the class and the second righty arm. The third Tennessee commit to come from the Volunteer State in the class, Hunley is a broad and strongly built 6-foot-4, 225-pound who works comfortably in the upper-80s and is capable of bumping 90 mph though there’s reason to believe there’s still more in the tank. On top of showing the velocity, Hunley shows comfort and feel for spinning the ball in the mid-to-upper-70s, a factor that is usually a determinant of more velocity en route.
What else is impressive of Hunley’s commitment is that he marks the third underclass arm from Mount Joliet (TN) to commit to an SEC school this offseason. Joining Hunley from the 2017 class is hard throwing righthander Aaron Brown who gave his verbal to Mississippi State while 2018 righty Ethan Smith will stay in-state and bring his advanced pitchability to Vanderbilt. Quite the three-man staff for a high school program, huh?
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Speaking of Vanderbilt, they were active again last night and continued with the trend that’s occurring in their 2018 class of grabbing quality, high end arms. The latest Commodore recruit hails from Ohio in strongly built 6-foot, 210-pound righthander Nicholas Northcut. The arm strength has always been prevalent for Northcut as I first saw him in 2014 as a rising freshman where he his 85 mph and since that viewing everything has taken multiple steps forward.
Up to 91 mph this past summer, Northcut comes at hitters in full attack mode working out of the bullpen this summer for the Houston Banditos though my most recent viewing occurred in October where he was in a starting role with the Midland Redskins. While he didn’t show the 91 he had in the past, he did steadily live in the 86-89 mph range from a short and quick arm action producing downhill plane to the bottom of the zone. Aside from the velocity increase from when I first saw the Ohio native, his slider has taken a gigantic step forward as well jumping from a low-70s offering to a low-80s offering with short and tight tilting life that can be used to induce swings-and-misses.
The statistics for the top ranked 2018 class continue to grow as 11 of the 14 future Commodores are currently ranked within the top 100 prospects nationally.