3/20/2016 6:12:42 PM
There doesn’t appear to be anything that can stand in the way of the Vanderbilt Commodores landing their intended targets and last week the coaching staff added two more impressive arms. The last time the Commodores committed and brought a junior college (JUCO) player to Nashville you’d have to go back to 2012 when righthander Drew Verhagen stepped foot on campus. Coach Tim Corbin and staff are hoping that righthander Justin Wilson of Volunteer State (Tenn.) follows the same path as Verhagen as the future appears bright for the fresh armed, two-way Wilson.
A member of the 2016 recruiting class that’s currently ranked No. 1 in the nation by Perfect Game, Wilson recently took the mound at the PG Spring Swing and it was there that we got our most recent look at the power armed righthander. A primary catcher out of high school who did get up to 93 mph at the 18U WWBA Memorial Day Classic, Wilson is still relatively new to the mound and with his fresh arm and clean arm action there’s reason to believe there’s more velocity and high upside potential with continued repetitions.
Listed at a lean and projectable 6-foot-2, Wilson has done a good bit of catching for the Pioneers this spring and in each of his two outing at Lake Point he worked out of the bullpen for an inning after catching the previous eight. He consistently worked in the low-90s with his heater, touching as high as 94 mph, with a fast arm through the back working to an over the top slot with quality downhill plane and angle to the plate. Whether he makes it to campus remains to be seen as he could continue to entice scouts the more he takes the mound with his type of velocity, relative freshness, and the limited innings he has under his belt.
For almost two years now there was a feeling that the 2018 class coming out of Georgia could be a special one as it was full of high end projection guys, all of whom have continued to make strides moving forward. Take quick peak at the Perfect Game 2018 rankings now and you’ll notice 13 of the top 100 prospects come from the state of Georgia. And of those 13, nine already committed, four of whom are committed to the Vanderbilt Commodores.
The latest Peach State product to call Nashville his future home is righthander Makenzie Stills of Fayetteville, Georgia, the No. 23 ranked prospect nationally, and he joins Ethan Hankins (No. 4), Will Banfield (No. 14), and Jared Hart (No. 25) to for quite the quartet of young prospects.
Though he’s not the biggest of arms in terms of stature, listed at 5-foot-11, 175-pounds, Stills shows some of the biggest stuff in his graduating class as he was recently up to 94 mph and routinely works in the low-90s. Despite his height Stills does an excellent job of creating plane to the plate to go with the late running life, all of which is made possible in part to his lightening quick right arm. His slider has a chance to be a swing-and-miss offering as does his changeup, a pitch he maintains and repeats his arm action on very well to round out a full three pitch arsenal.
We might still be two years away from the 2018 class rankings being finalized but as of now it’s looking like a near impossible feat to knock Vanderbilt from the top as 13 of their 16 commits are within the top 100, good for 204 total points on the recruiting scale.
Ranked just behind Vanderbilt in the No. 4 slot for 2017 class rankings is Coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s Florida Gators, whose most recent commit gives them their 13th commit overall and sixth ranked within the top 100. The class gained another quality piece a couple of weeks back, though it wasn't a new commit as outfielder Christian Robinson jumped from the 2018 class to 2017, expediting his time to get to Gainesville.
The most recent piece to the puzzle is lefthanded hitting catcher Zach Jackson, ranked No. 75 amongst the 2017 class, who attends Haines City Senior High School (Fla.). In a class that already features high end athletic type players who can handle the barrel, Jackson offers a middle of an order type bat and with the added physicality to his 6-foot-3 frame he’s seen the gap-type power translate into over-the-fence strength.
The first time I personally saw Jackson was back in October of 2013 at the Perfect Game Florida Qualifier as a rising freshman who had yet to log a varsity inning. Nonetheless he showed abilities on both sides of the ball and had no troubles handling arms who were three years older and working in the upper-80s with quality breaking stuff. Jackson has done a nice job of refining his skills behind the plate ever since and shows impressive arm strength with plenty of carry on his consistent sub-2 pops.
Jackson is yet another quality get for O’Sullivan whose scouting prowess continues to shine as the spring progresses down in Gainesville with arguably the top two freshman arms in the country and two everyday regulars locked in at the plate.