THE WORLD'S LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE SCOUTING ORGANIZATION
| 2,384 MLB PLAYERS | 15,801 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
2,384 MLB PLAYERS | 15,801 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
Create Account
Sign in Create Account
College  | Story | 12/28/2018

Year in Review: College

Photo: Adley Rutschman, Kevin Abel (Oregon State Athletics)

Year in Review: PG Events High School MLB Draft
Final 2018 College Top 25 | Top 100 College Prospects

College baseball continued its recent momentum with an outstanding 2018. Here are the stories things that caught our attention the most over the last 12 months.


From college to the show

Derek Johnson’s meteoric rise from Vanderbilt pitching coach to Cubs’ minor league pitching coordinator to Brewers’ big league pitching coach symbolized a career path baseball hadn’t seen before. To top that off, the Brewers’ 2018 overachievement on the mound led to Johnson being stolen away by the Reds in the offseason.

That Johnson seems to have blazed a new trail as this winter, the Minnesota Twins hired Arkansas’ Wes Johnson (no relation) to be their big league pitching coach. This Johnson is known for his modern and data-centric approach to pitching. His track record at both Dallas Baptist and Arkansas was exemplary. There is no denying that this hire represents a show of great respect for the level of instruction taking place in college baseball.


No contact equals no-nos

As a lack of contact permeates baseball at all levels, one of the net results in college baseball was a record-shattering 23 no-hitters thrown in 2018. The previous season record was 19 which was done in 1973. That was also the final season in which wood bats were used in college baseball.


The MLB Draft

This year’s high school class was loaded with high-upside talent. Yet when push came to shove in the MLB First-Year Player Draft, the first five players selected were college players. Casey Mize (Auburn), Joey Bart (Georgia Tech), Alec Bohm (Wichita State), Nick Madrigal (Oregon State) and Jonathan India (Florida) were all players who improved their draft stock significantly through their college experience.


First round Heisman surprise

Kyler Murray was the surprise of this year’s first round, going ninth overall to the Oakland Athletics. The surprise was not related to Murray’s considerable talent but mostly because of his side gig as the starting quarterback at Oklahoma. Murray and Oakland came to terms that allowed for him to play one more season of college football. Fast-forward six months and Kyler Murray was named the Heisman Trophy winner. The only complication to Murray’s magical year would be the recent rumors that he may end being a first round pick in football also. Stay tuned…


High picks coming to school

High school players taken in the first two rounds always sign; that’s the way it works. In fact, in the previous six drafts (2012-2017) a total of just three high school players taken among the first 41 picks overall had chosen Division I baseball over starting their professional careers immediately. Those players were Matt Krook (Oregon) and Phil Bickford (Cal State Fullerton then College of Southern Nevada) in 2012 and Nick Lodolo (TCU) in 2016.

Well, the 2018 draft was extremely unusual in that we had three more players make that choice. Matt McLain (UCLA) was taken 25th overall by the Dbacks, JT Ginn (Mississippi State) was taken 30th overall by the Dodgers and Gunnar Hoglund (Ole Miss) was taken 36th overall by the Pirates. It is certainly exciting for college baseball when players of this caliber make it to campus.


Historic two-year run by the Beavers

The 2016 Oregon State Beavers were narrowly and controversially left out of the NCAA Tournament. While that was a hard pill to swallow, the Beavers proceeded to take their frustrations out on the rest of college baseball over the next two seasons.

Pat Casey’s program went a ridiculous 111-18-1 (.854 winning percentage) over those two seasons and the 2017 squad entered the College World Series with an astounding 54-4 record. And this two-year run includes star Nick Madrigal missing 26 games to injury in 2018.

While these two teams had no real weaknesses it was the lineup that was truly historic in nature. It started with the three first round picks: Nick Madrigal (4th overall, White Sox), Trevor Larnach (20th overall, Twins) and Cadyn Grenier (37th overall, Orioles). And if we can assume that Adley Rutschman will end up being a first round pick (he is currently projected to be the first pick overall in 2019), then that will make four first round picks in one college lineup. That is unprecedented.

One could argue that this was the greatest two-year run in the history of modern-day college baseball. 11.7 scholarships, common start date, all-time parity in the sport … none of it seemed to matter. The Beavers’ 2017 unit may have been the better squad but it was the 2018 team that provided the mic drop: a National Championship.


The Super-est round of Supers

2018 marked the 20th year of the Super Regional era for college baseball and it may have been the best Super Regional round ever. Six of the eight “Supers” went the full three games. All four of the Saturday through Monday series extended to the Monday game.

Sunday night in particular made for thrilling television as many viewers switched back and forth between the epic finish to the Fullerton Super Regional (which Washington eventually won) and the 11-inning final game of the Nashville Super Regional. That battle between eventual winner Mississippi State and host Vanderbilt was one of the best Super Regionals of all time as the series included walk-off victories in both Games 1 and 2, and then appropriately went to extra innings in the deciding Game 3.


Loss of a legend

Augie Garrido passed away on March 15, 2018. This was a massive loss for college baseball as Garrido was one of the true legends of the game. Garrido finished his career with 1,975 victories and a miraculous five national titles. Garrido built the iconic Cal State Fullerton program from scratch and then went on to restore Texas to national prominence. With a bigger-than-life personality, Garrido was a coaching genius whose impact on college baseball will be felt for years to come.


Pair of legends ride off into the sunset

Pat Casey won his third national title in 2018 and then announced his retirement later in the summer. One could argue that Casey’s run at Oregon State, with three national championships in the last 13 sesaons, is the most impressive building of a collegiate program in any sport. He created a national power in a northern state with a small population and he did it in a sport that clearly favors schools in warm weather regions. Casey does have an out whereby he could resume his old post following the 2019 season so we will have to wait and see there.

Meanwhile, Mike Martin of Florida State passed Augie Garrido as the all-time winningest coach in Division I college baseball history with win number 1,976 on May 5 of 2018. Martin finished the year with 1,987 victories and announced his intention to retire following the 2019 season. Martin has led the Seminoles to 39 straight NCAA Tournament appearances and Florida State leads the nation with 41 straight Regional appearances. Martin has led his alma mater to the College World Series on 16 different occasions but 2019 will be his last shot at his first national championship.


Miracle on dirt

Mississippi State’s 2018 season was one of the most improbable journeys in the history of college baseball. The Bulldogs’ list of obstacles began in the fall of 2017 when they had no field to practice on as Dudy Noble Field underwent its massive renovation.

Fast-forward to the actual season and things could not have started worse for this team. First, they were routed (outscored 23-6) on opening weekend in a three-game road sweep at the hands of Southern Mississippi. The following Tuesday second-year head coach Andy Cannizaro was asked to step down following the discovery of off-the-field indiscretions.

Veteran college baseball skipper Gary Henderson moved from the pitching coach role to take over as interim head coach and things seemed to be headed in a good direction following a 3-0 showing at the Shriners College Classic in Houston.

And then the SEC happened. Henderson’s team was swept at home by Vanderbilt to begin conference play and that led to a disheartening 2-7 start in the SEC.

Just when you thought the swale of accumulated adversity was too much for these Bulldogs to overcome, and this was a theme that permeated this entire season, this team found a way. In this instance, Mississippi State won a critical home series over then No. 3 ranked archrival Ole Miss. Of course, this was a dramatic finish as well with Luke Alexander’s 11th inning two-run walk-off homer being the difference maker in the Sunday game.

On April 18 this team’s record stood at 19-19 following a mid-week loss to a 13-25 Memphis team. A home series versus eventual national runner-up Arkansas looked like an unlikely place to “get healthy.” So, of course, the Bulldogs swept Arkansas in a very closely played series and kept themselves within striking distance of the postseason.

Fast-forward to the final weekend of the regular season and Hail State held a 28-24 overall record with a pedestrian 12-15 clip in SEC play. An NCAA Tournament appearance looked unlikely but even a berth in the SEC Tournament in Hoover teetered in the balance. This pessimism was born of the fact that the consensus No. 1 ranked Florida Gators were coming to Starkville to finish conference play.

As only this team could do, the Bulldogs swept Florida. Keep in mind that this was a Gator team that hadn’t lost a weekend series the entire season.

The miraculous sweep of Florida propelled Henderson’s team to a Regional berth and the Bulldogs were sent to Tallahassee as the No. 3 seed. It was a nice prize for a team that had battled through so much difficulty. But it appeared to be a short-lived parade as Oklahoma throttled Mississippi State by a score of 20-10 in the Regional opener.

In their elimination game versus host Florida State yet another miracle occurred. In a game that included a two-plus hour rain delay, the Bulldogs were down to their last strike in the ninth inning as they trailed the Seminoles 2-0. Outfielder Elijah MacNamee proceeded to hit a three-run walk-off home run to end Florida State’s season.

MacNamee’s home run seemed to create a momentum that would not be denied as this team won four straight to capture the Tallahassee Regional championship. The Bulldogs then proceeded to win the Nashville Super Regional in an epic series that included walk-off victories in Games 1 and 2 followed by an 11-inning affair for Game 3. So this incredible 2018 Mississippi State baseball team would end their season in the promised land: Omaha, Nebraska.

While this season highlighted an incredibly resilient group of players, we would be remiss to not mention an incredible display of leadership by this coaching staff. Gary Henderson, Jake Gautreau, Mike Brown and A.J. Gaura advanced this team through the most discouraging of storms. It was quite simply one of the great coaching jobs in the history of college baseball.


New faces in cool places

This was yet another year where one could see the depth and breadth of college baseball across the country. Duke, whose 2016 Regional appearance was their first since 1961, took things to the next level by advancing to a Super Regional. Stetson, led by the nation’s best pitching staff, became the first Atlantic Sun program to host a Regional and the Hatters nearly earned a Top 8 seed. OVC power Tennessee Tech leaned on their dynamic offense to win the Oxford Regional. Minnesota hosted for the first time and the Washington Huskies advanced to Omaha for the first time in program history.


The greatest generation

2018 was also a year of transition in college baseball as Mike Gillespie, Jim Morris and Wayne Graham coached their final seasons of their Hall of Fame careers. In addition to those retirements, legendary sports psychologist Ken Ravizza passed away on July 8  of this year. While this is a huge loss, his book Heads Up Baseball has long been a staple for college baseball coaches and players and Ravizza’s legacy in the sport will live on through the thousands of lives his work touched.


The SEC lifts all boats

There are great players and coaches in every conference. But no league loves college baseball quite like the SEC. This was another banner year for Baseball here and this league continues to raise the bar in our sport.

Florida set the pace in 2018 by clinching the league title with one weekend left to play and the Gators were the top-ranked team nationally for the entire regular season. Kevin O’Sullivan’s squad was led by three first round picks in Jonathan India, Brady Singer, and Jackson Kowar. The Gators have earned nine Top 8 seeds in his 11 seasons and they have been to the College World Series an astounding seven times since 2010. Quite simply, Florida has been the most dominant program in college baseball during O’Sullivan’s tenure.

Arkansas came within one out of winning the national title yet the amazing Razorback fan base may have stolen the show from their outstanding team. Arkansas packed nearly 90,000 fans into Baum Stadium for the nine postseason games they hosted, including averaging over 11,000 fans per game during their Super Regional. And the Razorback faithful’s unforgettable showing in Omaha during the CWS Finals turned TD Ameritrade Park into a sea of Cardinal Red.

If you’re still not convinced, this league made another statement in Hoover at the SEC Baseball Tournament. In the championship game Ole Miss defeated LSU in front of 14,126 animated fans. Nobody does it better.




College | Recruiting | 12/15/2025

Recruiting Notebook: December 15

John McAdams
Article Image
Tucker Rice (27 MS) bumping up to 91; living hi-80s from real fast arm. Good SL @ 77-79 w/ depth & sold w/ intent. Loads of traits & strikes. #WWBA @PG_Uncommitted @PG_DeepSouth pic.twitter.com/DEjFqRcsIY — Perfect Game Scout (@PG_Scouting) July 6, 2025 Tucker Rice, RHP, Class of 2027 Commitment: Alabama Alabama has continued to stay red hot in the recruiting trail ever since August 1st rolled around on the calendar and have continued to stack major pieces in their ’27 class. They dip into Mississippi to land one of the premier arms and one that’s stood out on the circuit for quite some time. It’s a fast arm and the athleticism certainly shines working down the slope. The velocity has continued to tick up over the last calendar year and reached into the low-90s towards the end of the summer. He’s confident in his changeup and the breaking ball is...
High School | General | 12/19/2025

Huntington Beach HS World Series Recap

Steve Fiorindo
Article Image
MVPitcher: Duncan McLeod The uncommitted junior toed the slab in three of the four games for Team Mick, tossing 3 2/3 innings.  Zero walks, zero hits and 6 punchouts for the lefty who was used both as a starter in the series clinching game 4 and he closed out game 3 on Friday in quick fashion.  McLeod was very efficient as well, needing just 42 pitches over all his outings.  In the game 4 start, over two innings he punched out 3, with one strikeout with all of his offerings.  The mid 80’s fastball regularly played up, set up with efficient use of the secondaries, with the breaking ball 73/74 and fading change-up 72-74.   Owen Bone (2026) at it again... Solo shot in the 5th to tie things up. Back to back days with a home run for Bone. #PGHS pic.twitter.com/2JC9qETI5h — Perfect Game California (@California_PG) December 13, 2025 MV Hitter: ...
Tournaments | Story | 12/19/2025

13u Tourney All-American Team

Jheremy Brown
Article Image
What a year it was in 2025 on the national landscape at the 13u level as Perfect Game continues to expand its reach around the country, providing an even bigger schedule of events coast-to-coast which has allowed players all over show out and gain their deserved recognition. Whether in Texas for the Houston 1000 or the 13u WWBA in West Palm Beach, we saw huge, eye opening performances from the players placed below, knowing that we could EASILY build a third team and likely a fourth without much effort.  As we do every year with this exercise, it's worth pointing out the trickiness of this age group and putting the teams together with the 13u group. While the players are all members of the Class of 2030, some are younger for the grade, which allowed them to play at the 12u level where's it's a smaller field, shorter mound distance and different bats, so we'll separate them out and...
Tournaments | Story | 12/18/2025

14u Tourney All-American Team

Tyler Russo
Article Image
Player of the Year: Asher Williams It was an incredible year for Williams that was rewarded with a trip to the 14U Select Fest, before some more impressive play in the fall. He came to the plate almost 250 times in PG tournaments throughout 2025 and reached base in well over half of them, hitting to a .500 AVG while slugging a 14U circuit best 12 bombs and driving in 113 runs. The numbers on the surface are ridiculous, but when you look at the high-level events he put them up in, it makes it even more impressive. Pitcher of the Year: Tristan Blalock Blalock earns this honor after a dominant 2025 where he struck out 85 batters in just 48.2 innings of work with a minuscule 1.58 ERA. This included several strong performances at many national level tournaments and showcases where he was able to bully some of the best hitters in the country. It’s hard not to fall in love with...
Draft | Story | 12/18/2025

PG Draft: Gut Feel Guys

Tyler Henninger
Article Image
While we are nearing the turn of the calendar to the 2026 year, that means we are just inching closer to the beginning of the season for many high school players and college baseball is on the horizon. We are prepping for a reshuffle of the 2026 MLB Draft Board as well here amongst the PG Draft staff. But before we get to that, we sat down and have each picked a couple of players who are in the mix to get selected in a couple of different buckets.  We have prospects who could go into the Top 30 picks or so, prospects who could be selected in the Top 5 rounds, and prospects who could go inside of the Top 10 rounds. With the draft quite far down the road and a lot of re-shuffling to be done as these players play themselves into certain spots on the draft board, our scouts picked some players who fit into these “buckets” who are gut-feel guys. These are the guys that our PG...
Tournaments | Story | 12/17/2025

15u Tourney All-American Team

Jason Phillips
Article Image
Hitter of the Year: Landon Bonner The 2028 class saw many players from across the country take the next step in their development as they entered the High School ranks. There were huge performances from highly ranked players on the PG circuit as well as some under-the-radar guys who burst onto the scene. Landon Bonner came into Sophomore National as a Top 500 ranked player and after an impressive showing, left with all eyes on him as a rankings riser in the class. The left-handed hitting shortstop from The Colony, Texas, had a summer to remember with All-Tournament Team selections in three of his next four events culminating with a historic performance at the 2025 PG 15U WWBA National Championship. The Hebron High School prep went 20-for-24 in nine games for 5 Star Mafia 15U Black with four homeruns and 12 runs batted in. He also scored 17 runs and finished with a mind-boggling 2.500...
Tournaments | Story | 12/16/2025

16u Tourney All-American Team

AJ Denny
Article Image
Hitter of the Year: Koa Romero is the Hitter of the Year for the 16u group, as he would come to every premier event of the summer and earn All-Tournament honors (Beast of the East, 16/17u WWBA, Jupiter) in every single one. Over 82 plate appearances, Romero would pump ten homeruns with forty two RBI and sixteen walks, good for a .378 average and 1.339 OPS. The performance on volume at the best events of the year pushed Romero over the edge here, as he’d hit a pair of homeruns in Jupiter (one of them at 112 EV) as an underclassmen and collect double digit hits in BOTH WWBA events with a combined six jacks over the two tournaments. It was a summer that combined performance and winning on the biggest stages for Romero. It’s a quiet left-handed swing that packs a punch. He would reap the benefits of his performances, earning a commitment to LSU and jumping to the #74 prospect in...
Tournaments | Story | 12/15/2025

17u Tourney All-American Team

Vincent Cervino
Article Image
There’s a lot of talent throughout this 2026 class, filled with the big-name stars, to talent that spreads across the nation. It’s been a lot of fun seeing these prospects grow and develop over the years, from the days of watching some of these guys at the 13/14u days at events on the circuit, to now where they are all graduating seniors in 2026. There’s been new faces who have popped along the way over the years, even in 2026, where some players who were relatively undiscovered, have come out and made a name for themselves with a statement performance. Between the familiar and the new, there’s a lot of names on this list that are going to be quite regularly talked about on the circuit, and for good reason.  Whether it’s PG All-Americans or not, there’s a lot of names with superstar potential at the next level. We’ve got 14 PG All-Americans...
Tournaments | Story | 12/13/2025

Finest in the Field: Class of 2029

Tyler Russo
Article Image
Finest in the Field: Class of 2026 | Class of 2027 | Class of 2028 These guys might just be entering high school, but they've certainly already made a name for themselves on the national circuit, especially with their abilities on the defensive side of things.  C: Xavier Rodriguez (Logansville, GA) Rodriguez is a polished defender with real arm strength behind the dish, while showcasing the ability to impact the baseball with authority to all fields evident by thirty of his sixty-five hits going for extra-bases including seven bombs. He handles high-level pitching extremely well, commands his staff and his offensive prowess makes him a true two-way asset. 1B: Cooper Knight (Buda, TX) Knight is a smooth operator at first base with plenty of range, fluidity and agility in his footwork around the bag. Add-in a rocket for an arm, the ability to change slots and to...
Tournaments | Story | 12/12/2025

Scout Stories: Part 5

AJ Denny
Article Image
Best Game I Saw: The Dream NTL 18U vs. MBA Scout Team Murphy Jupiter always brings out the best, and we got fireworks from the jump. Turner Marshall gave The Dream an outstanding 4+ innings of work on the mound, holding a lethal MBA team at bay with Chance Dixon, Derrick Carter, and Ellis Appling providing an offensive spark out of the gate for the Georgia based boys. However, it was only a matter of time before the talent on the other side got going, as MBA erased a 3-run deficit in the 5th to take a 4-3 lead led by a Parker Loew HR. The Dream then took command again in the Top of the 6th, before MBA punched right back with a huge 5-run inning in the bottom half capped off by a clutch RBI single from Matthew Kerrigan, ending a wild sequence with tons of notable performances from two very competitive rosters. Best Tournament Performance I Saw: Surely someone has already brought this...
Loading more articles...