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| 2,404 MLB PLAYERS | 15,805 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
2,404 MLB PLAYERS | 15,805 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
Showcase  | Story | 9/29/2021

Old School Meets New School with PG Tech

Photo: Dominic Hellman (Perfect Game)
Kyle Crawford was sitting in the bullpen of Tropicana Field during the Perfect Game National Showcase with his laptop open, knee deep in data he had been collecting over the course of the showcase on the top 2022 prospects in the country.
 
The data belonged to PG Tech, a company formed by Perfect Game and K-Motion to better provide unique data-based scouting and player development insights using the most advanced technologies in baseball.
 
Right beside Crawford was Bill Bavasi, former general manager of both the Anaheim Angels and Seattle Mariners. After over 40 years in Major League Baseball, Bavasi is now a member of Perfect Game’s leadership team, and lends his services in a number of ways.
 
On that day, he was simply curious about what Crawford was digging through on his laptop. So Crawford obliged, pointing to the player who happened to be pulled up at that moment and explaining how the PG Tech Cage measures data points such as kinematic peak speeds, stretch, and sequence, using a combination of technology mostly reserved for MLB teams – K-Motion 3D technology, Edgertronic high-speed video, and data collected from Pocket Radar, Diamond Kinetics, and TrackMan.
 


All this data put together, Crawford explained to Bavasi, tells the story of the hitter being tracked, in this case eventual Perfect Game All-American Dominic Hellman. It was all right there in cold, hard numbers, and in fact, Hellman’s numbers were phenomenal.
 
Bavasi was intrigued by the data itself and by Hellman, and called Bob Fontaine over to take a look. Fontaine, a long-time associate of Bavasi’s, is a former Major League scouting director, responsible for signing guys like Randy Johnson, Ozzie Smith, and Tony Gwynn in his day.
 
“Bob is clearly an old school scouting, eyeball scout,” Bavasi said of Fontaine. “He’s not an analytics guy because he never had the benefit of PG Tech or any other metric like that. The difficulty some people see in some of these metrics and the analytics in general is that no one is really trying to bridge the gap between old school, eyeball guys and the new school technology we have today. There’s been a disconnect there.”
 
Bavasi directed Crawford to wipe away all the data on his laptop screen. Blow up the high-speed Edgertronic video and have nothing else in view.
 
His ask of Fontaine at that point was simple – watch this slo-mo video and tell me what you see in this guy. What you like, what you dislike, problem areas, everything.
 




“Bill was sort of blind testing both of us to see how credible [PG Tech] is versus someone he knows and trusts, in Bob,” Crawford said. “But also, how much does Bob see what the tech is seeing?
 
“I just walked through the data and spoke about where [Hellman] was functioning really well. And then [Bavasi] had [Fontaine] come over and he asked him, just based on the video, what he thought of Hellman. Maybe the words were slightly different, but it was the same story being told.”
 
It was a moment of breakthrough. The disconnect that Bavasi spoke about, that gap no one had seemed to have bridged, now seemed…well, bridged. PG Tech proved what Fontaine saw with his eyes, and the way the long-time scout described Hellman articulated him in a way that sometimes gets lost in data.
 
“There was no prep, they just asked me to look at it and describe what I saw and tell them what I think,” Fontaine said. “I broke down the swing, and it was a kid I had watched over a three-day period.
 
“He’s a big kid with a balanced stance and a good approach to the ball…This kid has a quick bat. He generates really good bat speed. That’s what produces the power we saw during batting practice.”
 
Hellman was an obvious poster child for Crawford in the PG Tech Cage. His peak speeds were well higher than what you would expect of a fully mature, elite player. His hand speed especially, at 2366 degrees/second, was exceptionally fast compared to the 1800 deg/s marks of the “average” elite player. His speed gains were equally as impressive.
 


Pictured: Dom Hellman's PG Tech profile
 
“[Hellman] was in the top-10 in all of his different body segments,” Crawford explained. “And top 10 percent in exit velocity as well.”

| PG Tech FAQ |
 
When Fontaine looked at Hellman’s Edgertronic video, he saw a 6-foot-6, 17-year-old hitting balls off a tee at 100 mph with the fluidity typically reserved for prospects much smaller than him.
 
“Bob was looking at him based on his tools and his swing,” Bavasi said. “He didn’t really care what he did at the showcase…What he was saying about him was the exact same thing the data was saying.”
 
At the Perfect Game All-American Classic awards banquet held the night before the game at Petco Park in August, Hellman was honored on stage with the PG Tech Award, a nod to his prolific numbers in the PG Tech Cage at the National. It was an appropriate culmination to the conversation between Crawford, Bavasi, and Fontaine in that Tampa Bay bullpen the month prior.
 


It’s just the start for PG Tech, however. The PG Tech Cage is now available at every Perfect Game showcase across the country, which means coaches and scouts who are making decisions on scholarships and draft picks can now have a better understanding of each prospect who attends a PG showcase.

| Perfect Game showcase schedule |
 
The data that Crawford and Bavasi dug into is instantly uploaded to each prospect’s Perfect Game profile, and the high-speed video that Fontaine studied is on there, too. You can see old school meeting new school when you’re on those profiles, and the two are getting along brilliantly, bridging a gap that was too wide for too long.
 
“Too often when something new comes along, they don’t meet in the middle,” Fontaine said. “If you can find that middle ground, that’s where you want to be. You have to keep the human element in it, but if you can add in other things that aid that, it seems to me that you can come up with the best decision.”

Showcase | Story | 2/20/2026

PG ID Camps Help Build Baseball Resume

Jim Salisbury
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PG ID Camps Help Youngsters Build a Baseball Resume There was still snow on the ground in a lot of places last weekend, but that didn’t stop more than 200 young players from going indoors to participate in the first round of Perfect Game Select Fest ID Camps for the 2026 season. John McAdams, PG’s national crosschecker and Northeast scouting director, ran the event in Farmingdale, New Jersey, and was impressed with his group’s energy and desire to improve at the game. “We’re giving young players the opportunity to build their baseball resumes and chart their growth and progress over a span of years,” he said. In addition to New Jersey, Select Fest ID Camps were held in Lake St. Louis, Missouri; Rossford, Ohio; Marietta, Georgia; and Kent, Washington. The ID camps debuted in 2025. Twenty-two of them were held around the country with nearly 700 young...
College | Story | 4/9/2026

Coppy's Corner: April 6 POY Deep Dive

Perfect Game Staff
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I’m beyond thrilled to be a contributor to Perfect Game, widely recognized as the premier organization for amateur baseball. Working in baseball operations for the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves for nearly 20 years, the importance of amateur baseball cannot be understated. Nobody does it better and I am honored to be working with great baseball people like Jered Goodwin, Vinnie Cervino, Craig Cozart, and many others.  Each week I huddle with Vinnie and Craig to discuss Top 25 rankings and Players of the Week. In "Coppy’s Corner", I will dive deeper into these Players of the Week, providing analysis from 20+ years working in baseball front offices at the highest level. My hope is that you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.  Player of the Week: Andrew Williamson – University of Central Florida (UCF)  Williamson can flat-out hit. While...
Tournaments | Story | 4/9/2026

Don't Boot the Loot Scout Notes

Cam McElwaney
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‘30 UTL Chase Jelks (GA) lifts this one deep into the gap & rolls around the bags for a triple. Loose LH swing w/ feel to lift. #DontBootTheLoot @PG_Georgia pic.twitter.com/leF4GMTawJ — Perfect Game Youth (@PGYouthBB) April 4, 2026 Chase Jelks (2030, Atlanta, Ga.) put together a great weekend for The Dream 14u Black in their run to a championship game appearance, hitting .444 with two triples and a double along with three RBI. He controlled the zone throughout the event in the box and finished with a 6:1 BB:K ratio because of it while also swiping five bags as well. It was a strong showing for Jelks, something that’s becoming common this spring in PG events.    ‘30 MIF Cohen Carter (TN) hits this one on the screws into the gap for a triple. Functional & compact swing. #DontBootTheLoot @PG_Tennessee pic.twitter.com/YVUfxbHBxx — Perfect Game...
Juco | Story | 4/8/2026

JUCO Top 25: April 8

Troy Sutherland
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Another week of conference play down and Johnson County continues there tear through the spring of 2026, they retain the top spot with Gaston nipping their heels at number 2 for the third consecutive week. McLennan jumps up to number 3 with a big series sweep over rival Texas powerhouse, Weatherford. Out west, Cochise just keeps rolling in the desert and California looks to be hotly contested all the way down the final stretch. A couple of debut appearances down the board with Harford, CCF, and Linn Benton all earning their spot on our top 25 for the first time in the first week of April. So many great records out there it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out with so many teams vying for seeding and conference championships on this final stretch run. Rank Team Record 1 Johnson County (KS) 38-2 2 Gaston (NC) 38-3 3 McLennan (TX) 29-7 4 Chipola (FL) 34-7 5 Walters State (TN)...
College | Rankings | 4/8/2026

DII/DIII/NAIA Rankings Update: April 8

Nick Herfordt
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We are past the midpoint of the college baseball season and the stakes are rising by the week. Conference races are tightening, schedules are getting harder, and the résumés that will matter in the selection room are being written right now — one series at a time. This week's most significant development came in Division II, where North Greenville swept Young Harris in three consecutive one-run games to claim the top spot for the first time this season, knocking Tampa from a perch they've held most of the year. It's a genuine changing of the guard at the top, and it's exactly the kind of shakeup that makes this stretch of the season worth paying close attention to. Across all three divisions the picture is coming into focus. In Division I NAIA, Georgia Gwinnett remains the standard while Taylor and Cumberlands continue to make their cases from behind. In Division III,...
High School | General | 4/7/2026

Iowa Spring League Notes: Week 1

Perfect Game Staff
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Brooks Mitchell-Birdsell (2027, Atkins, Iowa) was solid on both sides of the ball this weekend. He was able to show a clean move working into it, with the feel to impact it out in front and drive hard through contact. He had good barrel accuracy with feel to drive the ball well, especially working pull-side. He was 4-for-8 on the weekend with a double to his credit, driving in 7 runs as well. Mitchell-Birdsell also put together a good outing on the mound, delivering 2 innings of scoreless work with 3 punchouts. He worked the low 80s with some run, flashing a mid-70s curveball with good 11-5 shape and depth.  Maddux Mueller (2026, Amana, Iowa) LH bat with plenty to like in the batter’s box, and he put together a solid showing this weekend. He finished 2-for-3 with a double, demonstrating both contact ability and the capacity to drive the baseball for extra bases. Mueller...
College | Story | 4/7/2026

College Players of the Week: April 7

Craig Cozart
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April 7th Perfect Game/Player of the Week:  Andrew Williamson, OF, UCF  The UCF Knights (20-9) are coming off one of their biggest series victories in years when they went to Morgantown and took down the Mountaineers to take control of the Big 12 regular season standings.  The offense put on quite the performance and Andrew Williamson set the tone by leaving the yard in his first at-bat of the weekend launching a towering home run over the centerfield wall.  The 6-0/195 lefty from St. Petersburg, FL has one of the sweetest strokes in the college game today and when he goes, so do the Knights.  In the 3-game series, the junior collected 6 hits in his 10 at-bats, scoring 6 runs, on 5 walks, a double and he launched 3 home runs all told.  While he had a stretch earlier in the season where he was searching for his stroke a bit, he is getting locked in at the...
College | Rankings | 4/6/2026

College Top 25: April 6

Vincent Cervino
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With another week in the books, some teams at the top continue to prove they are elite, and others continue to fall by the wayside.  Meanwhile, there were several teams that had been lingering outside the Top 25 that had huge weekends to put themselves in the thick of things as every weekend has significant consequences for good or for bad.  The No. 1 UCLA Bruins (29-2) have now pushed their win streak to an incredible 23-games as they swept USC (27-6) who was previously ranked No. 7 in the poll.  The Bruins are off to a perfect (15-0) start in Big Ten play and are without a doubt the most complete team in the country right now.  The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (26-5) move up to No. 2 this week after they dismantled now No. 12 Auburn (22-9) in the midweek and then swept Cal on the West Coast last weekend.  Texas (26-5) moves down one spot to No. 3 this week after...
Draft | Mock Draft | 4/3/2026

PG Staff Mock Draft

Jheremy Brown
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Welcome to another Perfect Game Mock Draft. This is not your typical mock draft as it features 15 different GMs drafting the first two rounds of the draft. Each member of the mock draft was assigned two teams and as such will be drafting all of the picks in the first two rounds for each responsible team. The actual draft order will be presented below and we will dive into how teams made their selections and how they feel about the players drafted. It is important to note that this is not how we think the draft will play out in almost any capacity. This is simply an exercise 4 months ahead of time with a large portion of the scouting staff and some picks fall under personal favorites, best available, and a multitude of other factors. Chicago White Sox 1:1 Roch Cholowsky, SS, UCLA | 1:41 Jack Radel, RHP, Notre Dame The White Sox don’t overthink here and select Roch Cholowsky, who has...
High School | General | 4/2/2026

High School Notebook: April 2

Steve Fiorindo
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Lennex Minor (‘28 CA) absolutely destroys this offering to the PS for a 2-run shot. 2-4 on the day w/ 4 driven in. Athletic in the box w/ a quick stroke and strength throughout the frame. Also closed out the game running the FB up to 88 in a St. Bernard win #PGHS @PG_Scouting pic.twitter.com/KF7BsKGcm7 — Perfect Game California (@California_PG) March 29, 2026 Lennex Minor, MIF/P, St. Bernard (2028) Minor had a massive day in my look this past Saturday in a game being played at the University of San Diego.  The sophomore had a pair of hits, one which was a no-doubt homer, and drove in four.  Minor’s athleticism jumps out on the field with twitchy actions both at the dish and in the dirt.  He features a 6-foot, 170-pound frame with room to add and generates from a strong lower half and exceptionally quick hands.  Showing two-way potential, he made an...
High School | General | 4/2/2026

NHSI Scout Notebook

Cam McElwaney
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An extended look at ‘26 RHP Wilson Andersen… 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 6 K. @HailStateBB signee. #NHSI26 @JesuitBaseball @Florida_PG @PG_Draft @PGAllAmerican https://t.co/VLwECd2qZ8 pic.twitter.com/JbTFR3Gd2l — Perfect Game Scout (@PG_Scouting) March 30, 2026 Wilson Andersen, RHP, Tampa Jesuit  Andersen got the ball on day two of the event and showed a quick tempo, pounding the zone with a power mix. He ran the fastball up to 97 mph, working comfortably in the mid-90s, with a power curveball/changeup mix he showed confidence in. He’s one of the top right-handers in the class that saw his stock rise in Cary. Andersen is signed with Mississippi State.    An extended look at ‘26 RHP Cooper Sides… 5 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K. @LSUbaseball signee. #NHSI26 @olubaseball @PG_Draft @California_PG https://t.co/Ag1MfBAR5a pic.twitter.com/5wSszVjBn8...
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