The early signing period for high school players to offer their early commitments to college programs has come and gone. Obviously a lot of things can change between now and next year that would effect how these recruiting classes look, notably the draft, but certainly some praise can be handed out for the quality and quantity of some of the more notable efforts.
Here’s a look at a baker’s half dozen programs that stood out the most to me.
Arkansas Razorbacks
While most of the focus of head coach Dave Van Horn’s recruiting efforts has focused on the states surrounding Arkansas, he hasn’t been shy about reaching to places all across the country to find solid talent to field competitive ball teams year after year. This is best shown by his impressive class so far, represented by the top players in both Illinois (left-handed pitcher and Aflac All-American Austin Wright) and Oklahoma (right-handed pitcher Bobby Bundy) as well as one of the top prospects from Colorado (right-handed pitcher Tyler Sample), Kentucky (two-way star Zack Cox) and Texas (outfielder Jarrod McKinney). Add two more Texans to the list in infielder/right-handed pitcher Jonathan Pelman and outfielder Seth Gardner, as well as native Arkansas native Kyle Atkins, and you have a pretty talented, well-rounded class.
Florida Gators
Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan didn’t look too far to round out his 14 member recruiting class, with 10 players hailing from the Sunshine State. Among the top in-state talents are right-handed pitchers Ryan Weber, Greg Larson and Juan Carlos Sulbaran, catchers Ben McMahan and Daniel Pigott and outfielders Tyler Thompson and Preston Tucker. They didn’t do too shabby with their four out-of-state recruits, landing left-handed pitcher Nick Maronde and Lexington native away from SEC rival Kentucky, infielder Jerico Weitzel from Pennsylvania, right-handed pitcher Anthony DeSclafani from New Jersey and fellow righty Will Jolin from Connecticut. Having managed to land some of the top prospects in the nation, Florida will need the depth of their 14-member class, as well as a few promising Juco players including current Gator infielder Cole Figueroa’s twin brother Corey, as they stand to lose some of this talent to the draft.
Georgia Bulldogs
It’s impossible not to list the Bulldogs after pulling down East Cobb teammates and former Aflac All-Americans Brett DeVall, a left-handed pitcher, and Michael Palazzone, a righty. The two teamed up to pitch one of the more impressive contests in Jupiter, and offer two of the more well-rounded repertoires in the country. Fellow Aflac All-American and also a member of the East Cobb program, Xavier Avery, is arguably the best pure athlete in the country whose speed is unrivaled. Two more of the nation’s top pitchers, righties Zeke Spruill and Cecil Tanner, as well as first baseman Chase Davidson and outfielder Brennan May also are among this talented class. They also managed to secure one of the top prospects in both Virginia, outfielder Peter Verdin, and Massachussetts, right-handed pitcher Blaine O’Brien. This is an aggressive and potentially risky class for head coach David Perno, but he did balance quality with quantity by inking 20 players in total, likely expecting to lose a fair share of these players to the draft.
Kentucky Wildcats
I recently profiled the wealth of talent in the Bluegrass state, and that talent has culminated into a solid recruiting class by head coach John Cohen. It’s somewhat of a risky class, signing several highly ranked players that at this point in time may seem like locks to be drafted early in next June’s draft, but it is also a deep class, with 16 members at this point in time. The class is highlighted by Alex “Bubba” Meyer, one of the more impressive pitchers at last summer’s Aflac All-American Classic and the best prospect from the state of Indiana. It also boasts the top prospect from Colorado and another Aflac All-American, infielder Andy Burns, and those two help offset the loss of two of the state’s more nationally prominent players, Nick Maronde (who committed to Florida) and Zach Cox (Arkansas). They did manage to keep lefty Robbie Ross and righty Daniel Webb in-state, while nabbing one of the best players in both Tennessee, infielder Corban Joseph, and Illinois, two-way star Braden Kapteyn.
San Diego State
One of these years Tony Gwynn is going to have one of those banner classes that he’s been shooting for, the type of class that can truly put a baseball program on the national recruiting map. He’s signed some big, national names in recent years to national letters of intent, such as Sean O’Sullivan and Henry Sanchez, and lost them in the early rounds of the draft to the professional level. This year’s class is represented by a pair of Aflac All-Americans that are fully comfortable playing at the Aztecs home field having played their last summer, five-tool outfielder Isaac Galloway and two-way star Ryan O’Sullivan. Towering and powerful right-handed pitcher Matt Lollis has also signed on giving the Aztecs three prominent national prospects. Local talents Brandon Meredith, a slugging outfielder, and catcher Matt Vargas are also among the better talents of the class.
UCLA Bruins
The Bruins boast a program that has been one to keep an eye on ever since John Savage took the reins in 2005, and he has had a knack keeping some of the top high school players away from the pro ranks, at least for a few years. His 2008-09 class is short yet very sweet, highlighted by three Aflac All-Americans in right-handed pitcher Gerrit Cole, first baseman Clark Murphy and infielder Chris Amezquita. Amezquita and Murphy both pack powerful punches in their swing, while Cole, the only pitcher in the class, has arguably the most dynamic arm in the country after flashing easy 97 heats with movement in Jupiter. Infielder Cutter Dykstra brings the same tough, no-nonsense style of play to the game that his father Lenny did, while Tyler Chatwood could be the most versatile player in the country with the ability to play literally anywhere on the diamond. Infielder Tyler Rahmatulla and catcher Steve Rodriguez round out this seven member class.
Vanderbilt Commodores
Things appear to keep getting better for Vandy under the guidance of Tim Corbin, who has another impressive recruiting class to look forward to, and the academically minded university is one of those in the country along with Stanford and North Carolina that does a good job getting some of their better players on campus. Aflac All-Americans and right-handed pitchers Sonny Gray and Jack Armstrong are polar opposites. Gray will have to overcome the short righty stigma yet has an electric arm, while Armstrong is much taller and more projectable, yet relies more on guile and command at this point in his career. Vandy always does a good job recruiting across the nation, claiming a top prospect from Alabama (left-handed pitcher Corey Williams), Connecticut (infielder Jason Esposito), Georgia (left-handed pitcher Grayson Garvin), Minnesota (infielder Joe Loftus), Missouri (infielder Riley Reynolds), New Jersey (outfielder Matt Marquis) and Rhode Island (outfielder Ryan Westmoreland) while also being sure to keep tabs on players in their own Tennessee backyard.
Plus One
While the recruiting efforts of Washington State head coach Donnie Marbut don’t contain the well-known national names that the programs listed above do, I wanted to give them props as well after I realized I had listed five SEC schools among the seven programs listed. I guarantee you that was not by design, but what makes the Cougars class so interesting is that they did an amazing job plucking up a healthy chunk of the impact talent from the state of Washington.
The players are catcher Kyle Buchanan, outfielder Bryan Peterson, right-handed pitchers Jacob Theis and Jake Shadle, lefty Rusty Shellhorn and two-way talents Anthony Drobnick, Derek Jones and David Olson.
They even managed to pry away one of the top prospects in Colorado (lefty Bobby Hansen), Idaho (outfielder Kyle Johnson) and Oregon (infielder Tommy Richards).
This is a particularly impressive effort not just because of in-state rival Washington, but also because of the success of Oregon State, usually the front-runner scooping up talent from the Pacific Northwest given their back-to-back National Championships, not to mention the presence of George Horton already looking for talent to fill a hopeful Ducks program.
I should note that there are plenty of other impressive recruiting classes to be mentioned, filled with the usual suspects including Arizona State, Miami, North Carolina and USC, as well as plenty of other people involved in the recruiting process that are deserving of mention for each of the programs listed above.
The thoughts and opinions listed here do not necessarily reflect those of Perfect Game USA. Patrick Ebert is affiliated with both Perfect Game USA and Brewerfan.net, and can be contacted via email at pebert@brewerfan.net.