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Tournaments  | Story | 7/10/2011

Power arms pull in crowd at WWBA

MARIETTA, Ga. -- True to its reputation for being a one-stop shop for scouts to see nearly all of the top prospects for next year's draft, the 17u WWBA National Championship has featured starts from the top two ranked players in the class of 2012. The duo of power arms, Lance McCullers and Lucas Giolito, highlighted a parade of power arms in the first two days of the week long event.

McCullers took the mound for the Tampa Bay Warriors in the tourney opener on Saturday. Today, Lucas Giolito toed the rubber for San Gabriel Valley Arsenal against South Florida Elite at the East Cobb Complex. Top ranked McCullers hit 97 mph on the radar gun a number of times in his four inning start against CCB, striking out six while allowing three runs. Giolito was up to 95 and allowed just one hit over three innings in a no decision.


Though both throw upper 90s heat, the two top level righties are different pitchers. McCullers has incredible arm speed, with an aggressive overpowering mound approach. Giolito uses his 6' 7" frame well to create good downhill leverage and create sink on his fastball. McCullers generally works a couple mph harder with his fastball and features a four pitch arsenal highlighted by a nasty mid-80s slider with hard tilt. Giolito uses a very hard 2-plane curveball with serious bite at 79-81 and shows good all around command for a young power arm.


Both players anchor teams that coming in to pool play seemed poised to make deep runs in the tournament. But as both teams found out, in a tournament with as much quality as the 216 team field for 2011 features; nobody is invincible. McCullers took a 4-3 loss against CCB 17u while Giolito's lone mistake of his first outing resulted in a no-decision.


McCullers' start drew a large crowd of scouts and recruiters who saw McCullers light up the radar gun and flash impressive offspeed stuff. What they also saw was CCB 17u RHP
Paul Blackburn (2012 Heritage HS, Oakley, CA) shut out a quality Tampa Bay Warriors lineup for five innings. When Giolito wasn't throwing mid 90s heat with a low effort delivery, the throngs of scouts in attendance watched lefty Michael Emigh (2012 West Broward HS, Pembroke Pines, FL) frustrate San Gabriel Valley's juggernaut offense with good command and pitchability for five innings. Emigh's Catcher, Zach Butler (2012 University HS, Lauderdale Gardens, FL) also made the most of the opportunity to play in front of a large crowd of scouts, turning around a 95 mph fastball from Giolito, driving it over the high left field wall on East Cobb Field 1.

It's a similar theme throughout the 17u WWBA National Championship, and a great benefit to both players and scouts. At an event like this, when scouts go to a field to watch a specific player, there is a good chance that they will find another highly talented player. It happened with a 5' 11" 140 pound RHP/SS in 2008...when pre-frosh Lance McCullers suited up for the Dawg Pound. It happened when scouts saw a right hander for the San Diego Show work 89-91 in 2006...by the name of
Stephen Strasburg.

There are a lot of high profile prospects playing in Marietta this week. There are many more who are in the process of making a name for themselves right now..

Tournaments | Story | 12/19/2025

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Jheremy Brown
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High School | General | 12/24/2025

2025 Year In Review: High School

Cam McElwaney
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IMG Academy Takes Home the National Title Every year IMG Academy comes into the spring with top-to-bottom one of the top rosters in the country and every year have the expectation of winning the national championship. Well in 2025 they did just that after finishing the spring 24-1, winning the High School Showdown, and winning 15 straight games to end their season. Their high end offensive ability was on full display throughout the year and they will once again be one of the most talented teams in the country in ’26 as they look to go back-to-back. Two Top-10 Picks in the MLB Draft Headline National Players of the Year It was another loaded crop that took home the National Players of the Year as both Ethan Holliday, the National Player of the Year, and Seth Hernandez, National Pitcher of the Year, heard their names called within the first-10 picks in the MLB Draft. Another first...
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With the 2025 cycle officially behind us and the calendar nearly flipping over to 2026, it is time to start looking ahead to the future. More importantly, start looking ahead to the next season of college baseball and what that may mean for draft-eligible players with big dreams of continuing their journey. While the 2026 MLB Draft is now on the horizon, we are looking ahead to the future even further – to see which players have already made impacts upon their arrival to college campuses. We have already dropped our 2028 Top 75 collegiate prospects board, but this one is our Top 100 college prospects who will be eligible for the 2027 class. These are the Top 100 players in our eyes for this group, and many of them have already shown up on campus and been impactful in many ways. Whether its our top-ranked player in Oregon State’s Dax Whitney or ninth-ranked William Schmidt...
Draft | Rankings | 12/23/2025

Top 2028 Collegiate Draft Prospects

Vincent Cervino
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The college players in the 2028 draft class have yet to step on campus, but they're positioned to make an immediate impact. Several high end talents either turned down significant money last year or honored strong college commitments, resulting in their arrival on campus this fall. The class is currently led by a trio of high-upside arms in Jack Bauer, Angel Cervantes, and Cameron Appenzeller. They are followed by a deep group of bats that rounds out a strong, high end Top-10. Rk. Name Level Pos. B-T School Hometown State 1 Jack Bauer C LHP L-L Mississippi State Frankfort IL 2 Angel Cervantes C RHP R-R UCLA Lynwood CA 3 Cameron Appenzeller C LHP L-L Tennessee Springfield IL 4 Brayden Jaksa C C R-R Oregon Fremont  CA 5 JD Stein C SS R-R Wake Forest Carmel IN 6 Mason Ligenza C OF L-L Pittsburgh Brockton PA 7 Ty Peeples C OF L-R Georgia Lavonia GA 8 Lucas Franco C SS L-R TCU Katy TX 9...
Juco | Story | 12/23/2025

2025 Year in Review: JUCO

Blaine Peterson
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Looking Back at the 2025 Top 10  Matt Barr (‘25 Niagara, ‘26 Minnesota Twins) Bursting onto the scene last winter, footage of an indoor bullpen rocketed Barr onto the radar of many. Explosive fastball reaches near triple digits with incredible spin numbers across the secondaries. Huge numbers at Niagara earned him the title of the first Juco player drafted in 2025. JC Vanek (‘25 Chipola, ‘26 Kansas City Royals) Just a professional hitter. Vanek for two years at Chipola was an impossible out. While there are questions if the power will ever reach what it takes to play first base at the big league level, the bat and quality defensive skillset at first base may carry. Donovan Becerra (‘25 New Mexico, ‘26 Texas Tech) One of the more high octane arms anywhere in the country last year. Can reach back for upper 90’s and has shown serious swing and...
Draft | Story | 12/22/2025

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Isaiah Burrows
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2025 Year in Review: Draft We’ve reached the end of the 2025 calendar year, and while we’ve already jumped in on the 2026 cycle with some of the fall events and post-draft content we’ve had here at Perfect Game, there’s still one more piece on the docket, and that’s the 2025 Year-In-Review piece here from the PG Draft staff.  The 2025 MLB Draft took place in July, when many highly talented players heard their names called and continued their journey through the game to the next level. There’s already been some of those names making noise in the minors and guys who are moving up prospect lists and becoming names to know for MLB fans digging deep into the future of their organizations. While we are going to “close the book” on 2025 with this article, these players still have many years ahead of them, and many blank pages to continue...
College | Recruiting | 12/22/2025

Recruiting Notebook: December 22

Jheremy Brown
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Lucien Saint Cyr, INF, Class of 2026 Commitment: Bucknell Saint Cyr announced his pledge to Bucknell, giving the Bison an interesting blend of present tools and projection. Saint Cyr stands 6-foot-1 and offers room to fill in his medium frame, profiling in the middle infield defensively. The New York product starts wide at the base in the right-handed box, keeping his hands high behind the ear. He works into a subtle outward step load, firing through a compact barrel that showcases bat speed and gap-to-gap impact. For head coach Scott Heather and Bucknell, they land a high-quality Northeast infielder in the ’26 cycle, adding to a class that takes the quality over quantity approach. Patrick Diaz ('26, NY) 102 EV off the bat. Impact to the pull side. #PGNational @PGMidAtlantic @PG_Uncommitted pic.twitter.com/NN0L3FRdO9 — PG Showcases (@PGShowcases) July 9, 2025 Patrick Diaz,...
High School | General | 12/19/2025

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Steve Fiorindo
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Tournaments | Story | 12/18/2025

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Tyler Russo
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Draft | Story | 12/18/2025

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Tyler Henninger
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