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College  | Story | 5/7/2026

Coppy's Corner: May 7 POY Deep Dive

John Coppolella
Each week I huddle with Vinnie Cervino and Craig Cozart to discuss Top 25 rankings and Players of the Week. In Coppy’s Corner, I dive deeper into these Players of the Week, providing analysis from 20+ years working in baseball front offices at the highest level.  

Player of the Week: Tyce Armstrong – Baylor University 

Armstrong is a big man with a big bat that produces big power. Just the second player in the history of Baylor to reach 20 HR in a single season – if you knew the other one was Charley Carter in 1998, you get the gold star – Armstrong brings an impact bat that can turn the game around with one swing. Listed at 6’4 / 228 he is Texas-strong and has been tearing up the Big 12 this season. Armstrong spent his first three season at the University of Texas – Arlington before transferring to Baylor for the 2026 season. He had a great week, but, really, it’s been a great season with a .330 AVG / .437 OBP / .760 SLG (!) / 1.196 OPS over 179 At-Bats this year. 



Armstrong reminds me a lot of Luke Voit. Both are big and strong right-handed power bats. Voit – who finished 9th overall in AL MVP voting in 2020 – played only 1B and DH and had a little thicker body at 6’2 / 260. Armstrong is more athletic and has played 1B and some Corner Outfield. As was the case with Voit, you are buying a bat with Armstrong, and a look inside the numbers reveals some interesting data. Armstrong has more than held his own against RHP with .367 AVG / 1.327 OPS, performed on Friday nights against top pitching with .390 AVG / 1.431 OPS, and hung in there against all breaking balls hitting .303 AVG and 1.150 OPS. Armstrong is a senior who will turn 23 years old just before the MLB Draft (DOB 7-3-03), but impact right-handed power like this is hard to find. Amid a breakout senior season, his draft stock is rising and the next couple of months should be exciting. 

Carry Tool: POWER!!! I wrote that in all capital letters with three exclamation points because it’s A LOT OF POWER!!! Hitters with .760 Slugging Percentages aren’t hanging out on every corner, and Armstrong has continued to improve throughout his college career. Whatever his professional future may be, it will be completely tied into his power. Magnolia Field at Baylor Ballpark is a balanced / neutral ballpark that doesn’t favor hitters or pitchers, but I would love to see what Armstrong could do in an organization like the Colorado Rockies or the Arizona Diamondbacks. 

Pitcher of the Week: Isaiah Magdaleno – University of Hawaii  

The movie Encino Man is terrible. I’m not sure what compelled Brendan Fraser to be a part of this movie – probably money? – but it’s awful. Magdaleno, who is from Encino, but in no way affiliated with the movie, has been the opposite of awful this year pitching for the University of Hawaii at Manoa (the flagship university for the islands, but in no way affiliated with Alek Manoah). Magdaleno’s best outing of the season was Friday night, when he went CG SHO with 1 Hit, 1 BB, and 16 SO for the Rainbow Warriors. It’s the culmination of a breakthrough year that saw him pitch well in the Cape Cod League this past summer before dominating in 2026 by producing 5-4, 2.75 ERA with 89 SO vs. 29 BB and only 3 HR allowed over 72.0 IP.  

Magdaleno does it differently than most college pitchers that we profile. He’s got a five-pitch mix starting with an average FB 87-93 that is sometimes 87-91 and sometimes 90-93, and he only throws it 39% of the time. He mixes the FB with a killer CH (thrown 28% of the time), a good downer CB (17%), a CUT (8%), and a SL (7%). He is a good athlete with advanced feel to pitch, and he continues to get better. It’s not top-shelf stuff, and this isn’t a Day 1 selection, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t have a future at the highest level.  

Carry Tool: Changeup. It’s a real weapon, with a 59% Swing Rate, 49% Miss Rate, and 46% Chase Rate. Over the course of the season, hitters have only managed to hit .139 AVG / .392 OPS against the CH this season. Magdaleno reminds me of a little bit of Kris Medlen and Jair Jurrjens, two pitchers I saw a lot during my time in the Atlanta Braves front office. Medlen and Jurrjens were both very successful MLB starting pitchers using the CH as their out pitch, and both threw their CH roughly 25% of the time. I don’t know that Magdaleno has that type of ceiling – and I don’t know that he doesn’t, either – but using a similar approach will give this Encino man the best chance to thaw opposing hitters’ bats. 

Freshman of the Week: Christian Serrano – North Carolina State University 

Serrano comes from a baseball family. His father, Sammy, was a catcher who was selected in the 2nd Round of the 1998 MLB Draft by the San Francisco Giants out of Stetson University. Older brother, Eli, is an outfielder and was taken in the 4th Round of the 2024 MLB Draft by the New York Mets – and, like Christian, played for North Carolina State. Serrano was originally set to graduate high school in May 2026, but reclassified and came to Raleigh, North Carolina, a year early. Instead of getting ready for prom, he is terrorizing ACC pitching.  

Under the watchful eyes of our own Craig Cozart, following from scout seats this weekend, Serrano made the most of his first real opportunity to contribute for the Wolfpack. After a big weekend, he is sporting Landon Hairston-type numbers with a .455 AVG / .481 OBP / .682 SLG / 1.163 OPS albeit in only 27 PA’s. North Carolina State has been just as impressed with the defense – playing a perfect SS with zero errors at the time of this writing – as with the offense. It’s still early for Serrano but expect an expanded role for the remainder of the season and into 2027. This prospect is coming on at just the right time for NC State, and time will tell if his name is called before his father’s, and brothers were in the MLB Draft.  

Carry Tool: Power. Standing 6’4 / 185, Serrano is lean, athletic, and ultra-projectable with room to fill another 25-30 pounds of muscle. Serrano is an above average defender and a plus runner, who Perfect Game timed at 6.71 in the 60-Yard Dash last year, but his carry tool is Power. If you squint your eyes hard enough, you can see a little bit of a young Troy Tulowitzki build and power type upside. It’s still really early, but there is a lot to be excited about with Serrano – it will be fascinating to see how his Power develops, his career progresses, and where he is drafted. 

National Nuggets:

We celebrate performance in this column with our Players of the Week, but sometimes it’s instructive to profile a prospect after a tough outing or series … as I mentioned above, Craig Cozart was in Winston-Salem this past weekend and saw Wake Forest’s Friday Night Starter, Chris Levonas, saying he didn’t see a Fastball under 98 in the 1st inning and saw several 99’s along with strong off-speed stuff … Levonas went 4.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 7 SO at home against a resurgent Louisville lineup, but has been much better overall in the 2026 season at 8-3, 3.28 ERA with 60.1 IP, 41 BB, 27 BB, 96 SO … it’s a big step forward from an uneven freshman season (5.91 ERA) for the New Jersey prep product who has two plus-plus offerings with his FB and a wipeout hard CB … the CB has been his out pitch and, this year, hitters are only hitting .104 AVG / .424 OPS with 42 SO in 67 AB against the CB … the opportunity for Levonas is to develop a third pitch, as he has thrown his CH less than 5% of the time and has struggled more against LH hitters (.247 AVG / .885 OPS) than he has against RH hitters (.154 AVG / .493 OPS) … good organizations can help him neutralize LH hitters in pro ball by developing a CH, but it’s hard to teach 98-99 with a plus-plus hard CB … Levonas was the highest-drafted prep pitcher (#70 overall by the Milwaukee Brewers) not to sign in the 2024 MLB Draft … it makes sense the Brewers took a chance on Levonas because that plus-plus CB frequently exceeds 3,000 RPM and his pure stuff (if not his physical appearance) probably most closely resembles that of Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski – how scary would that starting pitching tandem be? … the only player not to sign taken ahead of Levonas was Tyler Bell (#66 overall by the Tampa Bay Rays), who has a chance to go in the top-half of the first round in the 2026 MLB Draft … watch for Levonas to be taken in a similar range, if not higher, in the 2027 MLB Draft, especially if he can continue his development and progression 
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College | Story | 8/7/2026

Cape Cod League Notebook: August 7
Perfect Game Staff
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RHP Jason Flores (@BaseballUGA) Showed some electric stuff, up to 98 several times CT, SL, CH to round out the arsenal in his 5IP 9K performance. @HarwichMariners So./‘27 elig pic.twitter.com/p2nTvkFnWh — PG College Baseball (@PGCollegeBall) August 5, 2026 Jason Flores | RHP | University of Georgia | Harwich Mariners  Flores heads to Georgia this fall looking to reestablish himself as one of the premier arms in the 2027 draft class after showing significant promise during his freshman season at Texas. Flores posted a 2.78 ERA over 32.1 innings as a freshman before a limited sophomore campaign in which he logged just 12 innings. The stuff was on full display this summer, highlighted by a dominant five-inning, nine-strikeout playoff performance in which he touched 98 mph five different times. His fastball averaged nearly 96 mph throughout his time on the Cape, pairing the...
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All American Game | Story | 8/16/2026

Romero Slams His Way to Classic MVP

Jim Salisbury
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PHILADELPHIA – Sunday’s DICK’s Perfect Game All-American Classic was a pitching-dominated affair until the bottom of the eighth inning when the rain started to fall at Citizens Bank Park and Koa Romero stepped to the plate and did his best impression of Kyle Schwarber. Romero wears No. 12, just like Schwarber. He bats left-handed, just like Schwarber. He’s got big power, just like Schwarber. And at 5-10 and a rock-solid 225 pounds, he’s even built like Schwarber. Needless to say, Schwarber is Romero’s favorite player. So, it was all kind of storybook when Romero belted a grand slam to dead center to cap off the scoring in the West team’s 8-3 win over the East club in the 24th annual Classic. “This is a dream come true,” said Romero, who was named MVP of the game. “It’s amazing to be able to put a ball like that out of a...
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All American Game | Story | 8/15/2026

A Philly Dream for Steingall

Jim Salisbury
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PHILADELPHIA – Carson Steingall had been to Citizens Bank Park many times over the years. After all, he hails from Nazareth, Pa., about 90 minutes up the road from the home of the Philadelphia Phillies and he counts himself as a big fan of the team. Zack Wheeler is his favorite. Steingall realized a dream when he pitched from the same mound that Wheeler does in Perfect Game’s fourth annual All-Star Game for rising sophomores and juniors on Friday. The dream got even better when Steingall, a 16-year-old right-hander, was named Most Valuable Pitcher after striking out the side in the third inning of the National team’s 6-1 victory over the American team. “It’s just an honor to be here,” Steingall said after receiving his trophy. “This event is the best of the best. It’s really cool to win something like this.” Steingall, who’ll...
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Showcase | Story | 8/13/2026

PG Honors Pat Gillick With Philly Showcase

Perfect Game Staff
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Perfect Game to honor Pat Gillick in new Philadelphia Showcase  By Maya Heyman Perfect Game is bringing its elite showcase experience to Philadelphia’s FDR Park for the inaugural Philly Stars/Pat Gillick Showcase this weekend, honoring one of the greatest executives in MLB history in the city where he constructed his final of three World Series winners. The event will take place on Sunday, the same day as the DICK’S All-American Classic, taking place just across the street at Citizens Bank Park.  The showcase will allow Philadelphia-area players to gain exposure and will also honor Gillick, who has been a tremendous influence in both professional and amateur baseball.   Jered Goodwin, Vice President of Scouting Operations for Perfect Game, said the idea came naturally.  “Going to Philly made a lot of sense to honor Pat Gillick, who's been a...
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General | General | 8/13/2026

PG All-Star Game Heads to Philly

Jheremy Brown
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For the fourth time since its inception in 2023, two rosters comprised of the best rising juniors (and a handful of rising sophomores) will step out onto the field Friday afternoon, kicking off the All-American weekend. While the Perfect Game All-American Classic is slated for a 1:35 first pitch at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday, 36 future hopefuls of the Classic will go up against one another in an American vs National clash at 11 AM Eastern, Friday morning.  With 36 players from across the country descending on Philadelphia, there will be plenty of familiar names in attendance as 24 of the 36 played in at least one PG Select Festival and all 36 attended either the he Sophomore National, Junior National, or the PG Underclass All-American Games this summer. Leading the charge are a pair of No. 1s in 2028 dynamic talent Dexter McCleon Jr and 2029 Macgraw VanWormer, a do-it-all...
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Tournaments | Championship | 8/12/2026

Pokers Rally to Capture 16U BCS Title

Alyssa Golden
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Pokers Rally to Capture 16U BCS Title A hot afternoon at JetBlue Stadium in Fort Myers, Florida ended in a 9-1 victory for the Original Florida Pokers 2028 National, defeating SBA Bolts Florida 2028 National on Monday to capture the 16U BCS National Championship. A pitchers’ duel kept the game scoreless through four innings before the Pokers broke it open with a five-run fifth inning. The title marked the Pokers’ second 16U BCS Championship, adding to the championship they won in 2022. Despite a slow start to the summer, the Pokers found their stride at the right time. “We struggled a lot early in the summer, but the past few tournaments we really started turning it on,” Pokers head coach Will McCrimon said. “I’m just so proud of these kids.” Max Maynes started the game on the mound for the Pokers. The left-hander allowed three hits and two walks...
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Draft | Story | 8/11/2026

Realistic Expectations of a 1:1 Pick

Tyler Henninger
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Over the 2026 draft cycle, UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky was the projected No. 1 pick throughout the entire cycle. White Sox fans began #RochWatch and were already talking about when he will make it to Chicago. Now that he has been selected, Cholowsky has immediately become a Top-10 prospect in all of baseball. There is no denying the hype, and the pressure, for Chowlosky to get to the big leagues and produce at a high level.  But how realistic is that? Let’s take a look back at past 1:1 selections and see what you can expect from a No. 1 overall selection.  For this exercise, we’ll look at No. 1 overall picks from the bonus pool era, excluding Eli Willits from 2025 since this is his first full year of pro ball. That gives us 13 players selected from 2012 through 2024.  Almost All Become Big Leaguers The first thing that stands out is how successful No. 1 picks...
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Press Release | Press Release | 8/11/2026

Perfect Game & Goat'd Come Together

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  667 Progress Way | Sanford, FL 32771 | 319-298-2923 www.perfectgame.org | facebook.com/perfectgameusa | @PerfectGameUSA     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   PERFECT GAME AND GOAT'D PARTNER TO BRING PREMIUM PROTECTIVE GEAR TO THE NATION'S TOP AMATEUR BASEBALL PLAYERS   Sanford, Florida (Tuesday, August 11, 2026) - Perfect Game, the world’s largest youth baseball and softball platform and scouting service, today announced a new partnership with Goat'd, a premium protective gear brand focused on developing innovative products for athletes. The partnership will bring Goat'd's premium protective equipment to some of the nation's top amateur baseball players and families across Perfect Game's premier national events. The partnership will debut at several of Perfect Game's marquee events, including the 13U Select Fest, 14U Select Fest, Perfect Game All-Star Game and...
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General | General | 8/8/2026

12U Game Time: 8/9/2026 1PM Eastern

Perfect Game Staff
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Sunday August 9th, 2026 1:00PM Eastern DICK'S Sporting Goods Park at East Cobb West vs. East Follow and watch the game
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General | General | 8/8/2026

11U Game Time: 8/8/2026 Noon Eastern

Perfect Game Staff
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Saturday August 8th, 2026 12:00PM Eastern DICK'S Sporting Goods Park at East Cobb West vs. East Follow and watch the game
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Draft | Story | 8/7/2026

2026 MLB Draft Team Reports: NL West

Tyler Henninger
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2026 MLB Draft Team Report Cards: AL West With the 2026 MLB Draft officially in the books, it’s time to evaluate how each team performed. Every draft class was graded using the standard 20-80 scouting scale with risk factor assigned. While these grades won’t be proven right or wrong for years, they reflect the overall talent, value, and upside each organization added to its system. NL West Arizona Diamondbacks  Grade: 50 Risk: High Notable Selections: C Ryder Helfrick (1st rd) | RHP Blake Bryant (CB-A rd) | SS Carson Kerce (2nd rd) | OF Brayden Dowd (3rd rd)  Ryder Helfrick (@RazorbackBSB ) different AB; same result. He goes dead central for a solo 💣 this time. Threw a runner out earlier; 1.98 pop. #PGCollege @PG_Draft https://t.co/kW7wraqExJ pic.twitter.com/SARYKxd0oE — PG College Baseball (@PGCollegeBall) February 14, 2026 The Diamondbacks started their...
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