Prep Baseball Report

2019 Newcomer Breakdowns: Classes 6-10


Aaron Fitt
D1Baseball.com Co-Editor

Every fall, D1Baseball ranks the Top 25 recruiting classes in the country. This year, for the first time, we decided to wait until the end of the fall to rank the Top 25 classes, so that all the additional insights we gain by traveling the country watching scrimmages and writing fall reports can help inform our rankings. Then, in December, we got together with Nathan Rode and Shooter Hunt of our partners at Prep Baseball Report and hammered out which groups of newcomers stand out the most. Nobody knows high school baseball prospects like Rode and Hunt, so their perspective combined with our fall travels and conversations with coaches and scouts give us the most well-informed recruiting class rankings anywhere.

The analysis of each class was written by either Aaron Fitt, Nathan Rode or Shooter Hunt.

**Player rankings in parentheses refer to where current freshmen ranked in the 2019 Overall Rankings (which also includes players who signed pro contracts out of high school this past summer).

SEE ALSO: Classes 1-5 | Classes 11-15 | Classes 16-20 | Classes 21-25

6. Mississippi State

Mississippi StateRecruiting Coordinator: Jake Gautreau.

Overview: The Bulldogs filled a slew of holes with a large recruiting class that included 13 freshmen and eight juco transfers, as well as two immediately eligible four-year transfers. There’s plenty of immediate impact potential, but this crop really stands out most for its depth and balance.

The Stars: This class is anchored by a quartet of power-armed and projectable right-handers, two of whom are legitimate high-end two-way talents. Freshman righty K.C. Hunt (37), the younger brother of former Tulane star and current Prep Baseball Report superstar writer Shooter Hunt, is oozing with projection at 6-foot-3, 176 pounds. He’s a gifted athlete who runs a 6.7-second 60-yard dash and has legitimate two-way ability, and it’s easy to envision him throwing in the mid-90s as he matures—but he already shows advanced feel for a changeup and two distinct breaking balls. C/RHP Logan Tanner showed off his incredible arm strength off the mound in our visit to Starkville this fall, pumping 91-95 mph gas, and coach Chris Lemonis said he has been up to 97 this fall, so it stands to reason he might have more of a key role in the bullpen as a freshman than as a catcher. But Tanner also has some of the best raw power on the team, and he’s loose and flexible behind the dish, where he clearly has a bright future.

Fellow freshman righty Landon Sims (86) is an athletic high-3/4 righty who showed a very heavy fastball at 90-94 and bumped 96 this fall. He also showed a promising 83 mph slider and some feel for an 84 mph changeup in our look, giving him the arsenal to carve out a role as a midweek starter as a freshman, unless MSU asks him to let it fly in short stints in the bullpen. Another freshman righty, Will Bednar (169), can run his heater up to 96 and features a good 85-86 slider/cutter that can get outs.

Premium Content Area

This article is only available to PBRPlus Subscribers. If you wish to continue reading this article:

Login to the Subscriptions Website.
To purchase a NEW SUBSCRIPTION, please click here to go to our subscription products page.