Class of 2019 State Rankings
January 1, 2019
With 2018 in the rearview mirror and the high school season just around the corner (many California high schools can begin practice toward the end of January), the MLB scouting industry will turn their full attention toward the 2019 draft. With the warm(er) weather in California, area scouts, cross-checkers, scouting directors and even some front office personnel will be blanketing the state early in the year getting an early look at the top high school, junior college, and 4-year college players.
PBR California launched in late January 2018 and by that time many of these players had already verbally committed to college programs. We frequently got out to their high school games last spring to see them in game action and then saw them in national level summer events and tournaments and in a few of our PBR events.
By the time seniors have reached the spring of their senior season they have been scouted quite extensively. Some were highly touted early on and maintained their status near the top of their grad class. Others have steadily climbed as they have worked and developed and just as importantly, have had the opportunities to compete in game competition vs their peers. As players rise in rankings others get pushed down. Such is the nature of rankings.
Today we reveal a California Top 150 with a new #1 overall player. Given the size of the state and the volume of players in the Golden State, it's a fun challenge to create such a sizable ranking. Notable in our top five is the presence of players from Southern California, Northern California and also the Central Coast. California is well-known for prep pitchers and the overall 150 is heavy with pitching, so it would stand to reason that #1 belongs to a pitcher. Will that hold by the draft? We shall see!
Enjoy and as always, please feel free to have your own opinion. Welcome to 2019!
BY THE NUMBERS:
RANKING BY PRIMARY POSITION:
1B: 10 | 2B: 2 | 3B: 5 | SS: 29 | C: 14 | OF: 35 | RHP: 42 | LHP: 13
SCHOOLS BY COMMITMENT:
10: San Diego State
8: California | USC
6: Arizona | Oregon | UCLA | UC Irvine | UC Santa Barbara
5: Arizona State | Cal State Fullerton | Fresno State
4: Long Beach State | St. Mary's | Vanderbilt
3: Cal Poly | San Diego | San Jose State | Stanford | Washington
2: BYU | Cal State Northridge | Michigan | Pacific | Santa Clara | Texas Tech | UC Riverside | Utah
1: Air Force | Baylor | Boise State | Cal State Bakersfield | Claremont Mudd Scripps | Duke | Gonzaga | Indiana | Kansas | Miami | Mississippi | Oregon State | Pepperdine | Purdue | Tennessee | Texas | Texas Christian | Tulane | UC Davis | UC San Diego | UNLV | Washington State
THE TOP FIVE:
| Rank | Name | State | School | Class | Pos | Commitment |
| 1 | Spencer Jones | CA | La Costa Canyon | 2019 | LHP/1B | Vanderbilt |
| 2 | Kyren Paris | CA | Freedom | 2019 | SS | California |
| 3 | Brooks Lee | CA | San Luis Obispo | 2019 |
SS | Cal Poly |
| 4 | Derek Diamond | CA | Ramona | 2019 |
RHP | |
| 5 | Joshua Hahn | CA | Huntington Beach | 2019 | LHP/1B | UCLA |