Prep Baseball Report

Denver Summer Open: Pitching Data Dive


Cam Black-Araujo
PBR Colorado Operations

On June 20th, the PBR Colorado staff hosted the Denver Summer Open at Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, Colorado. This event featured around 28 uncommitted prospects from the 2024 - 2027 classes and allowed our staff an opportunity to get an in-depth look at the players in attendance.

Today we'll start our deep dive into the data collected at this event within this Pitching Data Dive story. Over the next couple of days we’ll be diving deeper into all of the data we collected rolling out even more coverage from the event.

For complete event results, click here.
To view upcoming event schedule, click here.

FASTBALL

MAX VELOCITY (MPH)

Rank Name State School Class Pos Velocity (max)
1 Connor Hicks CO Legacy 2025 RHP 86.3 mph
2 Wade Thewes CO Lutheran 2024 3B 83.5 mph
3 Silas Baucke CO Yuma 2025 RHP 82.0 mph
4 Brady Booth CO Chaparral 2024 OF 80.8 mph
5 Kyle Cacciavillani CO Grandview 2025 OF 79.7 mph

Max Fastball Velocity: This metric calculates the speed of the pitch as it’s released from the pitcher’s hand.

SPIN RATE (AVG)

Rank Name State School Class Pos Spin Rate (avg)
1 Kaiden Krause CO Legend 2025 3B 2305 rpm
2 Brady Booth CO Chaparral 2024 OF 2249 rpm
3 Wade Thewes CO Lutheran 2024 3B 2165 rpm
4 Connor Hicks CO Legacy 2025 RHP 2152 rpm
5 Kyle Cacciavillani CO Grandview 2025 OF 2110 rpm

Spin Rate: This metric calculates the rate of spin on the baseball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand, measured in revolutions per minute (rpm). Historical data shows that high-spin fastballs lessen the impact of gravity, allowing for more ‘rise’ (or less fall, in other words) as it carries through the zone. Low-spin fastballs typically indicate the pitch has greater horizontal action, often making it tougher to square up, but generally easier to make contact with, leading to more ground balls, while high-spin fastballs show a correlation with swings and misses.

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

Rank Name State School Class Pos IVB (avg)
1 Braxton Macias CO Rock Canyon 2027 RHP 14.7 in
2 Silas Baucke CO Yuma 2025 RHP 14.4 in
3 Steffen Kennedy-Bierbrodt CO Niwot 2025 RHP 13.7 in
4 Judah Howe CO Sargent 2027 LHP 12.4 in
5 Kaiden Krause CO Legend 2025 3B 11.4 in

Induced Vertical Break: Used in short form as "IVB," this metric is most important on fastballs for creating rise and on curveballs for creating depth – it can also have some use when measuring sliders and cutters as well. Sliders tend to be closer to zero inches while cutters are generally between 5 and 15 inches. Usually fastballs and curveballs with large IVB have higher spin efficiencies as well. Sliders generally have very little (closer to zero) IVB and very low spin efficiency. You could also categorize IVB into spin rate as this is part of the “useful movement” you’re looking for. IVB is also a huge part of the vertical approach angle.

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

Rank Name State School Class Pos HM (avg)
1 Kyle Cacciavillani CO Grandview 2025 OF 10.7
2 Cade Holles CO Cherry Creek 2026 RF 10.6
3 Wade Thewes CO Lutheran 2024 3B 10.4
4 Judah Howe CO Sargent 2027 LHP -10.0
5 Steffen Kennedy-Bierbrodt CO Niwot 2025 RHP 9.9

Horizontal Break: Outlined on TrackMan’s own website: “... horizontal movement is measured in inches between where the pitch actually crosses the front of home plate side-wise, and where it would have crossed home plate side-wise if had it traveled in a perfectly straight line from release. A positive number means the break was to the right from the pitcher’s perspective, while a negative number means the break was to the left from the pitcher’s perspective.”

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

Rank Name State School Class Pos Zone %
1 Brady Booth CO Chaparral 2024 OF 62 %
2 Connor Hicks CO Legacy 2025 RHP 50 %
^ Braxton Macias CO Rock Canyon 2027 RHP 50 %
3 Steffen Kennedy-Bierbrodt CO Niwot 2025 RHP 42 %
^ Judah Howe CO Sargent 2027 LHP 42 %

CURVEBALL

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

Rank Name State School Class Pos Spin Rate (avg)
1 Wade Thewes CO Lutheran 2024 3B 2412 rpm
2 Kyle Cacciavillani CO Grandview 2025 OF 2307 rpm
3 Connor Hicks CO Legacy 2025 RHP 2303 rpm
4 Brady Booth CO Chaparral 2024 OF 2180 rpm
5 Cody Romero CO Chatfield 2025 1B 2049 rpm

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

Rank Name State School Class Pos IVB (avg)
1 Judah Howe CO Sargent 2027 LHP 10.5 in
2 Braxton Macias CO Rock Canyon 2027 RHP -9.7 in
3 Cade Holles CO Cherry Creek 2026 RF 7.6 in
4 Wade Thewes CO Lutheran 2024 3B -5.9 in
5 Silas Baucke CO Yuma 2025 RHP 4.0 in

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

Rank Name State School Class Pos HM (avg)
1 Wade Thewes CO Lutheran 2024 3B -11.0
2 Kyle Cacciavillani CO Grandview 2025 OF -10.6
3 Brady Booth CO Chaparral 2024 OF 10.4
4 Connor Hicks CO Legacy 2025 RHP -9.4
5 Cody Romero CO Chatfield 2025 1B -4.2

STRIKE ZONE %

Rank Name State School Class Pos Zone %
1 Silas Baucke CO Yuma 2025 RHP 66 %
^ Judah Howe CO Sargent 2027 LHP 66 %
^ Cody Romero CO Chatfield 2025 1B 66 %
2 Kyle Cacciavillani CO Grandview 2025 OF 60 %
3 Wade Thewes CO Lutheran 2024 3B 50 %

SLIDER

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

Rank Name State School Class Pos Spin Rate (avg)
1 Kaiden Krause CO Legend 2025 3B 2297
2 Kyle Cacciavillani CO Grandview 2025 OF 2286
3 Connor Hicks CO Legacy 2025 RHP 2285

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

Rank Name State School Class Pos IVB (avg)
1 Kaiden Krause CO Legend 2025 3B -2.6 in
2 Connor Hicks CO Legacy 2025 RHP 1.5 in
3 Kyle Cacciavillani CO Grandview 2025 OF -1.1 in

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

Rank Name State School Class Pos HM (avg)
1 Kyle Cacciavillani CO Grandview 2025 OF -8.3
2 Connor Hicks CO Legacy 2025 RHP -7.4
3 Kaiden Krause CO Legend 2025 3B -5.6

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

Rank Name State School Class Pos Zone %
1 Connor Hicks CO Legacy 2025 RHP 100 %
2 Kyle Cacciavillani CO Grandview 2025 OF 50 %
^ Kaiden Krause CO Legend 2025 3B 50 %

CHANGEUP

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

Rank Name State School Class Pos HM (avg)
1 Steffen Kennedy-Bierbrodt CO Niwot 2025 RHP 13.3
2 Wade Thewes CO Lutheran 2024 3B 9.1
3 Silas Baucke CO Yuma 2025 RHP 8.0
4 Judah Howe CO Sargent 2027 LHP -4.8
5 Brady Booth CO Chaparral 2024 OF -4.1

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

Rank Name State School Class Pos Zone %
1 Braxton Macias CO Rock Canyon 2027 RHP 100 %
2 Cody Romero CO Chatfield 2025 1B 60 %
3 Silas Baucke CO Yuma 2025 RHP 50 %
^ Steffen Kennedy-Bierbrodt CO Niwot 2025 RHP 50 %

upcoming events

SHOWCASE STATE DATE LOCATION
NOCO Summer Open CO 06/27 Fossil Ridge High School - Fort Collins, CO
Western Slope Open CO 07/11 Colorado Mesa University - Grand Junction, CO
Pueblo Summer Open CO 07/18 Colorado State University Pueblo - Pueblo, CO
PBR Junior Future Games NATIONAL 07/25 LakePoint
2023 PBR Future Games (Colorado Invite) CO 07/26 LakePoint Sports - Cartersville, GA
2023 PBR West Coast Games CO 08/04 UNLV & College of Southern Nevada
Colorado State Games (Invite-Only) CO 08/08 Regency Athletic Complex at Metro State University (Denver)


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