Prep Baseball Report

Georgia Class of 2023 Rankings Update


Justin Goetz
Assistant Scouting Director

The start of the spring season means it’s time to revisit the 2023 Rankings. With the 2023 MLB Draft less than 5 months away, this is an incredibly important update. We are strictly basing these rankings on OFP (overall future potential), or who will have the most impactful baseball career at the games highest level. The conclusion on each players OFP comes from a mixture of raw tools, unteachable traits (intangibles), projection, and mental makeup.

We have some movement in the Top 10, including an impressive newcomer. LHP Luke Dotson makes a big splash with his rare FB, going from No. 11 to No. 8. The Top 4 remain the same, and three players have moved up one spot - Change up king RHP/SS Tai Peete, Super 60 Legend OF Drew Burress, and twitchy flamethrower RHP Luke McNeillie.



THE TOP-10

Rank Name High School Position Commitment
1 Colin Houck Parkview SS Mississippi St
2 Antonio Anderson North Atlanta SS Georgia Tech
3 Dylan Cupp
Cedartown SS Mississippi St
4 Mikhai Grant Georgia Premier RHP Mississippi State
5 Tai Peete
Trinity Christian
RHP/SS
Georgia Tech
6 Drew Burress
Houston County
OF Georgia Tech
7 Luke McNeillie
Milton RHP Florida
8 Luke Dotson
Mt. Paran LHP Mississippi State
9 Jeffrey “Mac” Heuer
Homeschool RHP Texas Tech
10 Porter Buursema
Blessed Trinity RHP Georgia Southern

 

ON THE CLIMB

 

Garrett Lambert RHP / Parkview, GA / 2023

Mercer Commit. 6-foot-2, 200 pounds. The rise in his prospect status and stuff over the past year is only matched by a couple others in the class. Recognized by PBR Georgia as a “Pick 2 Click” last October for the upcoming 2023 draft, there are so many qualities that brought us to picking him as a potential helium guy. It all starts with athleticism and his advanced, well sequenced delivery. The gradual buildup of pace creates easy operation, and his ability to control the body well with good direction (starts with good footwork) is a starter quality. Garrett lets his loose, lengthy arm action develop in perfect sequence. His patience in the upper body over the rubber as he works downhill is exceptional, as most pitchers with this sort of length in the arm action miss up & away arm side. Instead, he only benefits from his effortless arm action. Due to the depth of the AA, it connects with his largest muscles in the legs+core and creates more momentum from hand break to throwing position. It also gives him impressive extension as his chest works over the front knee and arm nears release, causing his FB to explode out of hand and play up his velo. These are all big keys to why Lambert throws consistent strikes with 3 pitches. The delivery is so clean that his arm can work freely and easily, with no negative impacts on his stuff. He has advanced lower half mechanics - sits into legs very well and they hold up strong at landing, maintaining connection to rubber in stride. He’s in a powerful position to throw near landing with balanced weight distribution between the backside and front side. Nothing Lambert throws is straight, as he gets different life to both edges with his FB and has two distinct breaking balls. Now sitting 90-92 T93 with his versatile riding FB and throwing a sharp SL in the 81-83 range, Lambert has two pitches that get consistent swing & miss both in & out of the zone. With a consistent CB and developing CH, I believe he will have four usable pitches at the ML level one day. With a strong, durable frame, he’s a no doubt #4 starter for us.

Andrew Dunford RHP / RHP / Houston County, GA / 2023

EMercer Commit. 6-foot-7, 235 pounds. How many HS arms with the frame of a D1 Power Forward do you know that throw strikes to both edges with two pitches? Yeah, I can’t think of any either. But Dunford’s FB and SL aren’t just two typical pitches, they’re extremely unique. His 90-92 FB has A/AVG potential, and will always play up at least a half grade due to deception and angle. He keeps posture well creating a steep plane despite his unique, lower release height. It’s a heavy pitch with explosive run that he’ll be able to dominate with for innings at a time. Dunford has an easy arm strength+arm speed combo with more velo coming. The 79-81 SL has A/AVG potential with sharp sweep and late depth, flashing two plane often. Like his FB, this pitch will always play up a half grade or better due to unbelievably tough angle. He has impressive feel backdoor and to LHH, glove side to RHH, and freezes when it backs up. His unique characteristics in the delivery create a very intimidating look for hitters - the FB, SL start behind RHH which plays up both pitches tremendously. To LHH, it's a ridiculously tough angle that's very difficult to time up. Every strike he throws starts outside of the zone and ends up in the zone, which is a confusing adjustment for hitters. Just when they get comfortable with it, he can get swing & miss outside the zone. His 80 mph CH shows nice fading action and has plenty of potential to be used against LHH consistentlyAnother huge factor for me on Dunford as a prospect is the plus ease of operation he works down the hill with. He creates explosiveness from good rhythm and a strong lower half with very little stress on the body, which bodes extremely well for a future jump in velo. It also tells me he will be able to hold velocity without having to empty the tank, giving him an ability to command his pitches while keeping his stuff effective as he goes deep into starts. He gives an intriguing look to scouts and is as good a bet as any to make a big jump this spring. Andrew’s draft status and helium potential will undoubtedly benefit from fellow teammate and heavily scouted big time prospect Drew Burress the rest of the spring. We feel very good about him being a #4 or #5 starter at the ML level one day.

Bo Rhudy RHP / Gordon Lee , GA / 2023

Kennesaw State Commit. 6-foot-4, 225 pounds. This 2021 Future Gamer has climbed exactly how we hoped over the past two years. He’s only gotten taller, stronger, and more explosive and the velocity has been on a steady climb. In fact, Rhudy has more of a prototype MLB body than most big leaguers right now. This certainly puts him at a huge advantage in the twitch department, and his hard work in the weight room over the past year has taken him from 88-91 to 90-93 T94 early in outings (94 4x on 2/22, verified by MLB scouts) with rumors of even larger velos. While high spin breaking balls are uncommon, high spin FB’s are extremely rare. Finding a HS arm with ELITE MLB spin at 18 years old is like finding a unicorn, and that’s what you’re getting with Bo. Averaging RPM’s in the 2600’s is on par with the top 1% of MLB, so seeing his velocity creep into the mid 90’s with this type of spin is absolutely shocking. The pitch has been into the mid 2800’s, and his goal is to break the MLB record for FB spin. You know what? This is a real possibility, as he’s already top of the scale spin currently. The FB literally hovers at the top of the zone all 60 feet, creating illusion to hitters that got him 12 in zone FB whiffs two days ago. The riding life is electric and stays true in the middle of the upper quadrant, with occasional cut+ride to the glove side edge being just as devastating to hitters. This frame can easily hold another 10 lbs and maintain, even improve mobility due to his hard work in that area. When he rips off the makings of a power 75-78 CB in the 2700 RPM range with consistent 11-5 shape, you start to see how truly unique this arm is. Both pitches have plus potential and he’s thrown enough solid CH’s for us to believe it can turn into a fringe to avg pitch in the future. If not, he can take advantage of his natural ability to supinate with his current 4th pitch, the SL. Due to the rare traits of his FB, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the pitch go beyond plus in a relief role. So I see this as a guy who will sit mid 90’s and reach upper as an impact setup or occasional All-Star closer currently. But we’re not ruling out starter, and will get multiple looks on him before the draft to see how things develop. Regardless he’s firmly entrenched in our top 20.

Ryan Renfroe RHP / Thomasville, GA / 2023

Uncommitted. 6-foot-3, 200 pounds. This lightning quick arm is an example of my favorite part about PBR showcases, the unknown, high end talent that pops up out of nowhere. We got our 1st mound look on him last November at Campus Tour : Georgia Southern. There he was FB 88-91, with a 72-75 SLV up to 2500 RPM that flashed a sharp lateral bite. At that point, he had been pitching for less than a year. Things took another step for Renfroe this January at Preseason All-State, where the heater sat 90-92 T92.8! We were absolutely shocked, but it makes complete sense when you analyze the player. Despite his minimal time on the mound, he already has one of the most explosive deliveries in the class. The way his arm action connects with the largest muscles on the back side (post hand break) is elite mechanically, and they fire violently to the plate together post landing. It's a very clean, lengthy full circle OH AA that will only get more efficient over time. The arm speed is loud, as the ball comes out of the hand screaming. The uniqueness of his FB starts with release height. His 6.7 ft avg release height is almost a foot higher than MLB avg (5.9 ft). This creates the look of “riding life” to go with his sharp run, and gives him atypical bore on the pitch. The natural arch/lean in his delivery keeps him inside the ball and creates a more sudden explosion. It’s different, but I feel it adds something unique and shouldn’t really be adjusted. In his uber athletic 6’3 200 lb frame and lightning quick arm speed, the sky is truly the limit on Renfroe’s velo potential. His sharp SLV is further developing into a SL now with a 3 mph increase in velo, sitting 75-78. The shape on the pitch is still similar, with sharp sweeping action and some depth. Only having a short time to develop the pitch, it surely has A/AVG potential in the future. Innings are what Renfroe needs most, and he will get that at Thomasville this year and at the next level. He’s garnering some interest with pro teams this spring before being committed to a college, which we find amazing. Renfroe is at the tip of the iceberg.

Samuel Parker 1B / LHP / Kennesaw Mountain, GA / 2023

Georgia State Commit. 6-foot-4, 215 pounds. Just as projectable of a bat as he is powerful, Parker is a name warming up across teams radars early this spring, and he’s coming off a huge performance in GDC Week 1. He had 6 QAB in a span of 3 games, and delivered a thunderous boom to the tune of a 105 EV (386 ft) bomb that might’ve hit the champions center. While there is risk in the bat due to swing & miss, you can’t ignore the XL frame and top of the scale raw power potential. He’s improved quite dramatically in the past year from all his experience in big events vs elite HS arms, and an example of that was his 11 pitch AB vs a LHP last weekend. There’s zero question he projects top of the scale raw power, the only question is how often that power will be produced in game. The exciting part about Sam is he can easily hold 20 more lbs of mass, and his bat speed will likely increase with the raw power. He has very impressive makeup and is mature for his age. Parker is very business like in his approach to baseball, and you can tell he has one goal. That goal is obvious, to be an MLB player. It will be extremely interesting to track his career, and he does bring some things to the table other than just raw power. He moves well at 1B and shows plenty of athleticism for the position. He’s been into the upper 80’s on the mound, and uses that arm strength to turn the 2 ball well for his age. As he grows into his body, it’s not out of the question for him to play some corner outfield where his arm would handle that well.

Sims DeLong RHP / 3B / North Atlanta , GA / 2023

Washington & Lee Commit. 6-foot-3, 180 pounds. This is high waisted, uber athletic arm has D1 quality stuff despite his D3 commitment. The best word to describe him is unique. The first thing hitters have trouble with is the tough angle he creates from a slight crossfire, but he also drives the ball downhill extremely well. These two things themselves create an extremely difficult trajectory for hitters, and when you add in his deceptive short circle arm action hitters can’t pick up, we’re really cooking here. Now they have to deal with a high spin (24-2500 RPM) turbo sinker in the 88-90 range that was up to 92 in our most recent look. Not only does the life flash A/AVG and get beat into the ground, but it bores up in the zone and he consistently gets ahead with the pitch. With his electric arm speed and such a projectable, fast twitch frame, there is no question for me there’s potential to sit in the mid 92-94 range and touch higher as a reliever. As a starter in college, I see him sitting in the 91-93 range touching mid once he’s filled into the frame. I do feel he throws plenty enough strikes to start in pro ball one day, but will need to develop a consistent CH to unlock that starter potential. The CB is 73-76 with a sharp, SLV like shape. It spins at MLB avg or better and I feel has the chance to be an A/AVG pitch someday. The FB already plays up and I feel it has plus potential down the line due to movement, angle, steepness, and deceptiveness. Sims will look to capitalize weekly in front of the pro clubs watching his teammates Anderson & Drake, and had one of the outings of the spring so far against a Power 25 squad in Cherokee Bluff.

Cole Eison OF / OF / Alexander , GA / 2023

Columbus State Commit. 5-foot-9, 165 pounds. The IceMan is not only one of the most exciting players I’ve ever watched, but he plays harder than almost anyone I’ve evaluated. This is an endless motor that impacts games in a variety of ways with his A/AVG or better speed. It turns doubles into triples, allows him to steal bags consistently, and helps him produce acrobatic catches and save runs for his defense. Although his wheels are a loud tool, the bat makes even more noise. What has us so high on Eison is not the fact that he dominates showcases with ridiculous Blast Motion numbers (elite rotational acceleration, hand speed, bat speed), it’s that he produces even better barrels in game. With innate bat to ball skills, elite bat speed and perfectly sequenced swing mechanics, all he has to do is time up opposing arms with good hip pace to create violent barrels with ease. His hands flow like water, with one of the most beautiful one piece swings you’ll see. The forward move is perfectly sequenced with elite separation timing & balance and creates easy momentum into landing. When you combine these advanced swing mechanics with elite quick twitch fibers, you get Cole Eison. He makes the game look easy, back spinning lasers to all fields with exceptional power production. He had 7 RBI in 3 games during GDC Week 1! This is truly a common occurrence for him at LakePoint, and we can’t wait to see him in week 2. Imagining the impact his barrel will have on baseballs when he’s between 175-180 pounds is going to be nothing short of insane To have this type of power production output with consistent EV’s of 95+ (the actual definition of Hard-Hit Rate) no matter the quality of arms he faces, we believe this is a true draft prospect in college who is going to produce monster numbers the second he steps on campus. Welcome to the Top 60 Cole!


ADDITIONAL RISERS

Tate McKee, RHP/SS, Mt. Paran - No. 18 to No. 12.
 



Kaleb Cost, OF, Sandy Creek - No. 36 to No. 19.


Brooks House, RHP, Winder-Barrow - No. 44 to No. 24


Wyatt Land, RHP, North Oconee - No. 47 to No. 29.


Caden Carroll, RHP, Cartersville - No. 51 to No. 36.