On Feb. 25, the PBR Illinois staff hosted the Preseason All-State: Upperclass showcase at The MAX in McCook, Ill., featuring many of the state’s top players inside the 2024 class. This event helped our staff gain a clearer picture of the on-the-rise prospects in Illinois, and we’ll begin to break down the event thoroughly today and throughout the week. Inside today’s Quick Hits post, we’re highlighting the best of the best – the talent that exited the event with arrows pointed way up headed into the spring.

Last week, we took a closer look at some of the immediate standouts who caught our attention with our Quick Hits. Yesterday, we published our statistical analysis, where we broke down the stat leaders from the more traditional categories. Today, we will take a further in-depth look at the top pitchers with the help of our tech partnerships, broken down by the categories down below: 

TRACKMAN

FASTBALL

VELOCITY (MAX)

Rank	Name	State	School	Class	Pos	Velocity (max)
1	Ryan Sloan	IL	York	2024	RHP	94.5 mph
2	Luke Weber	IL	Highland Park	2024	RHP	91.3 mph
3	Jack Olson	IL	Antioch	2024	RHP	91.3 mph
4	Tom Ford	IL	Lisle	2024	RHP	91.2 mph
5	Luke Oblen	IL	DePaul College Prep	2024	RHP	90.9 mph
6	Jeremy Allen	IL	Hersey	2024	RHP	90.4 mph
7	Aidan Hayse	IL	Joliet Catholic Academy	2024	RHP	90.3 mph
8	Joshua Vaughn	IL	Illini Bluffs	2024	RHP	89.9 mph
9	Cole Noreuil	IL	Delavan	2024	RHP	89.8 mph
10	Bryce Koch	IL	Barrington	2024	RHP	89.7 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 Nichols	IL	Effingham	2024	LHP	2735 rpm
2	Bryce Koch	IL	Barrington	2024	RHP	2490 rpm
3	Frankie Bilecki	IL	Marist	2024	LHP	2358 rpm
4	Tom Ford	IL	Lisle	2024	RHP	2297 rpm
5	Trevor Rehnstrom	IL	Glenbard East	2024	RHP	2287 rpm
6	Kaileb Hackman	IL	Normal Community	2024	3B	2274 rpm
7	Luke Oblen	IL	DePaul College Prep	2024	RHP	2271 rpm
8	Joshua Caccia	IL	St. Charles North	2024	RHP	2270 rpm
9	Toby Schriefer	IL	Bradley Bourbonnais	2024	RHP	2241 rpm
10	Jack Olson	IL	Antioch	2024	RHP	2240 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.)

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.)

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%

Average MLB pitchers throw 62% strikes, and better pitchers throw strikes 65% of the time, or roughly 2:1 strikes to balls.

 

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CURVEBALL

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

 

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SLIDER

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

 

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CHANGEUP

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

+ CLICK HERE for a look at the complete statistics from the event.

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