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The start of the school year can signify the end of the summer season.  With the end of the summer, and the start of the fall, our scouting staff went to work to compile information on all the players that were seen over the past 3 months.  The Prep Baseball Scouting staff saw close to 1000 athletes this summer, updating and adding player grades in the rankings database.

The process of rankings players can be somewhat simple but it does take a ton of time and effort.  For every player the Prep Baseball scouting staff in NC sees, they work to put a player grade on the player and a confidence rating on the grade.  The confidence rating can be related to the number of times a player is seen, and the number of different ways that player is evaluated.  Once ready, the database is sorted blindly, with all player information hidden outside the player grade, confidence rating, and tool grades.  When the data base is sorted by player grade, the tool grades are used to flush out players with similar overall grades.   As the sorting process is finished, the rankings are basically set.  Our scouting staff will go through the list to see if there are any outliers, where the grade may have been off for one reason or another.  As this process is finished, the rankings are ready to post.

The updated 2026 class rankings has expanded to the top 250 players in the state. Now Juniors in high school the recruiting period is wide open.  With new rules in place for this class and how D1 teams can build their rosters, it will be interesting to see if the analytics remain the same in terms of number of athletes getting the chance to play baseball and how the breakdown happens across the class to different classifications of college baseball.

Below we begin the process of breaking down the top talent in the 2026 class.  While we are still in the beginning phases of getting ot know all the players in the 2026 class, there is an obvious level of talent at the top of the chart, as well as throughout the entire rankings list.  Expanded to the top 250 players, the updated North Carolina class of 2026 rankings can be seen HERE.

2026 Class Rankings Update

High Risers from the Recent Release