Brock
Vradenburg

Vradenburg impressed this past weekend at Illinois. The big man (6-foot-7, 230 pounds) moves really well for any size, running a sub 4.20 down the line from the left side. He’s also agile and nimble around the first base bag, showed good hands on short hop picks and presents a large target for his infielders. He’s also one of the most-improved players in the nation, currently leading the Big Ten in batting average (.443) by a longshot as second place currently sits at .403. He also leads in SLG (.805) and OPS (1.336). Last season, he batted .280 with an .809 OPS. Even more impressive is the fact that he walks (30) more than he strikes out (22). Big Ten pitching this season is down overall as the conference lost several top arms, including Sean Sullivan (Northwestern to Wake Forest), Joe Whitman (Purdue to Kent State), Troy Wansing (Purdue to Texas A&M), but Vradenburg’s current numbers don’t lie. And he’s just not some extra-large bodied slugger. His bat control was obvious during his first at-bat of the series as he flipped a line drive single into center field on a well-placed fastball. Currently, he does hit way too many ground balls (55% ground ball rate), yet he has still produced 12 home runs and 18 doubles to date. When he does elevate, the damage is obvious. His top exit velocities from the weekend series included 110.8 (double), 108.4 (groundout) and 107.9 (groundout) as his top shots. With future swing adjustment he has the potential to slug in the middle of a MLB lineup. At present Vradenburg is considered more of a fifth round pick by the industry, but he will likely continue to rise up draft boards as the season continues. His tools, production and potential are just too vast.