Birmingham Preseason ID: Event Preview

Each prospect's recruiting process starts and ends with the Player Profile, and our showcases revolve around building up that profile, maximizing its content and reach. For first-time attendees, a new player profile will be created, hosting all of your information, videos, head shot, metrics and more, making it one of the most important tools in a prospect's recruiting process.

Repeat showcase performances will continue to update your player profile, creating a history of prospect progress and ensuring the most up-to-date information is easily accessible throughout the fast-paced scouting community. These profiles are also searchable by a range of data points and metrics through our advanced search engine, making it a one-stop shop for recruiters and scouts.

Prep Baseball stats captured at its showcases, published inside its player profiles, are the industry standard in the scouting community, carrying the highest level of credibility in actionable data. Prep Baseball profiles are the most reliable resources for prospect information due to this reason alone.

Stats are collected using only the highest of standard equipment including Swift laser timers, TrackMan ball tracking technology, Blast Motion swing sensors, and Stalker radars. All stats are hosted in player profiles accompanied by Performance Tiers that show where a prospect ranks among his peers.

All prospect performances will be professionally video taped, edited and uploaded into their Prep Baseball Profile. Videos will consist of multiple angles and record all aspects of the showcase including 60s, live batting practice, bullpen sessions, and defensive performances.

Videos are hosted in Prep Baseball Profiles and used for video spotlights, content, social media and more. Videos are accessible to all PBR+ subscribers.

Prep Baseball is built at the hands of some of the most tenured and respected scouts in the industry. We pride ourselves on our level of prospect knowledge, most of which is gained through our events. Showcases are designed and engineered by state Scouting Directors with the goal of collecting as much information about a prospect as possible and relaying our findings to the public through data collection and scouting reports.

One of the many results of a Prep Baseball showcase is getting all the information collected to the public in a timely and digestible manner. Every showcase will be featured on the Prep Baseball website and social channels through various forms of post-event content, leaderboards, video spotlights and more.

In an effort to elevate the post-event experience for players who attend a showcase, the Account Dashboard is now the prospect's one-stop shop to view all of his post-event deliverables, including showcase video, data, Vizual Edge Score, and more. The Account Dashboard also gives players a window into upcoming events, calendar management, among other organizational tools. 

All showcase participants will receive a numbered Prep Baseball showcase shirt and hat sponsored by our partners at Mizuno. The Mizuno Tee is the all-around t-shirt for every activity, made from lightweight textured fabric, and used to identify prospects throughout the showcase process.

TrackMan is the global leader in ball-tracking accuracy. Following a Prep Baseball event, all players will get unrivaled access to their performance data in the TrackMan interactive app. Players can create custom dashboards that unlock both hitting and pitching data.

Pitching Features Include:

• Pitching data access includes: release speed, spin rate, spin axis, release height, extension, horizontal and vertical break, and location on each pitch
• See each pitch trajectory in 3D from multiple viewpoints
• Create defined tags to label and compare pitches
• Pin pitches together to create tunneling visualizations between different pitch types
• Visualize each pitch location

Hitting Features Include:

• Hitting data access includes: Exit speed, distance traveled, launch angle, launch direction, spin rate, contact depth and contact side/height for each swing.
• Visualize plate coverage
• Pairing of all data points on each swing
• All key ball flight metrics will live inside player profiles at prepbaseballreport.com for the benefit of college coaches and recruiters, which will help prospects advance to the next level.

Blast is the global leader in swing analysis and used by nearly every MLB organization. Following a Prep Baseball event, players will receive access to BlastConnect in the Blast App, which unlocks critical insights and actionable data from their performance.

Features include:

• Swing Analysis and Blast Motion hitting assessment
• Professional-level swing analytics to help players improve their hitting performance
• Free 30-day trial to Blast Premium Services subscription
• Key hitting metrics and Blast Motion Scores will also live inside player profiles at prepbaseballreport.com for the benefit of college coaches and recruiters, which will help prospects advance to the next level.

Vizual Edge is a market leader in visual performance assessment and training that multiple MLB clubs use for its players. During Prep Baseball events, players will take the Vizual Edge 15-minute baseline evaluation. Following the event, players will receive an email PDF of your results – labeled as your EDGE Score – that will identify your visual strengths and weaknesses and how they directly impact your on-field performance.

Visual skills are critical for pitch recognition, reaction speed, timing, seeing spin on the ball, defensive performance and much more. Your EDGE Score will also live inside your Prep Baseball profile.

Prep Baseball events will be equipped with VALD Performance’s industry-leading athletic testing technologies to capture pinpoint accurate, actionable data for all participants, ultimately delivering new insights into athletes’ speed, explosiveness and power for recruiters to evaluate. VALD is the only system with a full 360-degree LED display on every gate, giving instant feedback to coaches and athletes.

Through both systems, the VALD SmartSpeed Plus timing gates and Smartump mats, athletes will be evaluated on a multitude of metrics that goes beyond just the 30-yard dash. Participants will be put through a jump protocol as well as adding a 10-yard splits to the 30. Athletic testing metrics include:

Athletic testing metrics include:

• 30-yard dash with a 10-yard split
• Reactive Strength Index
• Vertical jump

Body Composition

Players' body composition will be officially measured using state-of-the-art, medical-grade technology that will provide precise insights into height, weight, skeletal muscle mass, BMI and more. Players will step on scales using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), a method for measuring body composition, including muscle mass, body fat, and total body water.

Our scales will then produce several metrics giving insight into the prospect’s body composition. Height will be measured using a digital stadiometer to get precise height measurements.

Grip Strength

Hitters' grip strength will be tested using a digital hydraulic dynamometer. Grip strength is an essential component to bat strength and controlling the barrel. Hitters will be put through a max strength test on both hands, shedding light on hand strength and potential power and bat control down the road.