This past Saturday, the Prep Baseball Arizona staff hosted it's first of two Rising Stars events with the annual Phoenix Rising Stars ID hosted at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona.

This event featured roughly 22 prospects in the 2029 - 2030 classes and for an introductory showcase that allowed the young athletes to compete in their first showcase with players stricly within their age group. Rising Stars ID's also serve as identifiers for Arizona's Junior Future Games Team that will compete at LakePoint Sports in late July against top players from each U.S. State.

All player ran through a full workout that included batting practice and bullpens captured on our TrackMan, as well as the 60-yard dash (and splits) captured by VALD Performance and positional drills including velocities. Over the next several days we'll be highlighting top performers from the event within our post-event analysis. Stay locked into our social media channels over the next several days as we continue to push out video, leaderboards and more.

Yesterday we began our post-event coverage within our Statistical Analysis article. Today, we'll continue our event coverage within this Pitching Data Dive article as we bring you the top pitching data collected during bullpens on Saturday.

For complete event results, click here.
To view Arizona's Class of 2025 Commitment Board, click here.

To request an invite to the Class of 2027 Top Prospect Games (June 10), click here.
To register for the Mesa Rising Stars ID (Apr. 26), click here.

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FASTBALL

MAX VELOCITY (MPH)

Max Fastball Velocity: This metric calculates the speed of the pitch as it’s released from the pitcher’s hand.

SPIN RATE (AVG)

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%

CURVEBALL

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

SLIDER

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

CHANGEUP

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

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Upcoming Events

Showcase	State	Date	Location
Mesa Rising Stars ID	AZ	04/26	Mountain View High School - Mesa, AZ
2025 ProCase - West	AZ	06/01	Loyola Marymount University - Los Angeles, CA
Top Prospect Games: Class of 2027	AZ	06/10	American Family Fields of Phoenix
Senior Future Games (Class of 2026)	NATIONAL	07/22	LakePoint Sports
Future Games (Class of 2027)	NATIONAL	07/23	LakePoint Sports
Junior Future Games (Class of 2029/30)	NATIONAL	07/24	LakePoint Sports

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