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On Tuesday, December 30th, the Prep Baseball California team hosted the Orange County Preseason ID at JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano, Cal. It was the kickoff evnet to our Preseason/Winter calendar in the state of California. The Preseason ID series features open events for high school classes (2026-2029), and gave our staff an ample look at some the area's next top prospects.

Over 50 players made their way to JSerra and participated in a pro-style workout with position players undergoing athletic testing (60 yard sprints and jump testing) followed by defensive workouts at their primary/secondary positions and concluded with batting practice. The pitchers in attendance threw bullpen sessions on the main mound. Throughout the workout our staff and players receive unrivaled access to data through our state-of-the-art tech partners (VALD, Blast Motion and Trackman to name a few) and the workouts provide in-depth scouting analysis from our Prep Baseball California staff.

Today, we will be looking at the top overall performers from the event, found below.

ORANGE COUNTY PRESEASON ID: TOP PERFORMERS

Aiden AMAT OF / 1B / Orange Lutheran, CA / 2029 Rankings  StateRank: 23 / POS: 5 OverallRank: 134 / POS: 28 The uber talented Amat is one of the top 2029 players in the state of California and the OLU product showed why with a well-rounded overall workout. Starting off during the position portion of the day Amat flashed intriguing tools across the board with a dynamic run tool posting a 6.73 60 yard time and showing 86 MPH OF velocity with carry/accuracy to his throws. The athletic profile and arm strength gives him a long term CF/RF defensive profile and the offensive ability for Amat backs up his strong defensive profile. The LH hitter showed consistent feel for his barrel during batting practice with high level batted ball data. Amat posted an average exit velocity of 85.9 MPH while using the middle to pull side of the field consistently and reached 93.2 MPH on his max exit velocity. His underlying data was strong with a 25% hard hit rate and 63% sweet spot rate. To round out a loud first look for our staff at the talented Amat in a showcase setting he threw an intriguing bullpen with an athletic operation and a clean quick arm path. The southpaw averages of 2000 RPMs of spin on a present low 80's FB which he controlled in the strike zone while backing the offering up with an effective low 70's CHG that he kills spin down in the 1600 RPM range and the makings of a potential solid breaking ball in his 66-68 MPH CB. Just a Fr. headed into arguably the best high school league in the nation the future for Amat is bright.

Thomas Bonikowski RHP / OF / Huntington Beach High, CA / 2029 Bonikowski hails from the Orange County region and is playing for another national powerhouse high school program in Huntington Beach. The OC PSID was our staffs first showcase look at the talented two-way product who impressed with tools that are advanced for his age as a hitter, defender and RHP. Standing 6'1 and weighing a present 172 lbs. the frame for Bonikowski has started to emerge with strength and presents plenty more to dream on as he keeps maturing through his high school career. He is solid athlete at present clocking a 7.24 60 yard time which comfortably provides him a home in either OF corner and shows the makings of a potential RF arm with present 84 MPH OF velocity that carries well out of his hand. His offensive profile though takes him to another level as a position player with a lofted swing path that generates intriguing batted ball data at present and strong approach for getting to his best contact consistently in the workout setting. Bonikowski posted a present max EV of 98.9 MPH while impressively averaging 90 MPH across his rounds of batting practice including launching a 379' blast to his pull side. Posting an impressive 82% hard hit rate with a 64% sweet spot the quality of each ball the RH hitter puts in plays projects a middle of the order impact potential hitter who can comfortably defend in an OF corner over the coming years. Then you mix in a solid RHP profile with a controlled repeatable delivery that filled the zone with a 2100+ RPM average spin FB that peaks in the low 80's at present and the makings of a solid CHG in the low 70's at present. On the day Bonikowski impressed slightly more as a position player prospect, but there is plenty to like about his operation on the mound. Developing in the HB Oilers program over the coming years one can only expect Thomas to continue getting better and should be a name to keep tabs on in the 2029 class going forward.

Brise Boop SS / 3B / JSerra Catholic, CA / 2026 Boop has steadily developed over the two plus years I've been on staff with Prep Baseball California and seems to be hitting his stride ahead of a potentially strong SR. season for him at JSerra Catholic. A physically well built corner profile defender/athlete Boop checks in now at 6'5 220+ lbs. having added significant strength to his projectable frame over these two years. That added strength showed up during his offensive, defensive workouts and during the athletic testing including a new top 60 time at 7.09 seconds. Showing off corner OF/INF defensive ability with clean hands/footwork to go with impressive arm strength throwing rockets at 91 MPH from RF during the OF workout and SS during the INF workout. Boop can comfortably handle a defensive spot at either 3B or RF going forward. His offensive profile is geared towards power with strength at contact while lofting the baseball he peaked at 106.8 MPH on his exit velocity during the event while showing 83.4 MPH bat speed with 24.6 MPH hand speeds. A power profile hitter with corner defensive ability while showing arm strength Boop is high quality uncommitted 2026 still on the board for college programs.

Hudson Chase OF / Brentwood School, CA / 2027 Rankings  StateRank: 165 / POS: 44 Chase is an Los Angeles area based product who continues to improve his overall profile across each look for our scouting staff. A projectable athletic frame that is starting to fill out with increased strength at 6'3 168.3 lbs while profiling plenty of room on his body to add more strength as he matures. The tools for Chase keep trending in the right direction across the board especially on the offensive side of the game. Chase shows low 80's arm strength with low 7.0 present 60 speed that can project to handle all 3 OF spots in the future. Where Hudson has made big improvements across his looks for our scouting staff has been in his operation at the plate with upward trending impact in his athletic swing. During batting practice Hudson peaked north of 100 MPH on his max EV a new PR for the RH hitter while averaging an impressive 94.7 MPH on his batted balls hammering the middle to pull side of the field with loud contact. Diving deeper into his developments as a hitter was an impressive 88% hard hit rate and a 393' max distance HR to the pull side. The arrow for Chase points straight up ahead of what will be a big JR. year for the Brentwood School product.

Kekoa Delatori RHP / Mira Costa High, CA / 2028 Delatori has generated quite a bit of buzz ahead of his Soph. season including a strong winter ball circuit and his bullpen at JSerra was equally buzzy with the quality of his stuff. Delatori features a strong 6' 197.3 lbs. frame which moves with athleticism and tempo in the delivery. His present strength, athletic ability and body control allow him to repeat the operation consistently to live in and around the zone with all offerings during his bullpen session. His FB worked up to 86.4 MPH while averaging 85.1-86.2 with each FB he threw and spun it with over 2000 RPMs over average spin on each FB. A four pitch mix righthander both his breaking balls flash real potential at present with slightly different shapes to each offering to make them effective pitches. Delatori spins the SLD at 73-74 MPH with nearly 2100 RPMs of average spin and drops in a more vertically breaking 69-70 MPH CB that allows him to work to both LH and RH hitters with the offerings. His CHG is solid living at 75-77 MPH on the offering while effectively killing spin to the 1500 RPM range creating vertical separation off his FB shape. All told the frame, delivery, feel for the strike zone and high quality four pitch mix it's easy to see why Delatori has had success on the varsity level at Mira Costa quickly, but even more so you can see the upside for even more to come on the talented 2028 righthander.

Jacob Farias RHP / 3B / Elsinore High, CA / 2026 Farias entered the event highly touted by San Diego based scout Vinnie Alfino after a strong showing when he saw him during the 2025 CIF-SS playoffs. The two-way product out of Elsinore did not disappoint with a strong performance across his position player and bullpen session. Farias is strongly built with athleticism in his frame at present measuring 6'2 188 lbs. with 7.3 60 yard sprint speed giving him a corner defensive profile. The arm strength for him on the INF backs up a profile to handle 2B/3B defensive position reaching 83 MPH while flashing consistent carry/accuracy to his throws. At the plate his offensive profile backs up he corner defensive profile showing impact in the bat with strength to drive a 101.4 MPH max EV while crushing a 391' pull side blast for a HR giving him comfort to handle the offensive requirement of a 3B long term profile. Farias has 80 MPH bat speed with nearly 21 Gs of rotational acceleration to back up the impact profile he presents offensively. But, as good as everything Farias does on the position player side of the game it's what he does on the mound that might be his long term futre. With an athletic operation that features tempo, arm speed, body control and fluidity the righthander lived at 86.5-88.8 on a lively FB that spins at 2232 RPMs on average while popping 89.5 MPH on his best bolt of the day. The best offspeed for Farias was his 76.8-77.4 MPH CHG which he kills nearly 1000 RPMs of spin off of to average 1388 RPMs on the offering. He mixes in a CUT FB to provide something to his glove side, but the FB-CHG duo highlight what could be a long term starter profile at the next level.

Tristan Miyashiro LHP / OF / Casimir Middle, CA / 2030 Miyashiro may have been the youngest player in attendance as a 2030 graduate still in 8th grade, but the youngster did not lack for ability to hang with the older competition. Miyashiro is wiry and athletic in his build at present standing 5'9 with 157 lbs. on his frame, but has projection to add height/size as he continues maturing to upgrade his already strong foundation of tools. During the position player portion of the day Tristan flashed strong present athleticism, arm strength and offensive ability. He ran a 7.22 60 with 80 MPH OF arm velocity that allows you to dream on a long term CF/RF future for him defending in the OF. From there his swing has intriguing top end impact with a 91.6 MPH max EV that comes with 77.4 MPH of bat speed on the top end while showing quickness in the hand path at 20.9 MPH. Impressively for a young hitter he was able to produce at 50% sweet spot rate while also picking up a 13% hard hit rate. All of these skills would be competitive for an upperclass high school player, but on an 8th grade product you can't help, but dream on a bright future for him as a position player. But, even more impressively was the work the southpaw did during a bullpen session showcasing a well controlled delivery with sound repeatability and intriguing upside. Miyashiro tossed his FB in the 81.1-82.8 MPH range throughout his pen showing strong present feel for spin on the offering with an average of nearly 2100 RPMs. From there he mixed in an intriguing CB in the 65-67 MPH range with strong present spin on the offering averaging over 2100 RPMs with more to come as he fills out his frame and adds arm strength. As well, Miyashiro has feel for a solid CHG that has vertical separation off his FB shape and impressive feel for killing spin on the offering averaging 1039 RPMs of spin on the offering while throwing it at 66-69 MPH. Miyashiro quickly put himself on the radar for the upcoming Prep Baseball California Rising Stars series and the potential for a spot on the 2026 Team California Junior Future Games squad.

Colton Mossman OF / LHP / JSerra Catholic, CA / 2027 Stepping onto his home field at JSerra Catholic High School Colton Mossman made a strong impression across the board for our scouting staff and myself personally. His frame quickly catches your eye standing at 6'3 and weighing 189.2 lbs he looks the part of high level prospect to follow and the tools for Colton provide strong evidence as to maintaining that profile. He is a solid runner in the 7.2 range for the 60 yard dash with 87 MPH OF arm velocity he can handle a future in the OF corners defensively where offensive skills will be important and Mossman shows intriguing upside on that side of the game. With explosive hands and impressive torque in his swing operation as evidenced by his 27.7 MPH hand speed and 29.4 Gs of rotational acceleration he was consistently on time during batting practice to hammer the ball. Colton produced an average exit velocity of 91 MPH, a max EV of 99.2 MPH while posting a impressive 88% hard hit rate and for good measure showed off a 63% sweet spot rate to go with a 373' max distance. All told what the LH hitting OF does on the position player side gives plenty of reason for college programs to be taking strong notice of this Trinity League product. Then you sprinkle in the athleticism he show to be a solid pitcher on the bump who flashed 83-85 MPH velocity on a FB while showing feel for a trio of offspeed offerings. Colton fronts that offspeed mix with a solid 73-74 MPH CB that has sound present spin traits reaching 2230 RPMs of average spin. His CHG lives in the 79-81 MPH range with action to his arm side while tossing a softer SLD in the 69-70 MPH range he has an arsenal to attack all four quadrants of the strike zone.

Caden Mossman 3B / RHP / JSerra Catholic, CA / 2027 Caden Mossman is the RH version of his twin brother Colton who shows his own intriguing set of tools. Also, working out on his homefield at JSerra Caden made that comfort a strength for himself with an intriguing overall workout. Caden is solidly built at present standing 6'3 195.2 lbs. he fits the physical profile for a corner defender on the INF dirt of in the OF long term and his offensive skills back up what projects as a defender. A solid runner at 7.15 in the 60 he showed 82 MPH INF arm velocity with accuracy to his throws looking the part of a 2B/3B INF defender who will be sound at the spots. At the plate Mossman made upward progress in many areas across his workouts for our scouting staff posting new personal bests with his bat speed (73.7 MPH), average exit velocity (89.6 MPH), max distance (372'), sweet spot rate (60%), and hard hit rate (60%) that upward progress is providing more evidence to his long term potential future impact as a RH hitter. Much like his brother Mossman is a two-way product who shows athleticism in his delivery on the mound. Throwing from a deceptive lower arm slot he features a running low 80's FB with sink in the movement profile to pound the bottom of the zone with the offering. Caden spins a softer sweeper like SLD in the 71-73 MPH range giving him an east/west attack profile off his FB shape with the pitch. He rounds out the arsenal with a quality 73-75 MPH CHG that has vertical separation off his FB shape to make for a sound three pitch mix. The continued development for Mossman is rounding his profile into a high quality one for college programs to be keeping tabs on for in the 2027 class.

Jake Wells RHP / RHP / Millikan High, CA / 2027 Wells entered his debut event in front of our scouting staff with an off-the-radar type of profile, but by the time the Long Beach based righthander finished his bullpen session he had solidly put himself on our radar for the spring season. A medium built righthander who stand 6' with some present strength to a 190.5 lbs. frame he is solidly built with long term starter potential to his profile. Wells works with solid body control in his operation while flashing high quality arm speed and ability to work in and around the strike zone consistently with all his offerings. The FB shape for Wells has strong riding life to it with intriguing present velocity sitting at 87-88.8 MPH while peaking at 89.5 MPH on the offering. His offspeed arsenal is highlighted by an intriguing CHG he throws with a splitter like movement profile that has below 1000 RPMs of average spin in the 77.5-79.6 MPH range with solid feel for keeping it down in the zone or below the zone. Wells uses a CB for his spin offering throwing it with vertical break and emerging spin averaging north of 2000 RPMs on the offering living at 75.9-79.4 MPH on the pitch with potential to polish the offering. Wells will be an arm our staff and myself specifically will be checking in on this spring to see how the performance in his bullpen session translates into on-field success for him with Millikan High.

Eric Shim SS / 2B / Temecula Valley High, CA / 2028 Rankings  StateRank: 106 / POS: 23 The Soph. middle of the diamond defender out of the Inland Empire traveled out into Orange County and put together a strong showing for himself in front of our staff. Shim is more compact in his build at 5'9 160 lbs. with a RH hitting profile and solid present athleticism for his age. He posted a 7.3 60 yard sprint time with 78 MPH INF velocity that for now give him a comfortable long term future at 2B, but one can expect those numbers to improve as he continues to mature/add more strength to his frame in the coming years.  Where Shim shined brightest on the day was during his offensive workout with an impressive RH swing. Shim posted strong metrics across the board with Blast Motion including an intriguing ability to generate torque in his swing with 24.2 Gs of rotational acceleration while showing fast hands at 23.3 MPH with solid present bat speed at 71.2 MPH. The quality of his swing is backed up by a strong feel for his approach/timing to produce an 89 MPH average exit velocity while peaking at 96.4 MPH on his max exit velocity with a 332' max distance as Shim used the middle of the field predominantly from a flatter stroke. He had a 46% hard hit rate for the day that should profile to increase as he continues to mature. Still young with plenty of time for him to continue getting better the foundation for Shim is strong and projects a bright future for this Inland Empire product.

Geno Guerrero RHP / Redondo Union High, CA / 2026 Guerrero was another off-the-radar type arm who showed impressive stuff during his bullpen session to put himself strongly on the map of names to follow for this upcoming spring. More compact in his build at 5'11, but with solid present strength to his frame at 190 lbs. Guerrero moves well down the mound with athleticism to his operation. The arm is quick with a clean path and feel to repeat on all offerings. His arsenal was fronted by a high quality 87-88 MPH FB which reached 88.4 MPH on the day while showing strong present spin traits to the pitch (averaged 2168 RPMs on the day). Guerrero threw the pitch in and around the strike zone consistently over his bullpen. His CHG has splitter like action to the movement profile with impressive ability to kill spin on the offering averaging 1204 RPMs over the bullpen session with velocity at 78.2-80.7 MPH that lived at the bottom of the zone or below it. Geno spins a solid present CB that lived at 75-77 MPH with emerging spin traits to the offering with an average of 2075 RPMs over the bullpen session. His foundation was very strong for the bullpen and will be a name I keep tabs on for the upcoming spring and is a strong uncommitted name for the 2026 class.

Evan Rudnev 3B / RHP / Sage Creek High, CA / 2028 An intriguing frame at 6'2 and 219 lbs. presently Rudnev quickly catches your eye. The toolset for the corner profile defender with two-way upside to his game was strong across the board. A strong runner for his size Rudnev posted a 7.23 60 yard sprint time giving you plenty of comfort projecting the athletic ability on him to be a solid defender who has 80 MPH present INF velocity with carry to his throws to project a future at 3B for him. At the plate there is impact in his RH swing that produces 75.7 MPH of bat speed. It's not just power for Rudnev who reached 102.6 MPH on his max exit velocity for the day, but there is also feel to hit for the physical RH hitter who averaged 94.4 MPH exit velocity over his batting practice session with a 73% hard hit rate and 45% sweet spot rate. Rudnev crushed a 387' max distance blast on a pull side HR and all told looked the part of a potential middle of the order bat who could handle 3B defensively long term. For good measure his athleticism was on display during a sound bullpen session with quality present stuff. Rudnev lived at 82.3-84 MPH on his FB with solid present spin on the pitch north of 2000 RPMs during the bullpen. Where he stands out on the mound at present was in his feel to spin two different breaking balls that each have interesting present spin and shapes. The SLD for Evan lived at 74.6-76.2 MPH while averaging over 2400 RPMs of spin on each offering. He then drops in a solid CB in the 72.5-74.2 MPH range with 2300 RPMs of average spin to the pitch. His fourth pitch is another quality offering in his CHG which lived 78-79.7 that he threw for strikes, but has heavy spin on the pitch at present minimizing his vertical separation off the FB, but does feature action to his arm side. All in all there is plenty to love about everything Rudnev brings to the baseball field on each side of the game and will be a name to follow closely in the 2028 class.

Aidann Ruiz SS / C / St Anthony High School, CA / 2027 Ruiz was at our recent ZT Scout day and then made the trip to the OC Preseason ID which was an impressive showing for the talented SoCal based product. Compact, but solidly built at 5'8 174.9 lbs. with quality run speed for a catcher with 2B secondary at 7.33 seconds in the 60 yard dash. Ruiz is a solid defender behind the dish with arm strength at 77 MPH from the catching spot while popping a low of 1.92 seconds with carry to his throws. He is sound fundamental defender on the INF with arm strength to profile to handle 3B and is comfortably strong for 2B at 84 MPH. His batting practice for the day was one of the more impressive ones for consistency of high quality contact with impact. Ruiz peaked at 94.7 MPH while averaging just under 88 MPH over the session with a 100% ball in the air rate (60% of those being line drives) while living in the gaps at 308' on his max distance profiling a high hit tool with doubles profile at present. Ruiz also had a 40% hard hit rate across his rounds. The Blast metrics for the quality of what Ruiz does in his swing was impressive including an explosive ability to generate torque with 28.5 Gs of rotational acceleration while showing fast hands at 22.9 MPH and strong present bat speeds up to 73.4 MPH. A strong hit tool with emerging impact and defensive versatility all wrap up into one strong overall profile for the 2027 product.

OTHER NAMES TO KNOW:

+ 2028 C Connor Kingston - Calabasas High School

+ 2027 OF Alexander Lopez - Villa Park High School

+ 2027 RHP Emmett Maloney - Mira Costa High School

+ 2027 SS/2B Michael Mansour - Damien High School

+ 2027 2B/OF Nate Medina - Laguna Hills High School

+ 2029 C/INF Hunter Rich - Harvard Westlake High School

+ 2027 C/RHP Eli Rubel - Servite High School