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BAKERSFIELD, CALIF. - This past Saturday, December 6th, the Prep Baseball California team is hosted our final Fall ID of the 2025 calendar with the Bakersfield Fall ID hosted at CSU-Bakersfield in Bakersfield, CA. This open event was for all high school classes (2026-2029), and provided our staff an opportunity to expand our knowledge on some of the area's top rising players.

Around 20 players made their way to Hardt Field on the campus of CSU-Bakersfield to participate in a pro-style workout, gathering unrivaled access to data through our state-of-the-art tech partners, as well as in-depth scouting analysis from our Prep Baseball California staff. This group featured some interesting underclass names to keep eyes on out of the region with some strong performances out of the upperclass products in attendance. 

Today, we will be looking at the top all around performers from the event with our Quick Hits.

BAKERSFIELD FALL ID: TOP PERFORMERS

Martin Castro RHP / 3B / Ridgeview High, CA / 2027 Castro hails from a Ridgeview High program that is coming off a strong 2025 spring season where they won a pair of CIF championships, bringing home the Central Section D2 and South Region D3 titles. We've had the pleasure of getting eyes on several of his teammates and Castro's turn on the Prep Baseball California ID stage was reminiscent of those previous standouts. Checking in at 5'11 228 lbs. he is solidly built with room to improve as he keeps maturing looking the part of a durable long term arm with the strength to handle innings. Once on the rubber the righthander showed off a strong four pitch mix that is fronted by his FB - kick CHG combo while flashing two interesting breaking balls with different shapes. The FB for Castro came in lively in the 85-87 MPH range through his bullpen with solid present spin at 2200+ RPMs while generating life to his arm side averaging 13+" of horizontal movement. The kick CHG he featured caught eyes for the action it generates out of his looking like a potential whiff weapon in the 77.7-80.3 MPH range while averaging -7.7" of IVB and 11.4" of horizontal movement. Both of the breaking balls for Castro flashes strong potential while still showing some development for his feel to consistently spin each offering. Castro threw the CB at 71.9-74 MPH with 2400+ RPMs of spin generating -13.8" of average IVB. His SLD came in at 71.7-73.6 MPH with a sweeper like shape producing -20.8" of average horizontal break with spin rates north of 2400 RPMs on the offering. Castro controls his body well working down the mound with the ability to repeat his mechanics/arm slot from both the windup and stretch. The overall operation for Castro looks the part of a next level starting pitcher profile and is a name for college programs to be keeping close tabs on in the 2027 class.

Bryson Lewis OF / SS / Frontier High, CA / 2028 Another local product making the trip over to CSU-Bakersfield Lewis put together one of the best two-way performances on the day not only for his present ability, but as much for the potential in his future upside. A wiry athletic build with clean actions and eye-catching movements to his running, throwing, defensive, offensive and pitching operations. Lewis checked in at 5'11 141 lbs. with broad shoulders and length to his limbs that can easily handle another 30+ pounds of weight as he keeps maturing. He clocked in at 7.09 in the 60 yard sprint which was third fastest at the event and tops amongst the 2028 or younger players and is likely a tick faster on a day when the weather isn't in the low 40's as it was during the running portion of the day. His batting practice was a display of sound present ability with an athletic operation that produced sound bat speed upwards of 66 MPH with loose quick hands moving at 21 MPH and sound torque north of 10 Gs at present. The athleticism in his swing will benefit from added strength in the future to take it to the next level as he matures. Lewis' sound present swing meshed with a sound approach at the plate during batting practice to reach 90.6 MPH on his max EV with a max distance of 310' staying to the middle of the field and a 40% sweet spot rate. Much like his swing the quality of his batted ball data will tick up with added strength, but there is plenty to like about how he operates at present in the box. As good as his day was on the position player side, Lewis performed just as well during his bullpen session with a clean athletic operation down the mound and a loose quick arm action. The righthander showed off a solid three pitch mix with a FB working up to 82 MPH while living between 79.1 - 81.1 with low effort to reach that velocity. He dropped in a sound 75-77 MPH CHG that tunnels well off his FB with some vertical separation while moving similarly to his arm side and flashed spin differential from the FB. The SLD for Lewis caught eyes with spin rates at present north of 2450 RPMs with two-plane shape to its movement profile. Lewis will be a high quality name to add to the 2028 class of follows out of the Bakersfield area and as he continues to develop could turn into a prominent name in the region.

Madden Pasos OF / RHP / Exeter Union High, CA / 2027 Pasos is a three-sport standout who plays football and basketball on top of being a strong baseball product. His athleticism carries the profile at present with tools, size and strength that will draw your eyes to watch each thing he does on a baseball field. With the temperatures in the low to mid 40's the 6'2 202 lbs. OF from Exeter ran a pair of sub 7.0 60 yard sprints peaking at 6.9 on the day with likely plenty more in the tank on a warmer day. He showed off his interesting strength with each hand registering grip strength north of 150 lbs. during athletic testing. Pasos moves well in the OF with body control, clean footwork and an accurate 82 MPH OF arm velocity with the ball coming out of his hand low while maintaining its plane with ease living online to the base (3rd - home) with one hop throws during the defensive workout. The swing for Pasos works on an uphill path as you can see him working to elevate the baseball with solid present bat speed north of 70 MPH, quickness in his hand path going up to 22 MPH and rotating with aggressiveness in his turn producing north of 16 Gs of rotational acceleration via his Blast Motion metrics. There is some rawness the approach for Pasos (not unanticipated for a three sport athlete) as it took him a bit to settle in during batting practice living on the ground early with solid contact before finding his contact point later in the round with max EVs north of 92 MPH to the middle of the field on a day when the ball didn't carry with the cold air. As Pasos continues to develop his consistency of tapping into the interesting raw tools he possesses the ceiling for this Central Valley product is high making him a name to take note of in the 2027 class.

Morgan Hester 1B / LHP / Kingsburg High, CA / 2028 Another strong two-way performer in the 2028 class hailing from the Central Valley based Kingsburg High home of the uber talented Jensen Hirschkorn. Hester is an interesting player who showed off plenty of present ability to like both in his position player and pitching profiles. Solidly built at present Hester stands 6' and weights 180 lbs. with the type of frame that can handle another 20ish lbs. in the future that will pack impact on everything he does on a baseball field. Hester moves well for a corner profile with a 7.38 60 yard time on the chilly morning that gives you enough positive vibes that he could handle an OF corner to add versatility to his LH throwing profile as a 1B primary at present. He moved with fundamental actions at 1B during defense showing solid hands, consistent footwork, flashing ability to play with some tempo and the arm to be a solid thrower at the position. His batting practice was intriguing both for the swing operation and the quality of the batted ball data he produced. Hester had some of the better bat speed on the day up to 68 MPH and you could sense there was more in the tank as he got acclimated to the colder weather on the day while showing off quick hands north of 20 MPH and the torque at present with 14+ Gs of rotatational acceleration. The RH hitter peaked north of 89 MPH with his EV while averaging north of 82 MPH with a max distance at 328' and an interesting 87% fly ball/line drive rate during his batting practice rounds. Much like his swing you could sense there was more in the tank for Hester with his batted ball data and as he continues to mature there is enough here in the foundation to dream on a potential middle of the order bat in the future. To cap his day Hester took a turn on the bump for a bullpen session which flashed some interesting present ability. The southpaw flashed a FB that lived at 78-79 while touching 80 MPH in the cold weather from a high 3/4 almost over the top release point at 6'8" above the ground. His CHG showed the best on the day of his two offspeed offerings with a 75% zone percentage living at 72.5-73 MPH on the pitch with similar arm side action and vertical separation off the shape of his FB. Hester flipped in the making of a vertically shaped CB in the 63-65 MPH range with an average of -13.8" of IVB on a pitch that has a solid foundation with room to improve as he matures. Impressively, Hester repeats his release point on all offerings living at 6'8" of release height giving an uncomfortable angle for hitters coming out of the higher release point.

Ryan Birks SS / 2B / Frontier High, CA / 2027 The second half of a Frontier duo to put together a solid showing on the day Birks is another wiry, athletic up the middle profile product to keep eyes on. Compact and wiry Birks measured at 5'8 140 lbs. on the day but has room to fill a solid 20-25 lbs. on him in the coming years while maintaining his sound athletic ability or even seeing an uptick with the added strength. He clocked the second fastest 60 yard sprint of the day at 7.04 while going sub 7.1 on each of his runs and on a day not as cold as Saturday looked to easily have sub 6.9 60 yard speed in him. Birks moves cleanly on the INF dirt with natural feel for his hands, comfort in his footwork playing to balls at him, to his glove side, moving to his backhand and getting downhill on soft contact to stay up the middle. The arm for Birks fits best at 2B presently with 76 MPH velocity, but is an accurate thrower with clean transfers. A switch hitter Birks showed well on each side of the plate with a pair of clean, compact swings that work directly to the baseball with a high contact profile including 63 MPH of bat speed, 17 MPH of hand speed and 13 Gs of rotational acceleration. Peaking at 89.6 MPH on his max EV his line to line solid contact profile befits a player with a hit over power profile while staying flatter in the zone to produce 60+% of his contact on a line or on the ground. Birks maxed at 323' on his longest drive of the day showing enough thump to profile to some doubles power. The foundation of what Birks can do on a baseball field will make him a name to keep tabs on from the 2027 class in Bakersfield. Should he make the necessary gains to his size, strength and frame in the future could rise his profile even higher in the future.

Other Names To Know:

While the five players above put together some of the better all around days there were several players who showed off interesting tools/skills over the workout to pay attention to.

+ '26 RHP Cash Coffman Sunny Hills High School

+ '28 INF Alejandro Villegas Loyola High School

+ '27 RHP Jack Lundberg Liberty High School

+ '27 3B Hunter Hansford Frontier High School

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