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On Sunday, January 11th, the Prep Baseball California team hosted the Los Angeles Preseason ID at Buena High School in Ventura, Cal. This was an open event for high school classes (2026-2029), and gave our staff an ample look at the area's top prospects. As well, due to weather in the Southern California region the previous weekend several players from the previously scheduled Los Angeles Preseason All State were in attendance for this event.

The combination of the two events brought nearly 80 players out to Ventura where they participated in a pro-style workout. Position players were run through athletic testing, defensive evaluations and a batting practice session. During this even the VALD system was in use for the athletic testing, all defensive evaluations included arm strength measurements (pop times for catchers) and during batting practice the Trackman system and Blast Motion sensors were used to gather valuable data on their offensive performances. The day completed with bullpen sessions for all two-way players and pitcher only attendees where they threw on the main mound with Trackman system running to gather their pitching metrics.

Today, we will be looking at the top data performers from some of the deeper dive metrics collected at the event, found below.

FASTBALL

VELOCITY (MAX)

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 efficiencies. 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 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%

 Average MLB pitchers throw 62% strikes, and better pitchers throw strikes 65% of the time, or roughly 2:1 strikes to balls.

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CURVEBALL

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

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SLIDER

SPIN RATE (AVG.)

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

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CHANGEUP

INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)

HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)

STRIKE ZONE RATE%

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+ CLICK HERE for a look at the complete statistics from the event.

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