Charlotte Rising Stars ID: Data Dive Pitchers
June 23, 2026
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On Tuesday, June 2nd, Prep Baseball North Carolina hosted the Charlotte Rising Stars ID at UNC Charlotte's Robert & Mariam Hayes Stadium. Held in conjunction with the Charlotte Summer ID, the event featured players from the 2030 and 2031 grad classes, providing some of the region's youngest prospects an opportunity to begin building their Prep Baseball profiles while gaining experience in a showcase environment.
The Rising Stars Series serves as an early onboarding event for players entering their high school baseball journey. For many attendees, it is their first exposure to the showcase process, allowing them to become familiar with professional-style workouts, measurable testing, statistical analysis, and player evaluations. The event also plays an important role in identifying prospects for future opportunities, including the selection process for Team North Carolina at the Junior Future Games.
The day began with individual assessments, including height, weight, and grip strength testing, before players moved into offensive evaluations. Hitters participated in multiple rounds of batting practice with TrackMan technology collecting batted ball data and performance metrics. Prep Baseball's scouting staff evaluated swing mechanics, bat speed, strength projection, and overall offensive potential throughout the workout.
Following batting practice, players worked through defensive evaluations at their primary positions, allowing scouts to assess athletic actions, footwork, hands, arm strength, and defensive instincts. Timed 60-yard dashes were then conducted to gather running metrics before the event concluded with controlled bullpen sessions. Pitchers threw in front of TrackMan technology while video captured each bullpen, providing detailed information on velocity, pitch movement, spin characteristics, and overall arsenal development.
Over the coming days, Prep Baseball NC will release scouting notes, statistical leaderboards, and player reports from the Charlotte Rising Stars ID as we highlight the top performers and emerging young talent from the event.
More information, including the full roster and event leaderboards, can be found here:
DATA DIVE: PITCHERS- CHARLOTTE RISING STARS ID
FASTBALL
MAX FASTBALL VELOCITY
Max Fastball Velocity: This metric calculates the speed of the pitch as it’s released from the pitcher’s hand.
HIGHEST AVG. SPIN RATE
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.
HIGHEST AVG. IVB
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, and it’s also important to consider the pitch’s velocity as well as its release height when evaluating IVB measurements against each other.
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.”
HIGHEST STRIKE ZONE RATE%
For some context, in 2023 MLB pitchers averaged an In Zone% of around 49 percent in live game settings measured across all pitch types, according to Statcast.
CURVEBALL
HIGHEST AVG. SPIN RATE
HIGHEST AVG. IVB
HIGHEST AVG. HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT
CHANGEUP
HIGHEST AVG. HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT
HIGHEST AVG. IVB
HIGHEST STRIKE ZONE RATE%
+ Click here to view the event statistics in its entirety.
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