Future Games: The Nation’s Biggest Recruiting Week

Welcome to the biggest uncommitted baseball event in the country. This week, the scouting world descends on LakePoint Sports in Emerson, GA, for the highly anticipated Future Games week. While the week kicked off with the upperclassmen in the Senior Future Games (2027 grads) and features the rising stars of the Junior Future Games (2030 and 2031 grads), July 22nd through the 25th belong to the main event: the Future Games.

Bringing together the premier uncommitted Class of 2028 prospects from across the nation, the Future Games offer an unmatched platform. These elite athletes will be put through a comprehensive pro-style workout before battling it out in a three-game slate. Among the loaded rosters taking the field is Team NC, a powerhouse squad featuring the top uncommitted talent from across North Carolina.

If there was any question about the magnitude of this week, just look at the crowd behind the backstop. Last year’s event drew a staggering 450+ college coaches, and Day 1 of this year's showcase has already matched—if not exceeded—that massive turnout. The spotlight has never been brighter, and for the Class of 2028, it's time to perform.

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FUTURE GAMES - TEAM NC DATA DIVE - PITCHERS

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.

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CURVEBALL

HIGHEST AVG. SPIN RATE

HIGHEST AVG. IVB

HIGHEST AVG. HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT

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SLIDER

HIGHEST AVG. SPIN RATE

HIGHEST AVG. IVB

HIGHEST AVG. HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT

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CHANGEUP

HIGHEST AVG. HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT

HIGHEST AVG. IVB

HIGHEST STRIKE ZONE RATE%

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+ Click here to view the event statistics in its entirety.

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