South Bend, Ind.- It was Jack Radel’s day for the ACC series opener against Clemson. The junior righthander threw a complete game shutout, allowing just four hits while striking out eight. A strike-throwing machine on this look, Radel didn’t walk a single batter and ended his CG SHO with 117 pitches, 88 for strikes. At 6-foot-5, 250 pounds his frame is tall, strong and durable and with a full arm path he repeats his delivery well. His main pitch was a 93-96 four-seam fastball that touched 97 and he also mixed an effective 91-93 sinker, especially in the early innings. His fastball plays up with over six and one-half feet of extension out front. Between his two fastballs, he’s thrown them for a 72.7% strike rate (99th percentile) this spring and he’s benefited by a 100th percentile chase rate of 37.5%. His already strong breaking stuff became even sharper and a full grade better in the middle innings. The Fighting Irish's ace pounded the zone even more for a three up, three down sixth inning with a pair of strikeouts, both coming on plus sliders. He’s also able to change shape on his breakers as he flashed a 83-85 curve, 88-92 cutter, as well as a sweeper when expanding the plate via breaker. A seldom used fifth pitch was a firm 90-92 mph changeup. Overall, it was borderline first round stuff and if the draft was tomorrow, Radel would certainly be selected in the top 50 overall.

Batterymate Mark Quatrani has cooled a bit at the plate since his ultra-hot start, yet he’s still rolling along as Notre Dame’s leading hitter. The Cornell transfer currently leads the team in batting average (.421), home runs (6) and RBIs (24). On this look the 5-foot-11, 205 pound right handed hitter showed a selective eye at the plate working the count for some competitive at-bats, but walked away empty handed in the hits department for the series opener. He uses all fields and to date has an 91st percentile Whiff rate of just 7.4% this season per 6-4-3 Charts. Behind the plate he showed average arm strength with POP times around 2.12 and solid receiving skills. He’s not presently regarded as a great pitch-framer, but he did steal a few strikes in what was an otherwise tight strike zone, especially in the early innings. Quatrani is currently a top ten round prospect, most likely somewhere in the 7th-to-10th round range.

Graduate student Drew Berkland might be a bit too old to be considered a premium prospect, but the centerfielder has good strength to his right-handed swing and made consistent, hard contact at the plate. The transfer from Minnesota was just 1-for-4 in the boxscore, but made good contact each at-bat, including a 107 mph double his first trip to the plate and two other 100+ EVs on a lineout to right field and another to center field.

Clemson

My first look at Aidan Knaak was last February at Globe Life Stadium where he “... was impeccable in his first two innings, striking out six consecutive hitters with pinpoint command of a 92-96 mph fastball, a late-breaking top-to-bottom curve and a slow motion changeup. He also flashed an occasional 85-86 mph cutter as a fourth pitch. His stuff was very good and his ability to pitch was even better. His upper-70s changeup and low-80s curve slowed bats, while his riding fastball went over them.”

During this mid-March look at Notre Dame it was a different-looking talent. He’s now more of a finesse righthander who pitches off a plus changeup. It’s a hard diver at 76-78 mph with late bottom. To date it has produced elite metrics that include a 94th percentile strike percentage of 67.7%, a 97th percentile chase (43.4%) and a 99th percentile Whiff (57.8%). Knaak also mixed an occasional hard 82-84 mph swing/miss breaking ball and those thrown to a lefthanded hitter’s backfoot were especially effective. However, his fastball sat just 90-92 which once was an average grade heater at the pro level, but has now fallen to well below average grade. His plus command does allow the pitch to play up and has been a key to his 38 strikeouts in 22 innings pitched so far this spring. Knaak looks now to be a 6th-to-8th round talent at this point in the process after a top five round evaluation for me last February in Arlington.

Another talented arm I was able to see both last February and during this latest look against Notre Dame is Justin LeGuernic. A reliever who has picked up significant velocity since my look last February, the 6-foot-7 lefty LeGuernic attacked the zone with great intent and high effort. He sat 95-97 with a running fastball of 18-21” horizontal action and a nasty sweeping breaker in the low-80s (2700 rpm). He can traditionally slide his breaker with depth and he can add more sweep. Industry models also really like the shape of each pitch. So far this season he’s produced a 60% Whiff rate (100th percentile) on his slider. LeGuernic also creates deception and good angle from a three-quarters slot. He's a very uncomfortable at-bat from either side, yet is most effective against lefthanded hitters (.048 batting average). He also thrives in two-strike situations. Once getting to two strikes, he has produced a 29.6% putaway rate (strikeout) which equates to the 97th percentile. It’s also safe to project him touching 100+ sometime later this season or early in his pro career. Despite his pure reliever profile, LeGuernic fits in the same area of the draft as Knaak. But, as much as I like college lefthanders with swing/miss stuff and a track record, LeGuernic sits a little above Knaak on my personal list.

A bit under the radar after a .287/.393/.511 sophomore season as a half-time corner outfielder, Tryston McCladdie has been rising on draft boards this spring with a .363/.453/.582 production slash to date in 2026. He’s taken over centerfield from the 43rd overall selection in the 2025 draft, Cam Cannarella and the compact built, 5-foot-10, 190-pound three-hole hitter is second on the team in batting average, much due to his ability to control the strike zone (9.3% K rate and a 14.0% BB rate). The lefthanded hitter also has some pop with a 108.1 max EV this season and an 88th percentile EV 90 of 106 mph. As a point of reference the EV 90 D1 average to date this season is 100.1 mph. McCladdie is a plus runner and should have little problem remaining in the big field in professional baseball. The other top positional prospect for the Tigers is second baseman Jarren Purify. Although he never got to show it on this look, his top talent is his run tool which can be graded as plus-plus. The 5-foot-10, 190-pound speedster is also an above average defender with fringey arm strength. Offensively, he has a feel for the barrel with doubles power and fringe average bat speed measured at 67.63 mph by 6-4-3 Charts. Currently the righthanded hitter is batting .333 with more walks (18) than strikeouts (17) and has been remarkable against breaking stuff with just a 15.8% Whiff rate that resides in the 94th percentile.

Nate Savoie is Clemson’s top positional prospect for 2027. He’s currently ranked No. 68, however that might be a bit light from what I evaluated against Notre Dame. He combines bat speed (68.76 mph) with bat strength and has produced a max EV of 111.6 mph this spring. At the plate he’s aggressive on pitches in the strike zone and limits the chase. Playing leftfield on this look, but doubling as a catcher the 6-foot, 215 pounder is physically built for the demands of that position, but at this point is far from a pro caliber catching prospect. He simply wills himself to achieve at that position which speaks to his elite makeup.

Back at the hotel following Friday’s Clemson – Notre Dame matchup, my scouting trail activities continued with Middle Tennessee State at Missouri State. With the Trackman data flowing in sync with the live stream it made good viewing of another prominent prospect. Video scouting is certainly not my preferred method, but it’s one that does have positives as a supplement to in-person looks. Tools-wise Caden Bogenpohl is a slightly toned-down lefthanded hitting version of Will Gasparino and he also naturally draws some comparisons to long-bodied former top round picks Spencer Jones and Jace LaViolette. Standing 6-foot-6, 225 pounds he’s another excellent athlete. His 70-grade raw power (117.3 max EV in 2025) is well-known and he has three other average-to-better tools in his arm strength, run speed and defense. His plus speed underway plays in centerfield where he has gap to gap range, but not so much on the bases where he’s 3-for-7 on stolen bases this spring and 18-for-26 for his career at Missouri State. With a career strikeout rate of 25% coming into this spring season, the big question was his hit tool. His passes at the plate and his setup have both improved since my last look this summer in the Cape where the development of his hit tool was reset – he set up in a crouched stance that sapped his leverage and greatly reduced his biggest tool – raw power. Bogenpohl has now reverted to a more upright stance seen in spring seasons of the past. After walking his first trip to the plate, he pulled off the next two at-bats which resulted in easy outs, only to stay through an outer half offering for a double with an EV of 107 mph to left centerfield during his fourth at-bat. It was an impressive adjustment, correcting his swing mid-game. To date he has reduced his strikeout rate to a 16.7% (down from 23.8% in 2025) while raising his walk rate to an excellent 25.9%. He’s done this by becoming more patient and cutting down his swing percentage, but mostly by limiting the Whiff (31.3% in 2025 to 24.8% currently in 2026). On the downside, he has lost some juice (.346 to .192 ISO), but the aptitude for making adjustments is obvious. The next test is to add power production while maintaining his current whiff. There are also no questions about his makeup as D1’s Joe Healy recently featured. Overall, he’s making strides with the development of his hit tool, but not yet enough to be considered in the top three rounds. He’s in a similar draft bucket as past tooled-up athletes like Dakota Jordan (Mississippi State) and Rodney Green (Cal), both 4th round picks in 2024 and Korbyn Dickerson (Indiana) a 5th round pick last summer.

Bloomington, Ind.- On Saturday I drove downstate to catch game two of Minnesota at Indiana. I really liked what I saw from Indiana’s nucleus of talented sophomores led by Jake Hanley and Hogan Denny. They provide the power in the Hoosiers’ lineup and are tied for the team lead with five home runs. After a slow start to this spring season, the 6-foot-5 lefthanded hitting Hanley now leads the team with a .359 average and 22 RBIs. He has juice to all fields that was shown with a 101 mph backside home run on Saturday. His top EV this season is 109.5 mph and the righthanded hitting, mature bodied Denny has even more pop at the plate with a best bolt of 112.1 this spring. Both rank in our top 100 college prospects for 2027 with Hanley No. 38 and Denny No. 85.

Minnesota

The top prospect of the Gophers for the 2026 draft is Isaac Morton. A Minnesota prep who was drafted in the 19th round by the Twins out of high school, he’s a transfer from Texas A&M. Morton was really good, until he wasn’t. The 6-foot-3 righthander posted four scoreless innings to start the contest before being roughed up for three home runs in the fifth inning. On the day he struck out six, walked two and gave up six earned runs in 5.1 innings. Despite this rough outing, Morton still boasts a 2.05 ERA in 26.1 innings with 25 strikeouts this season. He’s athletic, but his delivery is not with a part one, part two and part three to his segmented operation. What came out was really, really good and purely stuff-wise it’s better than yesterday’s evaluation of Notre Dame’s Jack Radel. But, quality strikes matter. Morton’s overall strike percentage is solid at 64.8%, but controlling his electric arsenal to pitcher-friendly spots in the zone has been a challenge. Per 6-4-3 Charts 38% (13th percentile) of all his pitches this season have been over the heart of the plate. On this look Morton’s sinker sat 95-96 mph, touching 97. His 84-86 mph sweeper was ridiculous at times with a 3300+ rpm spin rate and 17” of horizontal break. His 91-92 cutter was also a weapon, spinning at 2700+ and he flashed a firm changeup in the 88-92 mph range. Collectively, it’s top tier stuff with developing control, a package that should see his name called in the top three rounds this July.

Minnesota’s senior catcher Weber Neels should also attract some attention this July in the draft. Strong-built at 6-foot-1, 215 pounds he’ll be 23 years old on draft day, but every organization could use a strong-armed backstop who is a .300 career hitter, has some pop in his stick, limits the chase and has a 91.2% contact rate against pitches in the zone this season.