2026 Senior Future Games: Data Darlings

Nearly 500 NCAA Division-I coaches were in attendance for the third annual Senior Future Games, Prep Baseball's marquee stage for the uncommitted Class of 2027. Below you'll find a new data-driven way to review this year's event. The fastest rising seniors have been sorted not just by how good they are today, but by how much more there is to come, powered by our partners at TrackMan, Blast Motion, and VALD Performance. Last summer, a shortstop named Jace Mataczynski (Hudson HS, WI) arrived at these games, left as MVP, committed to Auburn shortly after, and then he just heard his name called in the third round of the MLB Draft earlier this month. He went from underrecruited a year ago to signing a $2 million bonus with the Red Sox just 12 months later.

That arc is why this event matters more and more every summer, and why the '27s still available this week shouldn't be considered just leftovers.

MORE SFG NEWS & NOTES

• See who's already committed from the '26 SFGs on this page.
• Read the Data Dive, Position Players here.
• View all Senior Future Games stats on this page.

BY THE NUMBERS

Throughout this piece, we'll be referencing the top performers' EVs of all kinds. But it's important that we kind of put exit velocity into perspective for this group and how we utilize it to evaluate present performers and combine it to projection on players with bright futures.

Exit velocity is, crudely, based on how big a hitter is (mass) and how fast he swings (bat speed). Across our nearly 200 tracked hitters at the SFGs, we're dealing with players still in high school generating some pretty substantial power for their age range while inherently demonstrating more to come as they continue to physically mature and develop over the course of the next two or three years, especially. So, there's more mass to come while their measured bat speed can be considered banked capital.

For reference, the median Division I regular tops out around 107.5 mph. We had some 2027s reaching that number in the showcase setting of the SFGs last week (eight hitters recorded a 105-plus mph EV in-game, too). So what we're going to in this exercise is measure the hitters generating power who also check many other boxes, be it bat handedness, twitch, bat speed, rotational acceleration, positional value, etc.

One other aspect we're attempting to calculate today is these players' "runway," or how much good weight these players are still yet capable of adding in the coming years. If they're productive and powerful already with sizable runway left physically, well then we're in a pretty special area of talent that warrants attention from college coaches and even professional scouts.

Projectable is one of the most commonly seen buzzwords thrown around on social media and scouting reports, so it's good to know review ways in which we can view it and consider it a little bit more concretely. For this exercise, we're going to call the remaining physical projection belonging to a player his Runway.

Runway is the good weight a frame still has to add, and it starts with his measured height and weight. A hitter's height sets the ceiling of what his frame can eventually (and reasonably) carry, while his current weight tells you how much of that ceiling is already filled. A lean 6-foot-2 shortstop and a filled-out 5-foot-9 second baseman can post the same exit velo today and have completely different futures, because one might have 30 pounds of college strength coming and the other is close to his physical peak.

So we estimate a mature, filled-out weight for each player's height (leaner for up-the-middle types who need to stay rangy, fuller for corner bats built to mash), measure the gap to where he is now, and translate it. Each pound of good weight is worth roughly a slight increase in raw exit velocity, but that slight increase compounds as the player's added mass is boosted by the increase his strength and subsequent bat speed too.

The profile to monitor is Runway plus Twitch. A frame's Runway tells you the mass is coming, while twitch can tell you that the player has the engine and athleticism to make the most of his physicality. Twitch is another buzzword-type term that's all over the place online, but there are ways to define it. Let's call Twitch a reactive explosiveness, quantified using athletic testing metrics collected at the SFGs, like various jump tests and run tests.

A projectable frame attached to elite twitch is the bet, and if these are also players who are presently performing against their peers offensively, then college coaches may as well bookmark their names now if they haven't called them already.

We attempted to sort every position player on two axes by examining their present polish, their existing Runway, and their measured tools. We actually classified catchers a little differently and evaluated them separately, which you'll see for yourself below. Check out some of our most notable findings from the SFGs below.

Future Stars | Need-to-Know Prospects

These players are showing premium up-the-middle value on defense with elite offensive traits and a swing that has shown the ability to control the zone and limit whiffs. Premium defense, at least some twitch/athleticism, with a clean offensive outlook combine to make them some of the most valuable players exiting the Senior Future Games.

Spring-Loaded | The Future Looks Bright

These players belong in, depending on your point of view, the most exciting bucket from our research. These players check the boxes now and carry major Runway, meaning there's present production and performance with remaining physicality yet to develop in the coming years, or they have elite Twitch that will help them continue to lift their own ceilings.

Lotto Tickets | Explosive Tools, With Some Risk

These players flashed some of the loudest, rarest tools at the entire event, elite Twitch, top-end speed, or huge raw power. With that, each comes with a question mark attached, usually a hit tool or swing decisions that still need refining. This type of mix generally produces the widest range of outcomes at the next level and beyond. If the bat catches up to the athleticism, you're looking at All-American outcomes. If it doesn't, the risk is real. For a development-minded staff willing to bet on the tools, this is where the highest-upside swings in the class live.

Sleepers | They Just Hit

These are the mirror image of the Lotto Tickets, the players whose measurables might not leap off the page, but whose results do. Quiet tools, loud production: the lowest whiff rates on our board, high sweet-spot rates, and a knack for finding barrels and base hits. These are the overlooked producers a good development staff turns into steals down the line, and the best of them still have a little Runway left in the tank to dream on.

Catchers are their own conversation for this article's purposes, and we think that makes the most sense. Showcase metrics and data aren't yet capturing just how well catchers are receiving the ball, calling pitches, blocking, etc. So below, we're taking a look at some of the best offensive-minded backstops who appear to at least meet the standards it takes to catch college pitching regularly.

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