Upperclass Pitching Data Dive: Utah Preseason All-State
February 24, 2026
St. George, UT – The Utah Preseason All-State was held on Saturday, February 21st at Crimson Cliffs High School in St. George, UT. This invite-only event featured around 150 prospects from the 2026 to 2030 classes, bringing together many of the top players from across the state ahead of the spring season.
Participants took part in an extended, pro-style workout that included batting practice tracked by TrackMan and Blast Motion, 60-yard dash testing powered by VALD Performance, and a full defensive evaluation. Pitchers threw bullpens, capturing advanced metrics via our TrackMan unit such as pitch velocity, spin rate, and horizontal and vertical movement. The event also served as a key identifier for future Prep Baseball events, including the Super Sophomore Games, Top Prospect Games, and the 2026 Future Games.
Below is the top overall Trackman Pitching metrics recorded from Upperclassmen the event.
FASTBALL
MAX 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.
HIGHEST AVG. HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT
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
HIGHEST STRIKE ZONE RATE%
SLIDER
HIGHEST AVG. SPIN RATE
HIGHEST AVG. IVB
HIGHEST AVG. HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT
HIGHEST STRIKE ZONE RATE%
CHANGEUP
HIGHEST AVG. HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT
AVG. IVB
HIGHEST STRIKE ZONE RATE%
+ Click here to view the event statistics in its entirety.
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