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Post by easyheat on Dec 11, 2023 6:41:05 GMT -8
What do we know about this prospect? Anyone seen him in action?
RHP/SS Jace Willett 6-2, 186 Century HS
Two-way player with an athletic build and growing. Saw significant playing time as a freshman last year and he should continue rapid development in 2024. Offensively, has good contact and pull side power. Defensively, has quality arm strength from the left side and easy actions for a taller infield prospect. The mound is where his ceiling might be the highest. Logged over 30 innings last season at Liberty and was up to 85 mph with a live fastball that paired with his sharp slider and fading changeup.
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cake
Sophomore
Posts: 1,598 
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Post by cake on Dec 11, 2023 9:52:53 GMT -8
>The mound is where his ceiling might be the highest.
Yeah, definite pitching prospect. His swing has likely incurable flaws.
As a pitcher, he looks the part, pretty big kid, already fairly well built, I'm sure he's still growing, should be able to carry a lot more weight and strength.
High effort mid 80s fastball, I think there's a lot more in the tank though.
His delivery is a little bit funky, kind of herky-jerky with a pretty short arm circle, but he's generally in position when his foot lands, so that's probably okay. Helps keep the ball hidden until late, looks to be very deceptive.
He's got two breaking balls, one is a bigger, slurvy curve. The other is a somewhat tighter slider, but it's not exactly sharp yet. At this point, I don't think they have the separation you'd like to see. Plenty of time to work on that though. The change does look good.
Command is a current issue, but he's so young, he has plenty of time to get there, especially if he's a lot stronger and can deliver the ball with less effort.
Did he verbal or just on the radar?
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Post by easyheat on Dec 11, 2023 19:01:36 GMT -8
Not sure we are even recruiting him. His name has popped up a couple of times.
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Post by Gobeavs on Dec 12, 2023 20:59:58 GMT -8
Where are you seeing him? On social media? It might be cool if under the commits thread had links to their inst/twitter. Also, I don’t think we can have any new commits before their junior year with the new NCAA rules.
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cake
Sophomore
Posts: 1,598
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Post by cake on Dec 13, 2023 11:13:49 GMT -8
Where are you seeing him? On social media? It might be cool if under the commits thread had links to their inst/twitter. Also, I don’t think we can have any new commits before their junior year with the new NCAA rules.
Prep baseball report just released their updated rankings for the class of 2026, Jace was listed one of their top uncommitted players to watch.
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Post by easyheat on Dec 14, 2023 22:09:02 GMT -8
The new NCAA rules should limit this recruiting board's commitment announcements to the class of 2024 and 2025. When the school year of 2024 -'25 commences next September, the 2026 class announcements will begin to appear.
On November 8th, the Beavers signed 18 preps in their 2024 class. There might be additions to the class when the JC transfer period begins next spring along with the '24 transfer Portal period.
Currently, 14 members have been announced in the 2025 class, and 5 in 2026 class that were made public prior to the new NCAA rules.
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Post by Gobeavs on Dec 15, 2023 8:16:15 GMT -8
Started going down the list of commits, noticed something with the 26 class. At least 3 of the 5 play other sports. Uncommon with baseball players now a days in the travel ball era. Athletes!
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Post by easyheat on Dec 15, 2023 16:13:57 GMT -8
Multi sport athletes that excel in baseball quickly draw the attention of the OSU coaching staff. That is a plus with MC and his crew. We have quite a few two sport guys on the roster including 3-Sport Jaren Hunter who was Sam Barlow's QB in football, lead guard in basketball and star pitcher in baseball.
Your point of travel ball reducing the possibility of playing multiple sports is valid, it has become the age of specialization in every prep sport with a one-sport focus which personally, I'm not in favor of. Good athletes can usually excel at several sports and I think they should be encouraged to do that.
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