For those of you that don’t know, I’m not much into recruiting of any sort. Baseball recruiting isn’t really OMGZ FRONT PAGE OF RIVALS! either, therefore these type of posts will probably be few and far between. So, the article…
The Napa Valley Register is reporting Michigan’s interest in Napa Valley Indian’s pitcher Ben Ballantine (image from same post):
It will be an exciting week for the 6-foot-8 senior on top of the Big Games. He said the University of Michigan is flying him out to Ann Arbor, Mich., after Thursday’s game for a recruiting visit.
“They currently have a pitcher (Chris Fetter) who’s 6 foot-8 and my same build, 230 pounds or so, and he’s graduating this year. The head coach says I’m built just like him and I throw just like he did when he first came in as a freshman, and he wants someone to come in and try to fill his shoes,” Ballantine said Thursday. “I put together big packets during basketball season and sent them to a bunch of schools, just to see who would call back. Michigan showed a lot of interest and they came and watched me on (April 28).”
It goes on to say that his mother’s family is from Ann Arbor, and his dad’s side is from Ohio, so there is a good chance would be fine making the move from California to Michigan.
For those of you who love to stalk 17-18 year olds, his MaxPrep page. It should have a game-by-game breakdown of his statistics. Enjoy.
Posted under Baseball, Recruiting
Tags: ben ballantine, chris fetter
I don’t know a lot about HS stats, but 14 hit batsmen in 50 innings? That seems like a lot. Not to mention those are in addition to a WHIP of 1.4. Again, not sure about high school stats, but I see a 1.4 WHIP, 14 hit batsmen, and only 42 K’s in 50.1 IP, that doesn’t scream success to me, even if his ERA is 2.9.
Being a high school umpire, I see at least 1 or 2 hit batters per game. He’s got the build that Maloney is probably looking for. See: Chris Fetter, Travis Smith. As I said, I don’t care too much about recruiting. If he makes the team, then I’ll start analyzing him.
Oh, and I read 49 K in 50.2 innings. That’s slightly better, but also weighted heavily by that 10 K performance. The rest were 2-3 mainly.
The real judge of his potential will be his Pro draft status. If he’s a high round that decides on college he may be worth something. Low/undrafted and he’s probably just a big kid that can throw the ball.
With his size though I can’t imagine someone NOT drafting him just as a project.
My understanding of College v Pro baseball players is that top-tier talent skips college. Slightly less does JUCO to raise their draft status and D1 is almost the 3rd tier of players. I’ve known of HS kids that got $20K offers and turned down D2/D3 offers to play low-A ball.
Yeah, 49 ks, 42 was in my head because it was the total number of walks and hit batsmen he had.