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NCAA Top Prospects Week #11

May 3, 2025
Nolan Jess
5 Comments

I would like to shout out College Baseball because I would’ve been so bored in class without it. But instead of being bored, I turned on the LSU vs Tennessee highlights, and it did not disappoint. Tennessee was ahead the whole game, even up 3 runs going into the 9th. LSU had plans to spoil that. Down 2 strikes, Jarred Jones was up for the Tigers and hit one of the farthest hit balls I’ve ever seen in college, to win the game at 1 AM, after a 3-hour rain delay.

Texas A&M is coming back to earth a little bit. They had a nice streak going for a while and are now cooling off. Jace Laviolette has still been putting up good numbers with his average at .291 and 15 homers. He is also second in the SEC for walks at 46. Here’s how his weekend went: Friday: 0-4 with 3 Ks, Sat: 1-2 with 2 BBs, Sun: 0-3 with 2 BBs. As I mentioned earlier, he does walk a lot, which is very confusing to me because I don’t know anyone off the top of my head who walks as much as he does, and K as much as he does

Now the game and pitcher that was a big factor in curing my boredom in class, Liam Doyle, and the Vols. Liam had yet another great outing on the bump last week. 6.2 IP 1 hit 3 BB, which is unusual, but it was against a tough LSU offense, no runs and 8 Ks. I still get impressed week after week with his performances. Every time I think he’ll have a bad outing or he’ll get hit around, he doesn’t. This guy is just very good at missing the barrel.

With no Friday start, the week prior, Jamie Arnold picked up right where he left off. Continuing to stay dominant on the mound, he went 7.2 IP, giving up 6 hits, 2 runs, 11 Ks, and just one walk. One thing that I love about Jamie is that he strikes out a lot of guys. You might be thinking that he might get into some walk trouble, right? Wrong, he keeps walking at a minimum and gets guys out. He makes his presence known on the mound and goes up there knowing he can sit anyone down that steps in.

Now, to end it off with a little more of an underwhelming start. Tyler Bremner has had a good year to this point. To be honest, I think that his draft stock has declined quite a bit. Some have noticed the flat fastball, and I know he throws hard, but straight is straight, and it’s not 100+. He’ll still most likely go first round, but I can see him slipping down a little, especially with some great high school talent. Here is his outing: 4 IP, 4 hits, 4 runs, only 3 earned, 4 BBs, and 8 Ks. Not his best start, I’m looking forward to him bouncing back.

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Turk's Teeth
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Turk's Teeth
20 days ago

Biggest change in my first round board now is the third name I’ve been mentioning in recent weeks as the under-the-radar arm we should be paying attention to: Kyson Witherspoon.

I’m still all in on pitching for the Angels at #2, with Seth Hernandez being my top name. In terms of a prep pitcher, it’s hard to imagine a more complete and polished profile than Hernandez, and he’s the the one arm at any level that confidently has ace projection.

But if Seth is not available, or the Angels wimp out on going prep arm in a play for safety, I think Kyson Witherspoon has nudged past Jamie Arnold on my target list. Just. A. Hair. I’d be satisfied with any of the three – Hernandez, Witherspoon, Arnold – but Witherspoon just continues to perform against tough competition as the season goes on.

Best college righthander in the class. Five pitches, three of which grade as plus, and four above-average. Massive velocity, sitting 95-98, touching 99 often. 2.13 ERA / 2.23 FIP. As you see above in Nolan’s post, second in the nation in DIGS.

On Friday, Witherspoon held nationally-ranked Ole Miss to one single over seven innings, 8 Ks. A week after holding #9 ranked Georgia to one run over 7 IP. As the competition has gotten fiercer, so has he.

At this point, it would be very hard for me to project that Jamie Arnold will be more successful than Witherspoon in five years time, and picking the latter likely allows the Angels to cut a discount of $2-3M to redistribute to a couple prep selections later. It’s the one player where I could see the team going underslot and still coming out ahead down the road.

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Turk's Teeth
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Jeff Joiner
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Jeff Joiner
18 days ago
Reply to  Turk's Teeth

Sign me up. Kid looks like a stud and with some extra cash lying around we can hopefully prevent the Prager scenario.

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Turk's Teeth
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Super Member
Turk's Teeth
20 days ago

Jace has really seen a slide in the past two weeks. Since getting his BA up to .315 and rising in the rankings into the top ten again, he’s seen his average decline roughly 40 pts to a rather bleak .276 now, and is striking out way too much again. In today’s victory against LSU, he struck out three times in five PAs, and they limited him to a single – his only hit in the entire three game series against LSU.

If I’m a scout at that series, I’m coming back with bad news.

Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the Angels looked past all the whiff and selected him anyway, but there’s far too much risk in his profile for a #2 pick imo.

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Turk's Teeth
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Super Member
Turk's Teeth
20 days ago

This has been a blast of a week to watch college ball, as so many top-ranked teams are going head to head now, and the Friday night matchups in particular have been really competitive. Some of the pitcher targets on my draft list have been really shoving as the season draws to a close.

On Friday, the pitcher that is top of my round 2 board, Joseph Dzierwa, went up against another late-round target on my list, Grayson Grinsell, in the Oregon-Michigan State matchup. Grinsell pitched 8 formidable innings for Oregon, with 9 Ks and 1ER. But Dzierwa went one better, pitching a complete game shutout, with 11 Ks, 3 hits, no walks, to take the victory.

Like Dzierwa, late season success has me wondering if he’ll be available at all by the time the Angels pick at #47, much like Oregon’s Mason Neville – a likely 5th rounder when the season began, but whose power barrage (23 HRs now to lead the NCAA) has him flying up boards, and almost certainly a late first or supplemental rounder now.

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