Some of the top high school pitchers from the 2027 and 2028 classes showed their stuff this pas week at Area Code Games Underclass. Four days of baseball games. Four games per day. The future of high school pitching is bright.
Saturday featured Santiago High School righty Striker Pence, a rising sophomore. Barely 16 years old, Pence isn’t draft-eligible until 2028, The bluechip hurler sat 96-99 MPH in the first inning with ride on the fastball. No other arm, regardless of draft year, grabbed higher than 97 at the event. It was a shockingly athletic operation with a slider and sweeper, the latter featuring late bite and tilt. It’s difficult to find an arm with this toolkit at any age, let alone at 16 years old. There is little to no precedent for any arm this age throwing quite this hard. It’s unequivocally one of the highest-upside talents in …