Hardly two weeks into the 2026 college baseball season, we're already seeing some gaudy exit velocities. One of the fastest ways to garner the interest of scouting departments and their analysts is to hit the baseball extremely hard. Many draft models are objective.
One thing a full season of college baseball can't take away from a player is their peaks. Their average exit velocity may fall. Their barrel rate and hard-hit rates may plummet, but their peaks are permanent. Max exit velocities are hardly enough by themselves to get a player drafted high, but they can be conversation starters in a war room.
These players have people talking.
It's important to note many exit velocities around college baseball have been washed as a result of Hawk-Eye struggling to calibrate composite bats. Games that took place in Globe Life Park and Surprise Stadium both produced some outlandish marks that were eventually …