Elliott: Zibin zipping up Perfect Game charts
Langley Blaze RHP Jacob Zibin (Langley, BC) continues to shine. Photo: Baseball Canada
May 3, 2022
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
Three months ago, Jacob Zibin was one of the arms to watch ... for 2023.
Two months ago, he was declared eligible for this July’s draft.
Last month, he sat at No. 100 on Perfect Game’s top list of high school prospects.
And now, he’s in double figures on the combined list of collegians and high school players.
Zibin, No. 77 on the charts, and No. 1 in Canada, is the top rated of the five Canucks in the PG Scouting Service’s top 400. The Langley Blaze ace has been pitching for the TNXL Academy Ducks.
He is one of the younger players in this draft class and is in the mid-90s and has shown a plus curveball after learning from coaches Jamie Bodaly and Doug Mathieson.
Perfect Game’s top 400 high school prospects
By Vincent Cervino and Brian Sakowski
Rank Name Level Pos. B-T School Hometown State/Province Commitment
1. Elijah Green H OF R-R IMG Academy Windermere Fla. Miami
77. Jacob Zibin H RHP R-R Junior National Team/TNXL Academy/Langley Blaze Langley, BC South Carolina
174. Adam Maier C RHP R-R Oregon/UBC North Vancouver BC
328. Nathaniel Ochoa H SS R-R FieldHouse Pirates Burlington Ont. Alabama
333. Matthew Grabmann H RHP R-R Okotoks Dawgs Dartmouth NS Oregon
Ontario Nationals LHP Jackson Soucie (Cambridge, Ont.) who is headed to Wabash Valley.
345. Jackson Soucie H LHP L-L Midland Redskins/Ontario Nationals Cambridge Ont. Wabash Valley
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RHP Jacob Zibin
Honours during the 2022 season _ PG Preseason Underclassmen All American First Team for Canada/Puerto Rico region ... Top ranked in BC ... 2021 season -- PG Preseason Underclassmen All American First Team for Canada/Puerto Rico region ... 2020 season -- Earning Pre-season Perfect Game Underclass All American Honourable Mention honors for the Canada/Puerto Rico ... 2019 season -- Earned All Tournament Team honors with the Dbacks Langley Blaze at the WWBA Freshman World championship.
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RHP Adam Maier
After pitching for Chris Pritchett and the UBC Thunderbirds and on Cape Cod for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox -- since UBC was unable to travel south due to border restrictions -- with 27 strikeouts in 25 2/3 innings and 4.55 ERA. He made three starts at Oregon and has not pitched since March 3 against Santa Barbara as he was shut down with elbow problems.
In his three starts against San Diego, St. John’s and Santa Barbara he pitched 15 2/3 innings going 1-1 with a 4.02 ERA. He walked six and struck out 19 while holding opponents to a .190 average.
PG Scouting report: Class: Junior
School: University of Oregon
Draft Eligible Year: 2022
We’ve got to start with the slider because it is pretty ridiculous. It sat 80-83 with big-time lateral break and depth. It featured spin regularly in the 2900s, topping out a tick over 3100. Buckled knees even the second time through the lineup when hitters had already seen it. He backdoored to lefties, and doubled up with the pitch multiple times. Some similarities to the body and the slide piece to Kevin Kopps where he could just live off the slider, but Maier’s fastball at 91-94 (also with plus spin) shows exceptional darting life with run and sink to the arm side. He doubled up with the change up later into his outing to a lefty at 86, also getting a strikeout on the change. Showed control over command, especially early with a few pitches getting away from him (was a cool San Diego night which could have contributed), hitting a few batters but walking nobody in 5 frames and command got better as he settled in. The stuff was loud, swing-and-miss stuff, fun to watch.
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INF Nathaniel Ochoa
Honours: 2022 season _ PG Preseason Preseason All American First Team for Canada/Puerto Rico region ... No. 1 in Ontario ... 2021 season _ Preseason Underclass All American Honorable Mention for Canada/Puerto Rico ... All Tournament Team with NEB National at WWBA World championship ... 2020 season _ Preseason Underclass All American Honorable Mention for Canada/Puerto Rico region
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RHP Matthew Grabmann
He made the trip six provinces west from Dartmouth NS to Baseball City, Alta., a.k.a. Okotoks
Honours: 2022 season -- Preseason All American First Team All-Region for Canada/Puerto Rico ... 2021 season -- Preseason Underclass All American First Team for Canada/Puerto Rico region ... 2019 season -- All Tournament Team Freshman Perfect Game Series Classic with NEB ... Northeast Freshman PG Series Classic ... 2018 season -- Northeast PG Series Classic.
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345. LHP Jackson Soucie
Honours: 2022 season -- Preseason All American Honorable Mention Canada/Puerto Rico All-Region Teams ... 2021 season -- All Tournament Team with Midland Braves 17U at WWBA 2022 Grads or 17U National Championship ... All Tournament Team with Midland at PG 17U National Elite Championship ... All Tournament Team with Midland Redskins at WWBA World Championship.
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Six names from the top 500 high school list did not make the Perfect Game’s top 400 combined list
215th RHP Micah Bucknam (Abbotsford, BC) Langley Blaze, NEB Rays/C-LSU 250th Blake Gillespie (Lucan, Ont.) Ontario Nationals/Team Elite Academy/C-Georgia
Vauxhall Academy’s RHP Anson McGorman (Parksville, BC)
319th RHP Anson McGorman (Parksville, BC) Vauxhall Academy, Brewers Langley Blaze/C-Utah
414th RHP Turner Spoljaric (Lisle, Ont.) Toronto Mets, FTB, Philadelphia Phillies Scout Team/C-Oregon
455th RHP Dylan Oborne (Toronto, Ont.) Ontario Terriers, NEB National/C-Florida Atlantic
477th Caleb Clark (Orillia, Ont.) Great Lake Canadians, Ohio Warhawks/C-Nebraska
Any or all of these names could move into the first 20 rounds when the draft takes place at the all-star game.
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A Perfect Game Scouting Report on Blake Gillespoe
Blake Gillespie (2022, Lula, Ga.) had some high expectations for what he might show on the mound in his first start of the year and the stuff is certainly intriguing from a variety of perspectives. It’s a really athletic profile as he’ll run well and has some two-way ability and that translates to the delivery where he’s athletic through his release which allows him to really control the body well and repeat in the zone enough to be a starter. It’s a really good fastball as he came out in the 91-93 mph range with it showing premium life both north and south with it. He’ll primarily work off the fastball in a power approach due to the developing feel to spin a softer breaker at present, but he’s got solid feel for a low-80s change up that dives well and gives a good look off the fastball to put hitters away at times. If he can continue to refine the breaking ball, this could be an interesting arm at the next level or even a pop-up draft follow.