Nothing beats being at the ballpark in the fall for some college baseball scrimmage. My first stop was at a scrimmage between the Georgetown Hoyas and Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Capital One Park in Tysons Corner, VA. While both are smaller schools, they’ve both been sneaky programs that have produced some decent draft talent over the past couple of years.

In 2024, Georgetown's ace left-hander Everett Catlett (Colorado Rockies) was selected in the 12th round, and Rutgers had guys like Joshua Kuroda-Grauer (3rd Round, Oakland Athletics) and Donovan Zsak (8th Round, Cleveland Guardians) go in the top 10 rounds. Georgetown even had their third-rounder in the 2023 MLB Draft, Jake Bloss (Houston Astros), who has already made his major league debut and was a big piece in the Yusei Kikuchi trade. Rutgers also had a second-rounder in Ryan Lasko (Oakland Athletics) in the 2023 MLB Draft.

While Georgetown now doesn’t possess as significant an arm as it did in the past two years in Catlett and Bloss, it still had some names to watch. Rutgers was fully loaded with intriguing bats and a couple of arms worth monitoring.

2025 MLB DRAFT - RUTGERS

1B Ty Doucette

Doucette has easily catapulted himself into the top 100 bats in all of college baseball with his performance last year. He had a max EV of 112 MPH last year, and his ability to get barrel with ease is quite impressive. It was another barrel party for him against the Hoyas as hit smoked a double and homerun. Georgetown pitchers were no match for him. The only negative to Doucette’s offensive profile is he can be quite aggressive and chase at times, but he offsets that with a pretty good feel for the strike zone. Defensively, Doucette is a first-base-only profile, which means he will really have to hit at the next level. He’s somewhat athletic over there, but there is definitely room for improvement. Either way the bat is good enough that teams will be calling and he could easily find success in pro ball.

OF Trevor Cohen

Cohen is a very fun player at the top of the Scarlet Knights lineup. A truly scrappy player who sort of does just about everything right in terms of the little things. While he’s not loaded with tons of power, he does an incredible job at making contact and setting the table. It’s fairly quick hands that helps him to get the ball. Cohen can get a little bit chase happy at times, but his ability to make contact helps offset some of those concerns. You’d like to see some more consistent hard contact from Cohen and he’s likely a tweak or two away from making that happen. He’s got a good amount of speed that helps him make things happen on the base paths and gives him the ability to man the outfield. He has the ability to possibly be a centerfielder at the next level, although Rutgers had him in right field for this contest against Georgetown. He will be on the radar of a few teams on draft day.

2025 MLB DRAFT - GEORGETOWN

RHP Andrew Citron

Citron will likely be the closer for the Hoyas after putting up stellar numbers in 2024 to a 2.45 ERA while striking out 36 batters in 43 innings pitched. Citron is an interesting development story as he came to campus as a two-year player and strictly focused on pitching last year. He’s currently a two-pitch pitcher that consists of a fastball and curveball, although he’s flashed a changeup here and there. The fastball has been in the 89-93 MPH and has topped out a 94 MPH. In this outing, he was 88-91. While the velo was a bit done compared to what we are used to, he still had some pretty good carry on the pitch up in the zone. The curveball is Citron’s go-to pitch outside of the fastball. It ranged from 73-78 MPH but had some good bite. Command of both pitches is still a work in progress. He walked 30 batters last year, so the command and control issues aren’t new, but they are expected from a guy who has just started to focus on pitching full-time. Citron is a reliever-only type profile and if he can find some more velocity in his fastball, he might suffice as a two-pitch guy. If not, he could benefit from the development of his changeup.

C - Owen Carapellotti

Carapellotti played a massive role for the Hoyas last year and will likely be a steady producer in the heart of the lineup in 2025. He was draft eligible in 2024 and even competed in the MLB Draft League over the summer, but ended up going unselected and returns to Georgetown. He had the loudest base hit for the Hoyas in the scrimmage, reaching 104 MPH. It tracks with how hard he hit the ball in 2024 as he posted both solid average EVs and a really good max EV. Carapellotti is also fairly athletic behind the dish and has a strong arm to throw runners out. He easily looks like he is a guy who can stick behind the plate at the next level. Carapellotti will need to improve a bit on his ability to get barrel-to-ball, but overall he could be a really nice senior sign for a team on draft day.

2026 MLB DRAFT - RUTGERS

RHP Justin Shadek

A healthy Justin Shadek turned many heads in this fall appearance against the Hoyas. For me, he easily came away as the most impressive arm in game one. The fastball was consistently 93-94 in his outing, even though he ranged 90-94 MPH. He even topped out at 95. He paired that fastball with a curveball that had some serious bite. It ranged from 78-81 MPH and was definitely his go-to strikeout pitch during the game. He finished off his arsenal with a slider that was really tight and had some cutter-ish action to it. Overall, it was a very good two-inning outing for an arm who missed all of last year with an injury. He’s one I’ll definitely be monitoring and if he can stay healthy all year, he should play a massive role in the starting rotation for the Scarlet Knights.

OF Peyton Bonds

Campbell transfer Peyton Bonds (nephew of San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds) looks like he will be playing a significant role for Rutgers in 2025. The outfielder was manning centerfield for the Scarlet Knights and hitting in the top of the order. Bonds is a physical, imposing presence in the box coming in at 6’5, 220lbs. When he is able to get barrel to ball, the sound is loud off his bat and he posted a very high max EV with Campbell last year. Bonds is a bit stiff with his stance in the box due to his side and could use an increase in his bat speed. It seems to hinder his ability to make solid contact, and he often misses the barrel. Regardless of the hit tool concerns, you can see how the power is real and Bonds has some athleticism on top of that. He’s far from a clog on the base paths and showed in this game he does have the ability to handle center. There are some building blocks to like here and if he can make some significant adjustments in the hit tool department, Bonds could make himself an intriguing bat for the 2026 draft.

2026 MLB DRAFT - GEORGETOWN

INF Ashtin Gilio

Gilio is a guy who caught my eye over the weekend. Although he is a little undersized, he did show a solid ability to make contact and Rutgers arms had a hard time putting him away. He hit leadoff for the Hoyas and constantly was finding a way on base. The likelihood of him tapping into much power seems unlikely, but he has plenty of room to grow and could eventually put on some more strength. On top of trying to be a steady producer in the leadoff spot, Gilio is also learning a new position. The Hoyas have him at third base, and he’s quickly trying to find his way there. While nothing stands off the board a ton just yet, there is a lot worth monitoring to see if he takes steps to advance his game a bit more in 2025.

One of the tools we rely on heavily at Prospects Live when evaluating players at both the pro and amateur levels is data. Basically, our process for evaluation and analysis involves blending live looks, data, and industry chatter. Using all the tools available to us to help paint the most accurate picture possible is the ultimate goal. Analytics and data are often framed as a warring faction against scouting and “boots on the ground” evaluation. That may be an accurate depiction for some areas of the baseball world, but here at Prospects Live, we believe that all the pieces matter. Data is a tool. Stopwatches are a tool. Radar guns, too. If it aids us in our mission to provide accurate, detailed, and informative content, we’re going to use it. The draft team at Prospects Live keeps an eye on hundreds of MLB draft prospects each year. Those live looks, just like the data, are integral to our evaluation methods. No “battle” exists between the two in our minds.

Beyond evaluation, we use data to help identify players that are worth closer inspection. Evaluating college baseball in the Northeast region (for the purposes of this article, the Northeast region includes the following states: CT, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, and VT) has its fair share of challenges. Smaller programs, varying levels of competition, and unpredictable weather represent just a few of those challenges. In the public space where Prospects Live operates, information can be difficult to come by, which leads to players with “draft pedigree” slipping through the cracks. Pro teams and area scouts likely know about these hidden gems, but they aren’t exactly motivated to spill the beans. Data helps us uncover some of those types of players, which in turn makes our draft analysis, boards, and rankings more accurate. The goals of this piece were to highlight a handful of ballplayers with intriguing hitting or pitching data while also modeling how we use data at Prospects Live to identify players. Because of that, I shied away from including more well-known players from the region, such as Mike Sirota, and opted to stay true to the process that I use to find talented ballplayers that belong in the draft discussion. Here are five players that are worth monitoring from the Northeast region.

TREVOR COHEN

**School:** Rutgers
**Position:** Outfield
**Class:** Sophomore | 2025 Draft
**B-T:** Left-Left
**H-W:** 6’1-195
*Photo Credit: Rich Graessle

Trevor Cohen was an opening-day starter for the Scarlet Knights in 2023 as a freshman, flanking superstar centerfielder Ryan Lasko in left field. His 4-for-4 performance against Campbell was a sign of things to come, as Cohen went on to have a more than respectable debut season with a final batting line of .298/.383./.353 with 26 walks and 22 strikeouts in 261 plate appearances. That level of production earned Cohen a spot on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team, and he was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week twice last spring. Cohen is a player worth getting excited about if you are a Scarlet Knight supporter, and the underlying offensive data reinforces that feeling. So what does Cohen do that is so special? It’s simple, really:

Cohen finished his freshman year with a contact rate slightly above 90%. That 90% contact threshold places Cohen in an exclusive group among qualified D1 hitters (min. 100 PA), and you can count the number of freshmen to clear that mark on two hands. In our available dataset, Cohen appears to be the youngest D1 player to record a contact rate of 90% or higher during the 2023 season. While there are undoubtedly aspects of Cohen’s game that can stand to improve, his ability to consistently make contact right from the outset establishes a sturdy foundation to build upon.

I saw Cohen twice during the fall, and while the build remains lean, it looked like he added some good weight during the offseason. He hit a homer in a scrimmage against Vanderbilt and a triple off the center field wall against Stony Brook, perhaps a sign of things to come for Cohen in his second college season. Cohen split time between center and right field this fall. He is likely better suited for right long-term, which puts more pressure on his bat. He has quick, adjustable hands with an innate feel for the barrel. However, he tends to get on top of the ball, which leads to grounders and limits his power production. I would be shocked if Cohen didn’t significantly improve both his extra-base (nine XBH) and home run (one HR) totals from last spring. He’s currently in the “tweener” category, but Cohen has two more years to develop a little more thump to pair with his advanced bat-to-ball ability. He has a realistic chance to be one of the top college bats for the 2025 draft in the northeast region.

NICK ROSELLI

**School:** Binghamton
**Position:** Second Base
**Class:** Junior | 2024 Draft
**B-T:** Left-Right
**H-W:** 5’10-195

While Trevor Cohen excelled in an individual category (contact %), Binghamton second basemen, Nick Roselli distinguished himself in several offensive categories. He enters his junior year with a career .336/.426/.569 batting line with nearly equal walks to strikeouts (49:53) and 18 long balls. Some of Roselli’s top accomplishments to date include finishing 2nd in program history for RBI in a single season with 61 RBI last spring, recording a seventeen-game hitting streak that went from April to May, and being a Regional All-Tournament selection as a freshman in 2022, where he went 6-8 with two homers in two games. Roselli will be among the elite performers in Binghamton baseball history with a successful campaign in year three of his college career.

Roselli is undersized, but there’s plenty of strength in his compact frame, especially in the upper half. He has short levers, which allow him to control the inner half of the plate and get good loft when turning on inside fastballs. While he doesn’t have huge raw power, the batted ball data suggests Roselli has the ability to impact the ball enough at the pro level. Roselli’s average exit velocity was above 92 MPH, and his sweet spot percentage (batted balls with 95+ EV and 10°-30° launch angle) eclipsed the 25% mark. Roselli ranked among the 90th percentile in both categories, according to our dataset from the 2023 season. He amplified those totals with strong contact and chase rates, showing off his well-rounded offensive skillset. For the year, Roselli’s overall contact rate hovered right around 85%, with an even higher rate of contact against fastballs 93 MPH or higher, and he chased pitches outside of the strike zone at a 17% clip. Those are solid totals for sure, and while neither the contact nor chase percentages are elite, they indicate that Roselli’s offensive production to date isn’t simply a small conference mirage. When you combine the batted ball data that was referenced earlier, you end up with a highly intriguing ballplayer that merits closer evaluation.

Playing at Binghamton in the America East conference has allowed Roselli to fly under the national radar to date. But if he’s able to run it back in year three, show he can stick at second base defensively, and continue producing with Bourne on the Cape this summer, he’ll get some love on draft boards across the industry.

The @BinghamtonBASE offense is rolling!

Reifler drives in a run and Nick Roselli follows with an RBI double for a 7-1 lead in the 8th!#AEBASE x #AEChamps pic.twitter.com/DwOVOOtCvX
— America East (@AmericaEast) May 26, 2023

NICK GROVES

**School:** Niagara
**Position:** Centerfield
**Class:** Sophomore | 2025 Draft
**B-T:** Left-Right
**H-W:** 5’10-170
*Photo Credit: Michael P Majewski

If it’s easy for a guy like Nick Roselli to fly under the radar at Binghamton, think about what it must be like to play college ball minutes away from the Canadian border. That’s the reality for sophomore Nick Groves, a centerfielder who led all of D1 baseball in walks per game (1.21 BB/G) and amassed more base-on-balls in a single season than any player in Niagara and MAAC history. Groves displayed superlative table-setting skills atop the Purple Eagles lineup, finishing the 2023 season with a .339/.504/.421 batting line. An Ontario native, Groves has a chance to be the first Purple Eagle selected in the MLB Draft since Matt Brash (Padres, 4th round) back in 2019.

As you might have guessed, Groves’ inclusion in this article is based on his plate discipline and approach as a hitter. Those elite walk totals have to come from somewhere, right? Groves finished his freshmen season with a superb chase rate of around 14%. That’s an impressive rate on its own, but when you combine that with some of Groves’ other tools, you can picture the overall profile attracting eyeballs from area scouts. Groves ran a contact rate in the 80-85% range, showing an ability to handle decent velocity, spin, and offspeed offerings. On top of that, Groves has outstanding speed that he began to harness more effectively as he got his feet wet in college ball. Sources I reached out to said Groves’ run grade is at least a 60 and potentially a 70 grade tool presently. Groves also looks extremely capable in center field and even has some experience manning the keystone. So, put that all together, and what do you have? A twitchy athlete with serious wheels who controls the strike zone, puts the bat on the ball, and plays up the middle defensively. Sounds like an ideal leadoff hitter, no?

Of course, Groves will need to show more impact at the dish. His power production in 2023 was underwhelming, to put it nicely. He can get a little passive at the plate, though there is some evidence that he began to show more positive aggression as the spring progressed, while the swing can drift from ‘slasher’ and into ‘slap’ territory. Still, the base of skills and tools are palpable, and Groves has two more years to complement his game with some added impact at the plate. It’s not a perfect one-to-one comparison, but Groves reminds me a little bit of former Demon Deacon Tommy Hawke. Hawke had a similar profile and toolset as Groves (he even played a little middle infield) following his freshman year in 2022 but was able to grow into some power during his draft year. That bump in power was enough for Hawke to hear his name called by the Guardians in the 6th round last July. Whether Groves can follow a similar path remains to be seen, but there’s no question that he’ll be followed closely by MLB clubs over the next couple of years.

B1 | Groves opens the day with a leadoff single!#EAGLES pic.twitter.com/QZXXCuWOtP
— Niagara Baseball (@NiagaraBASE) April 7, 2023

RYAN DROMBOSKI

**School:** Penn
**Position:** Right-Handed Pitcher
**Class:** Junior | 2024 Draft
**H-W:** 6’2-205
*Photo Credit: Michael Nance

I’m going to steal a term from Baseball America for a moment to describe Ryan Dromboski. He’s one of my personal cheeseballs in the 2024 draft class. The New Jersey native was named Ivy League Pitcher of the Year last spring and is an early favorite to obtain that honor once again in 2024. The junior righty finished his second year at Penn with a 3.17 ERA, 97 strikeouts, 35 walks, and 51 hits allowed in 71 innings. During conference play, Dromboski put together a 15-strikeout performance against Princeton and followed it up with a complete game, 12-strikeout outing against Brown. He also earned a win against #13 Auburn during regionals, allowing just two runs in 5.1 innings. Dromboski pitches with an incredible amount of intensity on the mound and can often be heard roaring after securing a big out. A self-described psychopath on the mound, Dromboski is the undisputed leader of this Quakers pitching staff, a group that looks poised to do some damage in postseason play for a second straight year.

There are a couple of data areas that are particularly striking with Dromboski. First, his four-seam fastball (91 MPH avg; 95 MPH max) has an extremely low vertical approach angle (VAA), below -3.75. That puts him in the top 1% among qualified D1 pitchers, according to our dataset from 2023. A ‘flat’ approach angle isn’t the end-all-be-all, but it’s a data point that pro teams value highly, and Dromboski’s VAA is firmly in outlier territory. Dromboski also used a sinker about half as often as the four-seam, and it actually had better results when it came to generating whiffs. That might be due to Dromboski’s other remarkable attribute, the strength of his slider, a pitch that tends to pair well with sinkers. Last year, Dromboski’s sinker had over 17 inches of horizontal break (HB) to his arm side with about 10 inches of induced vertical break (IVB). Combine that with a low 80s slider that averages over 15 inches of HB in the opposite direction with 5 inches of IVB and you have quite the one-two punch to keep hitters guessing. Dromboski threw his sweeper nearly as often as his four-seam last year (over 33% usage), and for good reason, as he racked up a whiff rate over 55% and an in-zone whiff rate above 40%. The slider is a clear plus-level pitch, which is probably a conservative grade when you consider both the shape of the slider and the way it pairs with the rest of his arsenal. For good measure, Dromboski also has a solid changeup with good arm-side fading action and great velocity separation off his fastball (~11 MPH). He pitches with some effort and he can lose control of his fastball at times, but the upside is immense, especially if his velocity adds a tick or two this spring.

I’m not entirely sure why Dromboski hasn’t received the attention that he’s clearly worthy of. Maybe it’s a lack of exposure. Maybe it’s a general hesitation when ranking pitchers out of the Ivy League. Whatever the reason, Dromboski hasn’t received a ton of love on preseason draft rankings in the public space. Expect that to change quickly as the 2024 season kicks into full gear.

The Ivy League leader in Wins, ERA, and Batting Average Against🔥

Ryan Dromboski, 2023 Ivy League Pitcher of the Year🌿#QuakeShow | @DromboskiRyan pic.twitter.com/hphfEk0YAP
— Penn Baseball (@PennBaseball) May 19, 2023

RYAN REICH

**School:** Seton Hall
**Position:** Right-Handed Pitcher
**Class:** Sophomore | 2025 Draft
**H-W:** 6’2-215

I wrote about sophomore Ryan Reich a few months ago after checking out Seton Hall this past fall. To quickly recap, Reich was one of the top relievers in the Big East last year, emerging as a late-inning weapon for the Pirates last spring. He has since been named to multiple preseason All-Big East teams as he is expected to slide right into the weekend rotation in 2024. After seeing Reich live, it’s clear that he has gotten stronger, with the physicality necessary to handle a much larger role. On top of that, I also saw clear growth in his pitch arsenal during that short appearance, which suggested to me that there is legitimate draft potential moving forward.

So, what is it that makes Reich so interesting? The heater. You have probably heard commentators and analysts use the term “explosive fastball” before. A handful of Reich’s fastballs absolutely exploded during the scrimmage I intended. And I’m not talking about velocity here. Plenty of hard throwers have fastballs that lack life and are more hittable than you’d expect, given the radar gun readings. Reich’s velocity is moving in the right direction. He was up to 93 MPH and sitting around 90 MPH in my look, which is a slight uptick from 2023, when he averaged 88 MPH on his fastball. Even at 90 MPH, hitters have trouble catching up and squaring the pitch, thanks to the explosiveness that I mentioned earlier. This is an obvious example of a pitcher’s fastball playing above its velocity, and the data helps to confirm this.

Extension: 6.4-6.5 feet of extension in his delivery, roughly MLB average
Release Height: between 4.9-5.0 feet. Way below the D1 and MLB average,
18+ inches of induced vertical break (IVB)

Without getting too deep in the weeds with pitch data, these data areas all suggest that what I saw from Reich during that scrimmage was real. Like Dromboski, Reich has a low, flat approach angle (VAA) on his fastball in the -3.90 to -4.00 range, giving it that explosion as it crosses the plate. With such a low approach and solid extension, the pitch gets on hitters quickly and gives off the ‘rising fastball’ illusion that results in empty swings. The results on Dromboski’s four-seamer were just OK, but Reich’s were phenomenal. Even at the lower velocity that Reich showed last spring, he recorded an overall whiff rate and in-zone whiff rate above 30%. When I first saw those percentages, I figured they must be pretty good. But after taking a closer look it was clear that not only were they good, they were kind of special. Take a look at the chart below:

Those are all of the qualified pitchers from our dataset with a fastball that had both a 30% whiff rate and a 30% in-zone whiff rate in 2023. The majority of those pitchers are either in pro ball now or, like Reich, won’t be draft-eligible until 2025. Side note: Tennessee’s AJ Russell might be pretty good. Obviously, Reich threw fewer innings than many on this list, and he also faced a different level of competition, but the overall point remains true. When you miss bats like this with your fastball, pro teams are going to pay attention. And if he starts throwing harder over the next two seasons, those whiff rates may climb even further.

Reich isn’t a finished product by any means. We still need to see how he performs in a starting role. There’s a little violence and head movement in the delivery that could signal a future in the pen. We’ll also need to see how he complements his fastball moving forward. His curveball and changeup were both lackluster in 2023. However, both pitches appeared to be overhauled, with the curve looking more like a true slider, flashing short, late break at 80 MPH, and the changeup featuring splitter-type action at 83 MPH. The development of those two pitches will greatly determine what kind of ‘ceiling’ Reich has as a draft prospect, but the fastball data and results immediately turn him into a high-priority follow for the next two years.

Jared's Fall Jottings Part 1: Georgetown vs. Rutgers