We’re a month into the college season, and while it’s too early to make definitive statements about players, enough time has passed for a few to begin setting themselves apart from their peers. As we head into conference play, I wanted to highlight a few guys who weren’t listed on The Board when we launched our initial rankings during Prospect Week, but who have stood out in the early going. One has been added to The Board, while the others might find their way there before Day One rolls around.
Liam Doyle, LHP, Tennessee
Weekend Line: 5.2 IP, 13 K, 2 BB, 0.00 ERA vs. St. Bonaventure
Liam Doyle stormed onto the scene to start the year and is looking like one of the top pitching prospects in the entire class. He’s had a nomadic career so far, spending his freshman year at Coastal Carolina before transferring Ole Miss as a sophomore. Now the Friday night guy at Tennessee, he’s made four starts, posting a 0.44 ERA with a 61.8% K-BB%, highest amongst qualified D-I pitchers.
What makes Doyle special is his fastball, which sits in the mid-90s, tops out at 99 mph, and boasts a unique movement profile. He routinely gets over 20 inches of vertical break on it to go with 13 inches of horizontal break, and he generates a shallow approach angle that helps it play up even more. For a variety of reasons, college pitch metrics tend to overstate the amount of movement a pitch will have once a player gets into affiliated ball, but it’s one of the best fastballs in college baseball.
Doyle uses his heater around 70% of the time, but he does have a slider and a changeup. The slider has more lateral break with hard bite, and he rips off a nice changeup with late fade. Both pitches are interesting but inconsistent, with the changeup the slightly better pitch despite Doyle throwing it less often.
The main thing I’ll be watching the rest of the year is how Doyle’s velocity holds up over the course of the season. His fastball provides a strong foundation, and I’d expect that the team that drafts him will tinker with his offspeed offerings to see if they can coax out a better breaking ball shape. Doyle has backend starter potential with a fair amount of relief risk due to his fringe average command. He has been added to The Board.
Korbyn Dickerson, CF, Indiana University
Weekend Line: 12 AB, .333 BA, 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 SO, 4 BB at Penn State
I was able to see Korbyn Dickerson a couple times this fall, and at times I came away thinking that he might end up being the best draft prospect on the team, even considering the presence of Devin Taylor. Taylor has a great start to the season, so I’m not quite ready to say one is better than the other, but Dickerson has had an impressive start as well. A 20th round pick by the Twins in 2022, Dickerson went unsigned and arrived at Louisville, where he barely played. He transferred to Indiana after the 2024 season and has burst onto the scene, hitting .380/.482/.761 with eight homers and a 14-to-11 BB/K ratio.
As a high schooler, Dickerson was a tooled-up athlete with a long swing, which led to major whiff issues that hurt his draft stock. Since then, he has remade his swing and there have been noticeable improvements. He ran a 38% whiff rate during the high school showcase circuit, but is down to an 18% whiff rate so far this year. This is similar to what he showed in his limited time at Louisville, so I’m buying the improvement. The toolsiness that he showed as a high schooler is also still present. He runs well, has an above-average arm in center, and boasts above-average power. It’s rare for someone who can actually hit to have this kind of skill set, and so far, Dickerson has shown that he can hit. If he continues to perform well, he’s a potential first round pick.
Brody Donay, C, Florida
Weekend Line: 8 AB, .625 BA, 2 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 3 BB vs. Florida
Brody Donay has titanic raw power, but his profile has been undermined by major bat-to-ball and chase issues. Last season at Florida, he ran a 40% strikeout rate, with whiff rates above 40% and a chase rate in the mid-30s. It was a similar story on the Cape this past summer, with a 37% strikeout rate, and whiff and chase rates that were about what he showed at Florida.
This year, Donay’s strikeout rate is a more palatable 19%, with whiff and chase rates that have come down to around 30%. Part of that is the weaker competition Florida has faced so far, and he’s still struggling against big league velocity, but it’s a step in the right direction. The power is still there, too. He has seven homers, a 1.038 SLG, and is in the top 10 in the SEC by wRC+.
Defensively, Donay has split time behind the plate with Luke Heyman, largely serving as a DH when not catching. He has also played some first base and right field, but for this profile to work, catcher needs to be his primary position. At 6-foot-5, it’s a tough ask for him to crouch down the way a catcher needs to, and he’s slow to get out of his stance when throwing. Still, he has above-average arm strength, and is a decent blocker and receiver.
Florida’s first conference series is against Tennessee this coming weekend, and a Donay/Liam Doyle matchup is going to be fun to watch. I’m not totally convinced that he’s figured it out at the plate, but with his plus power and serviceable defensive skills, there is a place for him as a part-time catcher in the majors if Donay can hold a 30-grade hit tool.
Mason Neville, CF, Oregon
Weekend Line: 12 AB, .333 BA, 2 HR, 4 SO, 2 BB, 1 SB at USC
Mason Neville entered the season as one of this class’ more well-known prospects in the Big 10. An 18th round pick in 2022 by the Cincinnati Reds, Neville spent a year at Arkansas before transferring to Oregon. His surface stats looked good last year (127 wRC+, 1.033 OPS), but there was a concerning amount of whiff in his profile that wasn’t exactly squashed during his time on the Cape (13 games, 54% whiff). He’s down to a 23% whiff rate to start the year, with a 166 wRC+ and a 1.332 OPS in 62 PA. Similar to Donay, Neville hasn’t gone up against strong competition, facing Toledo, Rhode Island, Columbia and Utah Tech, but he’s performing well when he needs to.
Neville’s core competencies are still there. He’s hitting for power and lifting the ball, with nine homers on the year so far. Neville is an average runner, though at 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, he’s bigger than your traditional center fielder and will likely move to a corner. He has the power necessary to profile there, but it all comes down to the whiff rate. If he keeps it in the 20-25% range, he’s a third-round type, but if it stays around 30%, I’d expect him to fall down into the seventh to 10th round range.
Emilio Barreras, SS, Grand Canyon University
Weekend Line: 13 AB, .308 BA, 2 2B, 1 SO, 1 BB, 1 SB vs. Texas Tech
Emilio Barreras’s career trajectory has been fun to watch, as he has gotten better every year. He played 45 games as a freshman, mostly at third base, where he had a 59 wRC+. The following year, he was promoted to be the starting shortstop after Jacob Wilson got drafted, and he filled his shoes admirably, posting a 99 wRC+ with plus bat-to-ball skills and serviceable defense. This year, Barreras is hitting above .400 with a 187 wRC+ and a 7% whiff rate. There isn’t a ton of power here — he hit just one home run in his first two years at GCU and has one homer so far this season — but his feel for making contact stands out. The defensive piece is tricky, however. Barreras is an average college shortstop, but I don’t think he’s a lock to stick there in pro ball and likely needs to move to second. Probably a Day Three pick, Barreras projects as a bench bat type who provides value with his plus contact skills as a lefty and his ability to play up the middle.
Content Source: blogs.fangraphs.com