This weekend, the first month of NCAA season will be completed while prep play picks up nationwide. More reports will trickle in as conference play begins and the National High School Invitational is held on April 9. It's too soon to conduct an MLB Mock Draft, nor would I want to as the board continues to shift. The projected top performers are not off to impressive starts, but the players considered fringe Day 1 draftees are picking up their game. When publications start updating their Top 100 lists, I expect a lot of change.
One of those players outside the Top 10 that I think is solidly there now is Wake Forest shortstop Marek Houston. Entering his third season as Wake Forest's starting shortstop, Houston has displayed quality defensive skills. He has good mobility, a strong throwing arm and solid mechanics. Houston has cut down on the amount of throwing off his back foot this season.
Offensively, it's been a bit of a roller coaster experience. Houston started 62 games in his freshman season despite hitting .220/.328/.307 with four home runs. There wasn't much pop in the bat, with a .087 ISO and BABIP of .253, resulting in an NCAA wRC+ of 67 via D1Baseball. Still, he was a freshman, so there was hope for improvement in 2024.
Houston's numbers across the board picked up last year, but there were concerns about his exit velocity data. Despite a 92.5 percent in-zone contact rate, Houston's max exit velocity was 105 mph, but his 90th percentile exit velocity was below 100 mph. He hit .326/.433/.516 in 54 games with eight home runs and 16 doubles. However, the groundball rate almost reached 50 percent, and his ISO was .190. There was some room for improvement for Houston entering his junior season.
Thanks to a concentrated effort to add muscle to his body frame, Houston has picked up his offensive production in a big way. Houston had a monster performance this past weekend against Notre Dame, wreaking havoc on the Fighting Irish pitching staff. In the Friday game, Houston picked up an RBI thanks to a sac fly early, but the fourth inning was one to remember. Wake Forest scored 11 runs in that frame, largely thanks to Houston's six RBIs.
The first was a three-run homer off a cement mixer of a breaking pitch that Houston demolished. Trackman measured the blast traveling 385 feet with an exit velocity of 103 mph. Houston split the gap in his next at-bat by golfing a low breaking pitch that cleared the bases. Already having seven RBIs on the night, Houston again batted with the bases loaded and pulled a fastball down the left field line. All three runners scored and capped a 3-for-4, 10-RBI night.
In the next game, Houston started the scoring for Wake Forest by barreling up a 91 mph fastball on the outside corner. The drive to right field barely cleared the wall, but it had enough juice thanks to an exit velocity of 100 mph. It was the type of swing that demonstrated the improvements Houston has made over the last three seasons. He displayed excellent contact ability the previous year, but with the extra strength, Houston is punishing pitchers in 2025. In 18 games, Houston already has seven home runs with six doubles. The slash line is ridiculous at .406/.511/.797, and that ground-ball rate has dropped to 38.7 percent, while the flyball rate has jumped to 50 percent.
I’d like to see Houston face better pitching, especially on the velocity front. With the upcoming series at Clemson from March 21-23 and at Florida State from April 4-6, we’ll have more certainty about Houston’s hitting ability. If he continues to impress in those six games, Houston has a strong chance to be considered in the first five picks. That April 4 game will be a must-watch, with Houston facing Florida State ace LHP Jamie Arnold.
Notable Performances
- Tennessee LHP Liam Doyle pitched 5⅔ hitless innings against St. Bonaventure with two walks as his only blemish while striking out 13. In four starts this season, Doyle has allowed one earned run (a home run) in 20⅓ innings with 47 strikeouts to five walks. More remarkable, Doyle has allowed only six hits this season, and the most he’s allowed in a game is three to Oklahoma State on Feb. 28.
- Tennessee 2B Gavin Kilen had a quiet weekend against St. Bonaventure going 2-for-9 with a home run. His season totals are .463/.589/1.093 with eight homers and 22 RBIs.
- Arizona RF Brendan Summerhill put together a good four-game series against Pepperdine, where he finished 7-for-14 with three walks and no strikeouts. Hitting .383/.471/.650 is good, but Summerhill only has two home runs and doubles through 15 games. He does have four triples after hitting six in 2024. With a 22.4 percent line-drive rate, Summerhill's offensive profile is more contact than power. There's a good demonstration of understanding the strike zone and has good on-base skills, but there's the lack of home run power, and he’s 4-for-9 in stolen base attempts, I’m having a hard time mustering much excitement as a possibility for the White Sox at pick 10.
- Maybe Texas A&M OF Jace Laviolette is ready to break out of his early season slump. He has four multi-hit games in his last five with two homers and 10 RBIs. His poor start suddenly pushes him far enough back on draft boards to be a possibility for the White Sox.
- Oklahoma RHP Kyson Witherspoon went 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 12 K against Sam Houston this past Friday. Consistently throwing more than 90 pitches in each of his four starts, Witherspoon has 23 innings under his belt, sporting a 1.17 ERA with 40 strikeouts and five walks.
- North Carolina C Luke Stevenson is heating up. After a monster series against Stanford, in which Stevenson went 6-for-10 with two homers and 5 RBIs while adding four walks, he had another multi-home run against UNCW on March 11. For the season, Stevenson is hitting .333/.500/.700 with seven homers and 20 RBIs. However, there are some Zack Collins profile concerns. In 17 games, Stevenson only has one double and 20 walks to 15 strikeouts. It's something to monitor, but I'm glad to see the home run power.
- Remember the name Justin Lebron for the 2026 MLB Draft. Alabama’s shortstop is off to an insane pace and has put himself squarely in the Golden Spikes and Dick Howser Player of the Year map. In 17 games, Lebron already has 11 home runs with 43 RBI and is hitting .394/.506/1.000. He already has five games of driving in at least five RBIs while only being hitless in two games.
NCBWA Top 25 Poll (Week of March 10)
| Rank | School | Conference | Record | Pvs. |
| 1 | Tennessee | SEC | 16-0 | 1 |
| 2 | LSU | SEC | 16-1 | 4 |
| 3 | North Carolina | ACC | 14-2 | 3 |
| 4 | Florida State | ACC | 15-0 | 5 |
| 5 | Arkansas | SEC | 15-1 | 6 |
| 6 | Florida | SEC | 15-2 | 7 |
| 7 | Georgia | SEC | 18-1 | 8 |
| 8 | Clemson | ACC | 15-1 | 10 |
| 9 | Oregon State | Independent | 10-3 | 9 |
| 10 | Texas | SEC | 13-1 | 15 |
| 11 | Wake Forest | ACC | 14-3 | 11 |
| 12 | Oregon | Big Ten | 14-2 | 14 |
| 13 | Vanderbilt | SEC | 13-3 | 12 |
| 14 | Virginia | ACC | 9-5 | 13 |
| 15 | Texas A&M | SEC | 9-6 | 2 |
| 16 | Oklahoma | SEC | 14-1 | 19 |
| 17 | UC Santa Barbara | Big West | 13-2 | 18 |
| 18 | Troy | Sun Belt | 13-3 | 20 |
| 19 | DBU | CUSA | 11-4 | 17 |
| 20 | Alabama | SEC | 16-1 | 23 |
| 21 | West Virginia | Big 12 | 14-1 | 22 |
| 22 | Southern Miss | Sun Belt | 12-5 | 24 |
| 23 | Ole Miss | SEC | 14-1 | RV |
| 24 | Mississippi State | SEC | 11-4 | 16 |
| 25 | Auburn | SEC | 13-3 | RV |
Games I’m Watching this Weekend
No. 6 Florida at No. 1 Tennessee
Friday, March 14 - 5:30 PM CT on SEC Network
Saturday, March 15 - 5:00 PM CT on SEC Network
Sunday, March 16 - 12:00 PM CT on SEC Network
Prospects to Watch: Another look at LHP Liam Doyle, 2B Gavin Kilen, and SS Dean Curley.
No. 20 Alabama at No. 15 Texas A&M
Friday, March 14 - 6:00 PM CT on SEC+ Network
Saturday, March 15 - 2:00 PM CT on SEC+ Network
Sunday, March 16 - 4:00 PM CT on SEC+ Network
Prospects to Watch: Time to see if Jace Laviolette is breaking out or what’s bothering him. Also looking forward to Alabama’s Justin Lebron
