Baseball Double Hello: Troy Miller and Ricky Karcher
The Michigan staff continues to fill out its 2015 class in advance of the early signing period in November, today gaining two more commitments, both right-handed pitchers.
Troy Miller
Miller is a 6-3, 205-pound righty out of Soquel H.S. in Soquel, California, located near Santa Cruz. Miller was voted Pitcher of the Year for the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League, after going 6-1 in 11 regular-season appearances with 44 strikeouts and a 2.53 ERA in 51 1/3 innings. He has a four-pitch arsenal: a two- and four-seam fastball, circle change, and curveball. His velocity has increased this summer, with his fastball clocked at 91 mph recently.
Miller was recently selected to compete for the Oakland A's team at the "prestigious and heavily scouted" Area Code Games to be held August 4–9 in Long Beach.
"Being with the top 240 players in the country — it's a real honor," Miller said Wednesday. "I'm excited for where my baseball career, with the help of my coaching, is taking me right now."
That article (from July 23) indicates that Miller had earlier committed to Saint Mary's College but decomitted at the beginning of this summer. It also mentions plans of official visits to Michigan and Baylor and an unofficial visit to UC Santa Barbara, but he changed those plans today with his verbal commitment to Michigan.
I don't have rankings info on Miller—Prep Baseball Report doesn't cover California, and the Perfect Game rankings are paywalled. His credentials above seem quite good, however. It's also encouraging to see the Michigan staff continue to be able to attract players from California, having already brought in Ramsey Romano and Jackson Glines, with juco transfer Cody Bruder joining the team this year.
Ricky Karcher
I haven't been able to dig up much on Karcher, but here's what I've found: Perfect Game has him as a 6-4, 175-pound righty, with a best-recorded fastball of 88 mph. For at least the last two years, he has attended and played baseball at Ponte Vedra H.S. in Ponte Vedra, Florida, located near Jacksonville, helping his team win a state championship in 2013. But he's apparently moving to Saline for his senior year of high school, attending Saline High. It's possible he's originally from Saline, and his family is now returning there.
Again, any rankings are n/a. PBR recently expanded to Florida, but they don't yet have rankings for that state.
A summary of Michigan's 2015 class, with rankings from PBR when available:
- Nick Azar – 6-3 SS, #37 in MI, unranked overall (Hello post)
- Jack Bredeson – 6-6 RHP, #19 in WI, #222 overall (Hello post)
- Andrew David – 5-10 SS, unranked (from OH) (Hello post*)
- Charlie Donovan – 5-11 SS, #1 in IL, #6 overall (Hello post)
- Ricky Karcher – 6-4 RHP (from FL/MI)
- Ben Keizer – 6-2 LHP, #9 in MI, #98 overall (Hello post)
- Troy Miller – 6-3 RHP (from CA)
- Ako Thomas – 5-7 2B/MIF, #19 in IL, #86 overall (Hello post)
*Hello post is Ace's from the front page. David will be on a football scholarship, but he evidently also plans to play baseball at Michigan.
Can someone that follows the team and recruitig better than I do comment on the positions that have been recruited in this years class. Looks like a very unbalanced calss as it's all pitchers and middle infielders. Can I assume that some of these position players are projected to play different positions in college?
In HS, pretty much everyone's best player plays up the middle, especially SS.
They did have an outfielder in the class at one time, but that player decommitted. It does look like the staff is looking for a replacement as I heard they had offered an outfielder from California. I'd also look for a catcher to be added to either the 2015 or 2016 class. They were pursuing a 2015 catcher from Wisconsin, but he recently committed to Arkansas.
PBR and Perfect Game sometimes list secondary positions for prospects, and I'll try to make sure I note those in the future. PBR has Jack Bredeson listed secondarily as a third baseman.
Quite negative, just saying.
Solid haul for Bakich who already has laid the eggs for this program to become what it once was once they hatch.
What's with the games going on at Ray Fisher?
I was there last week and I saw a game going on.
There have been various showcases and tournaments at the Fish this summer. Was it July 22? PBR held its Underclass Games that day. With the renovations complete, I think they're letting the stadium be used more. And it makes sense from a recruiting standpoint to get as many prospects as possible onto your campus to see and use your facilities for what is essentially an unofficial visit. Jack Bredeson played in a tournament at the Fish earlier this summer with his travel team (tossing a no-hitter in one of the games), and I'm sure that played a role in his recent commitment to Michigan.
Just so inside info
The Santa Cruz Sentinel has an article on Miller's commitment to Michigan (originally published on Jim Seimas's Airing It Out blog here). It says he was on campus for an unofficial visit earlier this week and that he has several relatives in Michigan. His parents both attended Michigan State:
"It's a little sad for them," Miller said of attending MSU's rival, "but they recognize it's a great program."
Miller calls his commitment to Michigan "just a dream come true. . . . It's awesome."
"University of Michigan is top 20 in the world academically," Miller said. "And athletically, you can't get much better. A lot of people don't know this, but they have the fourth all-time winningest baseball program in the nation behind LSU, USC and Texas."
Welcome to the Michigan family!
Thanks for the updates Raoul
The Saline Post has a brief article on Karcher that confirms that he'll play for Saline next season.
Saline assistant coach Al Bates confirmed that Karcher worked out with the Hornets Thursday and is to play with the team next season.
Accompanying the article was this video, showing Karcher topping out at 88.
September 19th, 2014 at 6:29 PM ^
Perfect Game has Troy Miller ranked #275 nationally in the 2015 class. Looks like his name will be one to keep an eye out for come 2015 MLB Draft.