Baseball Recruiting Update: Commit #9 for 2014

The spring signing period begins tomorrow for baseball and many other sports, and perhaps the Michigan program will be issuing an official release on their 2013 signees later this week or soon thereafter. In the meantime, late last month, Erik Bakich and his staff secured their ninth 2014 commit, Ty Kiafoulis.

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Hello: Ty Kiafoulis

OF, Birmingham Brother Rice (MI) — 6-5, 230 lbs.

Committed: March 2013

Rankings/Grade: 

• Perfect Game: grade of 8 ("potential draft pick and/or excellent college prospect")
• Prep Baseball Report: not known
• Michigan Baseball Prospects: ranked #14 in the state

Scouting Report: from his PBR profile, posted Feb. 2013:

 Kiafoulis is a hulking presence, checking in at 6-foot-5, 230 pounds. He showed extremely well overall in the outfield. His throws were accurate and showed some carry. But Kiafoulis excels at the plate. He is athletic and has a swagger in the box. And for a big man, he has a very short compact stroke. Kiafoulis also showed that he can run well for his size (7.03).

And here's a bit more on Kiafoulis and his commitment from a MIPrepZone article:

“Getting the decision taken care of this early is exciting and takes a lot of pressure off for the next two years,” said Kiafoulis of accepting his offer from the Wolverines. “Michigan is a great school with a great tradition and the baseball team is on the way up, so to be a part of all that is an awesome feeling and something I’m extremely looking forward to.”

In Brother Rice’s season-opening doubleheader sweep of Grosse Pointe North on Tuesday, Kiafoulis showed off his power and quick bat, clubbing three hits and four RBI in the set of wins, highlighted by a towering three-run homer in the first game of the day.

His head coach Bob Riker is fast to compliment his rising batsmen and his college selection.

“Ty has big-time potential, we’re talking a very high ceiling with the kind of player he could end up becoming,” Riker said. “He’s a natural hitter with pop in his bat and a good eye at the plate. I think it’s a great fit for both of them. They’re (Michigan) fortunate to get his commitment.”

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2014 and 2015 Commits

Below are charts listing the known Michigan baseball commits for 2014 and 2015. There are a number of links in the PG and PBR columns to profile pages at those sites. Cursoring over the underlined text in the rightmost column will cause boxes to pop up with a scouting report on the player (taken from one of the sites linked).

EDIT: The charts wouldn't display properly here, so I've inserted them as replies below.