A look at Iowa's baseball newcomers

With the conclusion of the MLB Draft, the Iowa Hawkeyes incoming recruiting class is set. That means it is time to welcome in the new group of Hawkeyes and discuss how each one of them fits in with Coach Heller’s 2022 squad and beyond.

I recently spoke with Assistant Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator Marty Sutherland, to learn more about the newcomers that will join the team this fall. It is a class that is filled with talented players, headlined by Ankeny pitcher Brody Brecht and Iowa City West pitcher Marcus Morgan, who were both talked about as potential MLB Draft picks.

“We haven’t had a situation where we were sweating out a high schooler during the draft. We did have a couple kids get drafted high school wise…Nothing like we did with Brody,” said Coach Sutherland. “This class is really athletic on the position player side, so that is exciting. I think that’s one thing that maybe we weren’t especially great at the last couple years.”

Incoming Recruiting Class

RHP Brody Brecht – Ankeny, Iowa (Ankeny HS)

Brecht was projected to be an early 3rd Round pick in the MLB Draft, but his asking price to pry him away from playing football at Iowa was too high for teams to bite. Brody throws a fastball in the mid 90s, while boasting a curveball and slider that are both in the low to mid 80s.

“The biggest thing you are looking at is the raw stuff. That’s the thing you don’t normally get right away (from a freshman). You are talking mid 90s stuff already,” said Coach Sutherland. “I expect him, from a stuff standpoint, to push for a weekend starting position, which you don’t have all that often out of a freshman.”

Perfect Game rates him as the #2 prospect in the state of Iowa, behind C Ian Moller, who was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 4th Round. PG also rates Brecht as a top 50 prospect in the country (#30) and a top 10 right-handed pitcher coming out of high school (#9).

He has been dominating opponents on the mound for Ankeny this season, going 7-0, while posting a .68 ERA over 41.1 innings pitched. He has struck out 89, while also putting together a no-hitter vs Ames. He was also a standout on the football field for the Warhawks, catching 42 passes for 12 touchdowns, en-route to a state championship last season. He will play WR for Coach Ferentz and the Hawkeye Football team in the fall.

The big thing that comes with Brecht playing football, is the saving of scholarship money on the baseball side of things.

“It is a full football scholarship and a walk-on baseball situation…It is the one way you can kind of expand past that 11.7 (scholarships).” Coach Sutherland joked that it makes them feel like Vanderbilt when they can get a guy with this type of situation.

Brecht will likely be a weekend rotation pitcher right off the bat and it will be exciting to see how much better he can get with the Hawkeyes.

RHP Marcus Morgan – Iowa City, Iowa (Iowa City West)

Marcus Morgan received some interest regarding the MLB Draft early in the high school season, but a lack of velocity spike extinguished those thoughts. However, Morgan is still a very talented land for the Hawkeyes, as he boasts a fastball that sits right around 90 and an above average breaking ball.

Morgan was a three-sport athlete in high school playing basketball, football and baseball, so he was not focused year-round on baseball. That is what makes the IC West standout such an intriguing prospect. Once, he starts focusing solely on baseball and working with Iowa pitching coach Robin Lund, he will be able to get that velocity jump pro scouts were hoping to see this year. Coach Sutherland was fairly confident that Morgan would be able to boost his fastball velocity soon after arriving at Iowa and could go into next season with a low 90s fastball.

“I think it could jump really quickly. He is a really heavy off-speed guy. Throws a ton of breaking balls. He doesn’t use the fastball quite as much…He will have a tendency to come around and cut that fastball, so he doesn’t get it spinning efficiently. Once that happens, it may go to 92-93 right away. As he gets stronger, he could be a mid 90s guy.”

Perfect Game rates Morgan as the #5 prospect in the state of Iowa, as well as the #286 right-hand pitcher in the class of 2021. Morgan is 3-2 in nine starts for the Trojans this season, with a 1.41 ERA. He has struck out 95, while walking just 17 batters over 49.2 innings pitched.

“From a stuff standpoint, as good of raw stuff as we’ve gotten on campus as a freshman. Talking about a high-level breaking ball from a metrics standpoint…Another guy that has only pitched for three months out of the year.” (Due to playing multiple sports in high school) “We are really excited about a narrow focus on the sport of baseball and where that is going to take him.”

LHP/1B Weston Fulk – Ankeny, Iowa (Ankeny HS)

Coach Sutherland said that when they initially recruited Fulk, it was for his pitching only, but Weston has made it clear this season that he can be a piece in the Hawkeye batting order. Fulk is tied for the most home runs in the state with 12 and is fifth in RBIs with 56. He has filled the stat sheet with 62 hits this season, including 20 doubles and five triples to go along with the dozen home runs.

Coach Sutherland mentioned that Fulk has really played himself into the dual position conversation this season saying, “On the offensive side, how can’t you start thinking about letting him do that…You got to give him a chance to hit. He’s physical. It’s not it’s a soft .500 he is hitting, it’s loud. Leads the state in home runs…probably top two or three in RBIs. You are talking about major level production.”

On the mound, Fulk just recently threw a perfect game vs Des Moines Hoover. He has started eight games, with a 6-2 record and has posted a 1.99 ERA over 38.2 innings pitched. Fulk has struck out 71 batters, but has walked 34, which is near one an inning.

“From the pitching side he is really on coming on late. He’s really struggled with his command a little bit. For most of last year and a large portion of this year, but that stuff is coming around…Velocity is starting to pick up a bit. He just has to clean up some things mechanically,” said Coach Sutherland.

Perfect Game rates Fulk as the #13 overall prospect in the state of Iowa and the #96 left-hand pitcher in the entire country. Fulk and Brecht are looking to complete a state championship run for Ankeny this season after their runner-up finish a year ago.

RHP Chas Wheatley – Edmonton, Alberta (Strathcona)

Chas Wheatley is the most unique prospect in the class, with the fact that he is the only one to not come from the state of Iowa. Wheatley actually comes from Alberta, Canada.

Coach Sutherland sounded pretty excited when talking about Chas saying, “Really intriguing kid. 6’7 215 pounds…super athlete…We just saw some video on him at one time. Kind of a lower slot. A three quarters type of slot. It was around 88mph, but it was super athletic…We are getting reports that the velocity has kicked up. It is 90-92 and if that is the case, he could be a factor.”

Wheatley also was in the trials to play for Team Canada in volleyball and has a crazy jumping ability. From the way Sutherland described him, he sounds like a pretty impressive athlete.

I was not able to find any high school stats for him, but it does appear that he has pitched in three games for the Sylvan Lake Gulls, who are a part of the Western Canadian summer baseball league. Wheatley is rated as the #24 overall prospect in the province of Alberta and the #11 right-hand pitcher in Alberta for the 2021 class. The recruitment of Wheatley was pretty unique in the fact that due to Covid; all of the evaluation was done based on video sent to them.

“One of those Covid deals, where we recruited him based on video…We knew a guy up there that runs an Academy and he said, ‘hey I have this guy that I think is really intriguing.’”

The coaching staff feels like they got in a recruiting steal because of the way Wheatley is built and the fact that he has potentially added some fastball velocity as of late.

“This one is one we are pretty excited about because there are just a lot of really good things there. With the how big the body is, the way the arm works and then if all the sudden that is kicking up in velocity. We could have gotten a pretty big steal in our opinion.”

C Gehrig Christensen – Urbandale, Iowa (Urbandale)

Perfect Game rates Christensen as the #7 prospect in the state of Iowa and the #2 catcher in the state, just behind Ian Moller, who was mentioned earlier. Gehrig also lands as a top 100 catching prospect in the country at #73. “We think he is going to be a really good catcher for us down the road and he will compete next year for innings,” said Coach Heller when I talked with him after the season.

Christensen is batting a hot .456 this season for the Urbandale Jayhawks, with an even more impressive .578 OBP. He has racked up 52 hits over 39 games, including 17 doubles and two home runs.

Coach Sutherland praised Christensen’s plate discipline saying, “He’s got a really advanced approach offensively. I think he is going to break the school record in walks.”

He has also seen some time on the mound, pitching in six games, with a 3-1 record, including a no-hitter vs Des Moines Roosevelt. Christensen has posted a 1.08 ERA over 26 innings pitched and has struck out 34.

As a catcher, where he will play for the Hawkeyes, Sutherland was very complimentary when talking about the skills that Gehrig brings to the team as a true freshman. “I think he is the furthest along defensively that we have had come in as a freshman, as a catcher. Really good catch and throw, plus arm. As good an arm as we’ve had. Cropley could really throw, but Gehrig is probably better in a raw sense of arm strength.”

However, the one concern that comes with Christensen is his strength and durability early in his career. “The biggest thing with Gehrig is just him getting stronger. I would say that’s the one worry with him right now. Could he handle a fairly decent load as a catcher? We need him to get physically stronger.”

The overall thought here though is that the Hawkeyes have a pretty good catcher on their hands, and he could be a big piece for this team over the next four years.

SS Sam Petersen – Huxley, Iowa (Ballard)

“Really good athlete, really good football player, really good contributor on the basketball team…good runner,” said Coach Sutherland as he outlined all of the sports Petersen played at Ballard. Petersen joins a handful of other incoming recruits that played multiple high school sports.

Sam hails from the smallest school of the state of Iowa commits, but still rates highly according to Perfect Game. He is rated as the #1 SS prospect and #4 overall prospect in the state of Iowa. Petersen also lands at #124 on the SS rankings for the entire country. He most notably won MVP in the 2019 Prep Baseball Report Futures Game.

This season, Petersen has put up some impressive numbers for the 3A school, including a .494 batting average and a .644 OBP. He has reached base an impressive 38 times via walk/HBP to go along seven doubles, four triples and nine home runs. Petersen also shows speed on the base paths, racking up 35 stolen bases in 36 attempts. The fielding % is a little low at .869 and will need to work on the upon arrival to Iowa City.

“He is not a super big kid, 5’11. But there is some juice in there. Not going to be a gap-to-gap guy, I think he has the ability to drive the ball out of the park. Defensively he’s got some versatility as an infielder,” said Coach Sutherland.

He also depicted Petersen as a guy that fits right into the mold of an Iowa baseball player. “Base stealer, grinder, loves to play. Just the perfect Rick Heller guy, as far as the way he carries himself.”

OF Coy Sarsfield – Marion, Iowa (Linn-Mar)

Sarsfield will arrive in Iowa City, rated as one of the better outfield prospects in the country, as Perfect Game has him #156 at the position. Coy also comes in as the #1 OF and #15 overall prospect in the state of Iowa. Hearing from a couple people that have watched him play, they say he can really cover a lot of ground in the outfield and has a lot of speed on the bases. The thought is that he can contribute to the team early in his career at Iowa.

“A+ kid. Top of the order type hitter. Center fielder. Really knows how to play the game…Everybody who ever watches Coy play, they always leave saying ‘that guy really loves to play’…That is our type of guy.”

Unfortunately, Sarsfield suffered a broken leg, after colliding with teammate Zach Wray, while chasing down an outfield flyball, in just their seventh game of the season vs Dubuque Hempstead. The injury required surgery and I recently learned that he is getting around using crutches, but uses a wheelchair for longer distances due to the large leg cast.

Coach Sutherland believes that he will have some ground to make up in the winter because he will likely miss most if not all of the fall workouts. The hope is that Sarsfield can make it back to his pre-injury form before next season.

SS Ben Wilmes – Des Moines, Iowa (Johnston)

Perfect Game rates the Johnston graduate as the #4 SS and #19 overall prospect in the state of Iowa. Wilmes also lands at #204 in the national SS rankings. “Big time winner coming from Johnston.”

Wilmes stats this season for Johnston are very impressive considering the talent that he goes up against in the Des Moines area. He is batting .484 with an even more impressive .618 OBP. Wilmes has scored 62 runs, while getting 55 hits, including 17 doubles and eight home runs. On top of all that, he has stolen 29 bases and posts a .961 fielding percentage.

When talking about Wilmes, Coach Sutherland described another player that feels like the type of guy that you think of when you think of Coach Heller Iowa baseball player.

“I think we are getting another really savy baseball player. A throwback in the sense of really knowing how to play the game. Good athlete. Definitely can defend on the infield at a high level. I think that is a really good feather in his hat.”

He comes from a big baseball family. His cousin Jake Yacinich played for Iowa in the early 2010s. His grandfather Lou Yacinich is the Grand View softball coach. His sister Brooke Wilmes was an NFCA All-American softball player at Missouri. Then, former legendary Johnston baseball coach Jim Mahoney was a grandfather like figure for Wilmes growing up, until he unfortunately passed away due to leukemia in 2020, so Ben has been around a whole lot of baseball minded people his entire life.

SS Mitch Wood – Ottumwa, Iowa (Ottumwa)

Perfect Game ranks Wood as the #2 SS prospect in the state, which gives Iowa the #1, #2 and #4 SS prospects in Iowa for the class of 2021. He also rates as the #8 prospect in the state and the #165 SS in the entire country.

“He is breaking lifting records for them (Ottumwa). He is one of those really physically gifted kids.”

Despite, being signed as a shortstop, Coach Sutherland thinks that could change at Iowa. “Probably profiles more at third base…Has had a great summer. The walks to strikeouts is stuff you really love to see. Got some power in there. He can be a physical presence by the time he is out at Iowa.”

Mitch Wood has put together a good season at the plate for the Bulldogs, posting a .477 batting average and a .608 OBP. His 42 hits are second on the team and includes eight doubles, two triples and seven home runs. His 30 walks to just seven strikeouts leads me to believe he has good plate discipline.

While some of the other incoming recruits/transfers look to be top of the lineup hitters, Coach Sutherland thinks Wood will be a middle of the order guy saying, “You can settle him in to more of a driving in runs situation (in the lineup).”

Coach Sutherland Comments on Incoming Transfers

P Casey Day (Kirkwood):

“93-95 (fastball) really good slider. I think you are looking at a guy, who can really fill in to the back end of the bullpen…Pretty excited about him.”

Transferred from Wichita State to Kirkwood and is playing for the Clinton LumberKings this summer.

P Luke Llewellyn (Kirkwood):

“Really big physical kid…Really unique. It’s really over the top (throwing motion). Really something we don’t have; it’s going to be a unique look.”

“The big thing for him is going to be the strike zone. Can he throw enough strikes? When he throws strikes, he doesn’t get hit. Really looking forward to the uniqueness of the delivery.”

P Jared Simpson (Missouri):

“Really good at Iowa Western…was a fringe draft guy out of there, as a sophomore. Up to 94 mph…At Mizzou he just looked like he was searching. Little bit erratic with command, he got hit.”

“I think he was looking for a fresh start. If we can get him back to reflect a little bit of how he was a year or two ago, I mean you are talking about a front-end guy. We thought he would have a chance to be a weekend guy out of Iowa Western.”

“I think you’ll see some flashes every once in a while, that are pretty good. I think you’ll see some flashes where he is a little erratic. We’ve heard the velocity is kind of coming back. 90-94 mph again.”

Link to Story: HawkeyeReport - Additon and subtraction for Iowa baseball (rivals.com)

P/OF Ben DeTaeye (Iowa Central):

“I think it will be pitching only here…The one thing you notice in those 23-24 innings, he gave up eight hits…It’s upper 80s, really good changeup.”

“I really think he could be a factor. He is obviously doing some things that make it difficult on hitters…There is some deception. The changeup is plus.”

Hurt his finger on a slide and ended up missing a chunk of time on the mound for Iowa Central last season.

Link to Story: HawkeyeReport - Hawkeyes add JUCO prospect (rivals.com)

OF Kyle Huckstorf (Iowa Western):

“I think he is a really good defender, probably high level plus defender in center.”

“About a 5’9 kid, but there is some power in there. He got off to a really good start in the Northwoods (summer league). He had a really big rough patch, but if you look at it, he wasn’t punching out...I think he was just hitting balls at people.”

“I think he is top of the order type guy. Really good runner…He is definitely going to be a factor out there (in the outfield rotation).”

Link to Story: HawkeyeReport - Iowa baseball lands JUCO commit (rivals.com)

INF Sam Hojnar (Heartland CC):

“Versatile defender. I think you could look at him being able to play all three infield spots and probably even some outfield.”

“Switch-hitter, good numbers at Heartland with some power. Early things we have been hearing from the summer, is just a really great worker in the weight room. He has already put on 7-8 pounds in basically three weeks here.”

“I think you could be looking at a guy who could really plug and play a bunch of different places…Kind of be that Swiss-army knife potential of being able to play a bunch of spots.”

Link to Story: HawkeyeReport - Iowa baseball lands JUCO commit (rivals.com)

C Ben Tallman (North Dakota State):

“If you think back to last year. Tyler got hurt and we were essentially down to two catchers and Austin was getting kind of dinged up. We just weren’t going to put ourselves in that spot again.”

“Pretty physically gifted, especially defensively. He’s got a really good arm. He may have as good an arm as Gehrig (Christensen) or maybe even better.”

“His dad caught at Stanford, so he’s got some pedigree there…If he comes in and wins some innings, I don’t think anybody would be shocked.”

Link to Story: HawkeyeReport - Iowa adds transfer at catcher (rivals.com)

More Transfers? – “I think we are probably going to add another guy or two. We have some flexibility to do that.”

“If any of those guys were to sign free agent, then it would create some holes. I don’t think we’re probably done. We’ll see how the next week or two goes.”

Izaya Fullard, Jack Dreyer, Cam Baumann and Dylan Nedved can still sign free agent contracts over the next couple of weeks.