Blast Player of the Week: Chandler Reber (UT)

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Did you know Utah was responsible for our nation’s first department store? It’s true, The Zion Cooperative Mercantile Store was established in 1868 and was a success for many years until it was finally acquired in 1999. What Utah did in scale and innovation for retail is similar to the qualities you’ll see in their ballplayers…specifically, Chandler Reber. The BYU commit put on a monumental showing at the Utah Fall Prospect I.D. this past week. There were a lot of good players that came out of that event. It was tough to pick one for the player of the week, but Reber's Blast Metrics kept me coming back. Not to mention, he got a strong recommendation from Jeff Scholzen. Jeff has more experience evaluating ballplayers in this game in his pinky than I do in my entire body, so I was pretty much sold (btw Utah is lucky to have a guy like Jeff running PBR-Utah. Nothing but respect for that guy). Now the first thing that comes to mind when seeing the video and the Blast Metrics of Reber is power...or strength...it was one of those. I kinda blacked out when I looked at both because golly this kid is strong. Reber averaged 77 mph for Bat Speed...77 mph. That is legit strength. The crazy part is when you look at his video, he’s not necessarily swinging out of his shoes. It’s controlled, calm, and explosive. His bat speed appearing so effortless shows us that Reber has a strong floor when evaluating his power.

But what about his ceiling? Does his skillset scale? Can he hit at the next level? Can Reber do the same things at BYU that he’s doing in high school? Well, he is certainly equipped to do so. How do we know? When we took a look at his Rotational Acceleration metrics, it showed him getting up to 18 g’s! That is impressive stuff. That means Reber can quickly accelerate into his (above average) bat speed, which means he can make late decisions on pitches when deciding to swing or take. It also means that Reber is equipped to hit for power without sacrificing contact. Reber has a prerequisite for success at the next level, power efficiency.

IN A Nutshell:

Just know, when we were looking at Reber's Player Report in Blast Connect and compared it to our large sample size of historical data, he is equipped to handle elite pitching. And with the right approach at the plate paired with the ability to trust his skills, he has the ability to not just compete but be successful at the next level. Blast Motion is the official swing analyzer of Prep Baseball Report.