The Vols picked up a commitment from LHP Will Haas last week. Haas is a Junior at Rockford High School in Minnesota. He is one of the more intriguing prospects in the 2025 class for Tony Vitello. Haas is the number 2 rated player in the state of Minnesota, according to Prep Baseball. Haas is not an extremely well known prospect on the national scale yet, but he has shown plenty of reason to start turning heads. When asked what his strengths are as a player, Haas stated, “I throw fairly hard and tend to know where it’ll go.” It appears that both his arm and personality will be a perfect fit in Knoxville.
Most coaches will tell you they like picking up talented kids from the Midwest because they tend to have fewer miles on their arms, and any bad habits they develop aren't deeply engrained from performing in games non-stop without sufficient time to correct them. Haas is no exception to that school of thought. The talent is clearly there, with a fastball topping at 94 mph from the left side at just 17 years old. The fastball is already showing some solid spin rates, averaging 2165 rpm according to the Rapsodo data on Prep Baseball.
Haas said that the biggest factor in his commitment to the Vols was “the coaching staff and culture around the program.” Tony Vitello has created a phenomenal culture at Tennessee, and pitching coach, Frank Anderson, is one of the best pitching coaches in the country. Haas also said that he wants to work on improving his spin rates and the mental aspects of being a pitcher. Both of those are things that Anderson has had a lot of success doing with prospects once they get to campus. Tennessee has molded hard-throwing recruits into highly sought after MLB Draft prospects for the past several years, and Haas could very well be destined for that path as well.
Will Haas is an underrated prospect, and, if he continues to improve on his off speed offerings, he will be a diamond-in-the-rough type of find for Vitello. Haas has known that he wanted to end up at Tennessee for a long time, and that made it an easy decision to commit to the Vols. Haas said, “a big factor of my decision was the environment around Knoxville. I took a visit during the A&M weekend and got to understand what a weekend on Rocky Top was really like. I can’t wait to call Knoxville home.” Tennessee fans should be excited for this kid to get to campus in a couple years.