Every athlete who takes a High Level Throwing® Video Assessment receives an NTangible Clutch Factor Assessment alongside their throwing report. Parents reasonably ask what that number is for.
NTangible, our assessment partner, published a study on 4 October 2026 that answers it with outcomes rather than theory.
What They Measured
NTangible followed 309 high school baseball players from two showcase circuits — 160 from the Future Stars Series and 149 from the Toronto Blue Jays’ Canadian Futures Showcase — through graduating class 2026 and earlier, and recorded where each one actually landed.
Outcomes were verified against college rosters, Perfect Game profiles, Prep Baseball Report and commitment lists. The people recording those outcomes were blinded to the athletes’ assessment scores.
The Result
- Athletes scoring 750 or above reached NCAA Division I at 49%
- Athletes scoring below 750 reached Division I at 23%
- A 2.2x difference, 95% confidence interval 1.54–3.02, p < .001
- In the 800+ band, 69% reached Division I — though that was 9 of only 13 players, so treat it as directional
NTangible tested nine analytical variations; the ratio held between 1.82 and 3.09 across all of them. An independent re-check of 40 random cases confirmed 39.
What This Does and Does Not Mean
It does not mean a score causes a signing. These athletes also threw harder, hit better, and were seen by more coaches. A measure of how someone performs under pressure sits alongside those things rather than replacing them.
What it does suggest is that the trait is real enough to show up in outcomes, and that it is visible before the outcomes arrive.
It is also worth being clear about the sample: this study followed baseball players. We work with a great many softball athletes, and the equivalent fastpitch dataset is still being built — which is exactly what the NTangible and Alliance Fastpitch initiative is assembling, at nearly 20,000 athletes a year.
Why We Include It
A throwing report tells an athlete how they move. It does not tell them how they tend to respond when the game gets hard. Those are different questions, and families making decisions about development time deserve both.
If an athlete scores well under pressure, that is worth knowing early. If they do not, that is worth knowing earlier still, because it is a developable thing and not a verdict.
The full NTangible write-up is at ntangible.co. Every High Level Throwing® Video Assessment includes the Clutch Factor Assessment — start one here.