(Evaluation based on 5/10 start against AA Frisco | Pitch and Role Grades Below)

Body: Well-proportioned body with broad shoulders and barrel chest. Athletic, toned look — lower 1/2 is fairly filled out, very limited strength projection remaining to upper body. 

Athleticism: Plus athlete with fluid, powerful movements and quality rotational explosiveness. Solid body control. 

Delivery: Works from the windup with a high leg kick and average extension down the mound. Slightly offline arm action with some length into a 3/4 slot, fluid arm swing with above average arm speed. Some effort to the finish with a stiff landing, head dip, and loss of balance to his glove side. Tendency to become too rotational and delivery will need work as he progresses in his development.

FB: Worked at 90-94, given body and solid arm speed should improve a couple of ticks as he continues to mature. Relatively high spin rate gives the pitch quality life, but arm angle creates a fairly pedestrian movement profile that limits its in-zone effectiveness. Can struggle with control of the pitch at times, but athleticism and fluidity to the arm swing gives him some feel to locate when he’s able to sync up the delivery. 

CB: Thrown at 77-79 with extremely inconsistent feel. Slurvy movement profile, with frequently below average bite and length and relatively low spin rate (2250 RPM). Threw one that showed significantly better sweep and life, lending to present average projection on the pitch. That said, distance to achieve this based on this game’s look — will be vital to his ability to play in a bulk role. 

CH: Fairly good feel for the pitch at 84-86, maintains his arm speed and throws with conviction. Flashed some dive and fade — aggressively projecting to above average value despite its fair present shape, as advanced feel drives real upside if he can tweak the movement profile as he develops.

Command: Scattershot control at present, losing the zone at times but non-zero feel to locate in spurts. Willing to bet he makes the requisite delivery improvements to get to average command. Natural feel for his body drives belief that there are upper-end outcomes that would excede this, but can’t project this given present look. 

Summary: Difficult look given gap between base traits and present pitch quality. Heralded 20-year-old with quality athleticism succeeding at AA, but didn’t show any plus pitches in this outing and delivery needs significant improvement. Hard to project his median outcome as beyond a #5 starter or solid multi-inning reliever at the moment based on this look, but foundational traits and youth give him an elevated probability of exceeding this. Extremely low conviction in this evaluation, as it’s difficult to believe this was an accurate representation of the player given high profile as a prospect and his track record of success as an extremely young for the level pitcher. Don’t see opportunity for near-term ML impact despite relative proximity. 

FB 35/50 | CB 35/50 | CH 40/55 | CMD 30/50

Overall: Role 45