Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Scouting the 2018 Draft: Brady Singer

No sooner had the 2018 draft order been settled than Baseball America published their first Mock Draft with RHP Brady Singer going #1 overall to the Detroit Tigers.  By the way, BA had the Giants taking HS RHP Ethan Hankins at #2.  Between now and the draft, Singer will play his junior season for the Florida Gators college team.

Brady Singer was drafted in the second round out of high school by the Toronto Blue Jays who didn't like something they saw in his physical and he ended up not signing and going to college.  He pitched well out of the Gators bullpen his freshman year then stepped not the rotation last season giving Florida tremendous pitching depth. He really stepped it up in the College playoffs and World Series with a string of dominant starts.  Here are Singer's college stat lines:

2016:  2-2, 4.95, 43.2 IP, 17 BB, 38 K.
2017:  9-5, 3.21, 126 IP, 32 BB, 129 K.

Singer stands 6'5", 200 lbs.  He throws a mid-90's FB, a sharp slider and a changeup.  On video, he has a rather abrupt acceleration, a medium length stride and a whippy low 3/4 delivery that is somewhat on the violent side with an abrupt deceleration.  I"m no expert on pitching mechanics but I don't see a lot of leg drive and I do see a lot of stress on the arm, especially the shoulder.  I have seen his arm angle compared to Aaron Nola and I agree, but his tempo is much faster than Nola's.

The arm angle should create a lot of ball movement, especially for his slider, which I could see being romoesque, but I worry about the durability of what looks like a high stress delivery.  Keith Law sees him as a future reliever, probably due to the effort in the delivery.

I would project Brady Singer to be the most likely player in the draft to make the quickest impact at the MLB level, but I worry about the durability.

6 comments:

  1. I read about Hankins. The guy is a monster-sized HSer and throws at 94/95 with ease and can hit 96/97 when he reaches back. For all the hype around Singer, when I read about Hankins I kept thinking that when finishes growing into his body he could be a big-time, high-quality workhorse who can go 200IP year-after-year without blowing up like so many of them do.

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  2. I am far from an expert, but Singer to me looks like he may have a Tim Belcher type career at best. Really good for a couple of seasons, then a journeyman. I also wouldn't be surprised if his stock dropped. I would prefer Hankins or even Rocker over Singer at this point, and if BA is correct in their mock I would be ecstatic.

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  3. Yes, Singer seems like he could be quick to the majors, especially if a team puts him on the Chris Sale track. In fact, I think he could turn out to be Chris Sale-lite, maybe a "30% off Sale" (Sorry!!!). But I would much rather have Hankins for the upside. As you can probably tell from my earlier posts, I have a serious hankerin' for Hankins!

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  4. The movement on Singer's fastball during the CWS was really impressive. Natural movement can't be taught and it was enough for me to see and dream for him to be in a Giants Uni.

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    Replies
    1. I agree and I could see Singer having a Timmy-like career with a short, but very high peak. I think we would all agree that if we had a chance to draft another Timmy with the #2 pick, it'd be a no-brainer.

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    2. I think it was the LSU coach who said after Singer dominated the Tigers in the College playoff/WS that it was the most dominant game he had ever seen pitched, so something to that effect.

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