The Cincinnati Reds have drafted a high-school pitcher, right-hander Nick Travieso from Archbishop McCarthy HS in Florida (check out the video of Travieso at the link) with the 14th pick of the first round of the MLB draft. He’s a very hard thrower, having purportedly touched 99 mph on the radar gun recently. Here’s the scouting report on Travieso:
Travieso can touch the mid 90s with his fastball, sitting comfortably in the 92-93 mph range, with very good movement in a downward plane. His buries his slider well down in the zone, with good late break to it. His changeup is deceptive at times, though he needs to improve his ability to keep it down in the strike zone.
Like with many young pitchers, he’ll need to refine his command at the next level, but he shows pretty solid presence and instincts on the mound while repeating a clean delivery fairly consistently. The fastball-slider duo alone would be enough for him to excel as a reliever, but he has the chance to develop into more than that down the line.
I’m always nervous about taking a high-school pitcher in the first round, but if he can throw 99? Well, I’m spoiled by Aroldis Chapman into loving the heater.
UPDATE: For what it’s worth, in his final rankings, ESPN’s Keith Law (sub.) had Travieso as the 33rd best prospect available in this year’s draft. You’ll have to go over there to read the entire scouting report, but here’s an excerpt:
Travieso surprised some scouts with a velocity spike this year, peaking at 99 mph, but his inconsistent stuff maddened scouts and has some teams wondering if he’s a starter or reliever long-term.
The rest of the report doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies inside, but what do I know? (Don’t answer that.)
UPDATE 2:
#Reds take another Florida high schooler with the 49th overall pick: OF Jesse Winker.
— Redleg Nation (@redlegnation) June 5, 2012
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Keith Law didn’t have Winker in his top 100 pre-draft prospects. The word on Winker is that he has a big bat, with a great approach at the plate…but can’t play a lick of defense. If that’s not the case, don’t blame me; I’ve never seen the kid play. What do you expect from me?
For the record, the Reds have taken a University of Miami commit and a University of Florida commit with their first two picks. Also for the record: use this post as a draft open thread.
UPDATE 3:
OF Jeff Gelalich is taken by the #Reds with the 57th overall pick. First college guy the Reds have taken; Gelalich went to UCLA.
— Redleg Nation (@redlegnation) June 5, 2012
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Gelalich is a 6’1″, 205 lb. left fielder. Law had him ranked #37 in his pre-draft top 100. Line-drive hitter, good arm, good defense.