MLB Draft 2015: Marlins land 1st round potential with 8th round pick

Round 8: 236^th Overall RHP, Christopher Paddack, Cedar Park HS, TX

En route to being named the Cedar Park Baseball Player of the Year, Chris Paddack tore it up on the mound his senior season. Standing at 6’5" 215 lbs. Paddack recorded an 11-0 record with a 0.46 ERA, striking out 134 in 75.1 innings - pitching in just 12 appearances. These statistics, when matched with his physicality, make it easy to see why the Miami Marlins took yet another the strong prep right hander from Texas with their 8^th draft pick.  Scouts hope that he’ll continue to grow and fill out to be somewhere in the 6’7 range with a balanced power build. A prediction that was also made by the scouts at Texas A&M, where they were quoted saying:

"Chris may be 6-5", 6-6. He is a long kid. He’s strong already. He may be as physically strong as any one of these guys and still has a lot of weight to add on. He’s a very, very hard worker, and he has fastball command. If he makes a big velocity jump - and he may make one pretty quickly – he would be the guy I would consider a tough guy to get on campus. Again, if his velocity continues to come like it is. Because he can pitch, and he can pitch right now…"

For now though, Paddack, a Texas A&M Aggie commit flashes the solid makings of a future middle of the rotation type pitcher. What scouts like about him right now is the hard downward plane and great command of his high 80’s to low 90’s fastball – velocity major league scouts think will increase quickly as he continues to grow while in the minors. He pairs his fastball with a well above-average change-up that sits in the low 80’s with late life. These are the two pitches he used to dominate at the prep level. He continues to work on a below-average developmental off-speed offering – a pitch, that when developed, will help to strengthen his starting resuming in pro ball.

Even if Christopher Paddack wasn’t the fast track college pitching prospect Stan Meeks was hoping to land, he isn’t a bad prep arm to land as the 236^th overall pick - especially since he was ranked as the 219^th player in the country by Perfect Game Baseball and shows advanced command of his fastball. The Marlins should feel like they won with this pick in day two of the 2015 MLB Draft - drafting a prep pitcher who is already more polished mechanically than other prep pitching prospect in this year’s draft class. The book on Paddack’s career will include ironing out a few mechanical kinks, while mastering a major league ready breaking ball if he wants to be a starter in the big leagues.

MLB Debut: 2018

Ceiling: Middle of the Rotation (John Lackey)

Floor: Middle Relief/Set-up man (Ryan Webb)

Tools: FB: 5/8 CH: 6/8 CV: 3/8 Control: 5/8

Notables:

Committed to Texas A&M over TCU and Texas

17u Perfect Game World Series MVP

2015 – Perfect Game Baseball 3^rd Team All-American

Texas – 1^st Team All-Region