After his start on May 2nd, Baldwinsville HS pitcher Scott Blewett was shut down with shoulder soreness. According to Blewett, the move was more precautionary and he took the time off from pitching to work out, so he could build up muscle around the scapula region. Due to the fact he lives in upstate New York, his high school season is already short enough, so this setback cost him time to pitch in front of scouts.
Blewett had already looked good to start the year, even pitching well when he was sick and the weather was horrible in his second outing. He followed up that outing with 13 strikeouts and hitting 95 MPH. He only made two more starts before getting hurt though, so the time on the mound was limited. Blewett was still able to hit while he wasn’t pitching, but he is being drafted strictly as a pitcher.
Scouts like to get multiple looks at top ranked players, so his performance on Saturday was a big one. Blewett threw four shutout innings, which is more impressive when you consider he went into the start scheduled to throw 30-35 pitches in his return.
“With my mindset, I want to win every time out there. I begged my coach to keep throwing and I ended up throwing 70 pitches”
Blewett doubled what he set out to do, but noted that he felt fine afterwards. He had thrown a couple bullpens since his May 2nd start, with no issues, so it looks like the health concerns shouldn’t be a problem. As Blewett notes, he was able to use all of his pitches in the game and he had his command.
“I threw each pitch for strikes. Only threw three change-ups because the action I wanted wasn’t there, but I was still throwing it for strikes.”
His team lost the game and it ended his season, so now he waits to see where his name will be called next Thursday when the draft starts. Blewett won’t just be sitting around though, he plans to throw one more workout before the draft. With his minor health issue behind him, it will be interesting to see if he’s able to regain his spot in the early rankings that had him in the Pirates first round range.
NCAA Tournament Field Is Set
The field of 64 for the road to the College World Series is set and numerous names that we have covered here all year are on teams that are still playing. Below is a list of them, along with where they could go in the draft according to most sources. Also mentioned are some former Pittsburgh Pirates picks.
Kennesaw State: Max Pentecost, mid-1st round
Cal State Fullerton: Matt Chapman, D.J. Davis, both 2nd round
Maryland: Jake Stinnett, 2013 Pirates pick and 2nd/3rd round pick
Kentucky: A.J. Reed, late first round
Stanford: Alex Blandino, possible Pirates pick
San Diego State: Michael Cederoth, 2nd round
Virginia: Derek Fisher, possible Pirates pick, Nick Howard and Mike Papi, late 1st/early 2nd round.
LSU: Aaron Nola, top ten pick, Christian Ibarra, 2013 Pirates pick
Pepperdine: Aaron Brown, 2011 Pirates pick, Jackson McClelland, 2012 Pirates pick
UC Irvine: Taylor Sparks, 2nd round
UNLV: Erick Fedde(injured) 1st round pick, possible for Pirates
Florida State: Luke Weaver, late 1st round, possible for Pirates
Louisville: Nick Burdi, late 1st round pick
Indiana: Kyle Schwarber, possible Pirates pick, Sam Travis, 2nd round
Florida: Zack Powers, 2010 Pirates pick
Miami: Andrew Suarez, 2nd/3rd round, Dale Carey, 2010 Pirates pick
South Carolina: Grayson Greiner, Joey Pankake, both likely 2nd round picks
Arkansas: Chris Oliver, 2nd round
Rice: Zech Lemond, 2nd round and 2011 Pirates pick
Vanderbilt: Tyler Beede, mid-1st round, possible for Pirates
TCU: Brandon Finnegan, mid-1st round
Ole Miss: Chris Ellis 2nd/3rd round
Cal Poly: Matt Imhof, possible Pirates pick
Oregon State: Michael Conforto, 10-15 range 1st round, Dylan Davis, 2nd/3rd round
Mississippi State: Jacob Lindgren, 2nd round
Mock Draft and GM Speaks
Keith Law released his second mock draft yesterday and had the Pirates going with HS pitcher Luis Ortiz, who was rated higher in the year, but fell due to injury concerns.
Neal Huntington answered questions about the draft, covering the teams approach to picking further down the first round and what they expect from this draft class.
The Pirates may be interested in a local prep star making headlines, but only if he is still available where they think he fits. That has been their approach with every local player since the current group took over.
