Baseball America has released their final mock draft and they are predicting a major fall for a prep arm that hasn’t been linked to the Pittsburgh Pirates before today. BA thinks right-handed pitcher Grant Holmes could drop all the way to the Pirates with their 24th pick. Holmes was mentioned by us numerous times, but mostly in passing because he hasn’t been in the Pirates range since very early in the season. We posted a video of him here after he hit 98 MPH during one of his school’s pre-season scrimmages.
As I mentioned in our preview of prep pitchers, Holmes offers a huge arm, but little upside due to his frame and that could drop him in the rankings. That drop apparently didn’t happen until today because he has constantly been in the 10-16 range in mock drafts throughout the year, occasionally higher. Holmes offers a plus fastball and curve, with a change-up that has improved this season. He has some minor control issues due to his delivery and he tends to leave pitches up in the zone. You can see if the video that he has some control issues, but also hits 94-95 regularly with movement. He has a strong build to handle a lot of innings, but doesn’t fit the prototypical Pirates draft pick, standing just 6’0″ tall. Still, he is a huge arm that would be extremely hard to pass up if he somehow got to the Pirates.
