Pittsburgh Pirates Prospect Report: Brandon Waddell

Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

The Pittsburgh Pirates number 26 prospect is lefty Brandon Waddell, drafted in 2015 fresh off pitching the University of Virginia to a College World Series championship.

After discussing Luis Heredia, who made his debut at 16 years old, Brandon Waddell seems ancient who’s first full professional season will come at the age of 22. But Waddell is already a fascinating prospect with a real chance to start in the big leagues.

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Waddell had a very successful career at the University of Virginia, which began with him being named the Friday starter (college equivalent to an ace) as a freshman and ended with him pitching the series-clinching game in the College World Series as a junior. In just three years, he leaves Virginia in the top 10 of starts, wins, strikeouts and innings pitched.

However, the reason the Pirates were interested in him was his performance on the game’s biggest stage. He made 11 starts for Virginia in the NCAA tournament (the most in program history) and posted program highs in wins and strikeouts with a 6-1 record and 2.34 ERA.

And that’s just the regional tournament. Waddell really showed up in the College World Series, where Virginia won all five of his starts. Zooming in a bit further, he pitched seven innings and retired the final 11 batters he faced in the series-clinching game vs Vanderbilt in 2015.

After completing his degree at Virginia, Waddell reported to low-A West Virginia where he made 6 appearances. He was used very sparingly as he made adjustments to the professional game and only accumulated 20.1 innings. His stats don’t jump out at you but he struck out 18 batters in 20.1 innings and dominated lefties, holding them to a .182 batting average.

In fact, his 5.75 ERA and .343 batting average on balls in play are highly skewed due to the one bad start he made. On August 30 against Batavia, Waddell allowed 10 hits (24 total in 2015) and 7 runs (14 runs total in 2015) in just 4 innings of work. Take out that one bad start and his stats look a whole lot better. Waddell set out to prove he was better than that and bounced back, pitching West Virginia into the championship this season.

Brandon Waddell is still a project in the works but his potential is something to be very excited about. At 6-foot-3, the Pirates feel Waddell can add some velocity and be a force from the left side. It’s very early in his career and I still think he can become a starter but the fact that he’s already so tough on lefties and has shown he can handle the big games should allow him to break into the bullpen at the very least.

2016 will be the first full professional season for Waddell and it will probably start in full-season A-ball with the West Virginia Power (not to be confused with his 2015 team, the West Virginia Black Bears). However, being a southpaw and with only two other lefty prospects ahead of him, Waddell could ride that left arm as high as Double-A if he continues to improve.