Pittsburgh Pirates Draft: Five Players to Watch During Day Two

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Orchard Lake St. Mary’s pitcher Brock Porter throws against Forest Hills Northern Friday, June 17, 2022, during the MHSAA D1 semifinal at McLane Stadium in East Lansing. Orchard Lake St. Mary’s won 9-0. Porter threw a no-hitter.Dsc 9200Syndication Lansing State Journal /

RHP Brock Porter

Brock Porter is considered a top 15 talent by most sources. FanGraphs ranked him at no. 14, MLB Pipeline put him at no. 11, and Prospects Live pinned him at no. 9. Porter is one of the best high school arms in this year’s draft and overall considered one of the best pitchers available.

Porter put up some crazy numbers with St. Mary’s Prep. In just 58 innings, Porter had a sub-0.50 ERA, clocking in at 0.41 (yes, you read that correctly) while striking out 115 batters. Of the 174 outs Porter made, 66.1% of them were on strikeouts. Just to show how crazy that is, when Jacob deGrom posted a 13.8 K/9 ratio, he only made 51% of outs via strikeouts.

Porter has a big fastball, one that already averages out at 94-97 MPH and has hit triple digits before as well (remember, this is a 19 year old high schooler). Not only does he throw hard, but he does it with a low-effort delivery. Plus it helps that he has some arm-side movement. He also throws a curveball and slider. Between the two breaking offerings, the slider is the better one and can hit the upper-80s. When he wants, he can take a significant amount off and toss an upper-70s curveball, But his second best pitch in his four-pitch arsenal is his changeup. It comes in with mid-80s velocity and serious horizontal movement. FanGraphs likes it even more than his big fastball.

Porter is a mechanical darling. He repeats his delivery and can generate velocity with little effort. Porter does have a commitment to Clemson, but this wouldn’t be the first time the Pittsburgh Pirates stole a big Clemson commit who fell to them during the second day of the draft because of signability questions.

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