Jordan Marks Might Be The Best 2021 Pitcher You Haven’t Heard About Yet

He hails from Bright’s Grove, Ontario, a town with a population of 4,500. The most competitive games Marks played throughout his high school years were with a burgeoning Great Lake Canadians program an hour down the road. From there, he ventured off to South Carolina-Upstate to join a team that hadn’t had a winning season since 2012.

Last year, Marks had multiple offers to sign as a free agent for the bonus limit of $20,000 after the truncated five-round draft. When he declined, he bet on himself, but also on a Spartans coaching staff in its first year, with whom he felt like he was in “good hands.” Before returning to the field, he spent time during baseball’s shutdown working out and focusing on his diet, adding 12 pounds to his 6-foot-2 frame, increasing his velocity, and helping himself become the No. 115-ranked draft prospect in our latest update. 

“I was always kind of overlooked, but it was instilled into me at Great Lake to keep your head down and keep working,” Marks said. “I always felt like I was better than what I did on the field and what my numbers showed, but obviously this year it’s come to fruition. During the quarantine I had a chance to step back and look at some things on the field, my limiting factors, so I addressed those and got off to a good start.

“[Adding strength] raised the floor for my velo a little bit. At the back end of games, instead of sitting 90, 91, I won’t have that steep fall off. I was working on that and getting physically stronger. I didn’t do much mechanically; I was comfortable with my three pitches and where we’re at and what I was doing. But I needed the physicality aspect of it and more raw talent, faster velo and more movement, those were all plusses.” 

 

 

The strong impression Marks has made this year got off to a big start on Opening Day, when he hit 98 mph, which he credits to “a little Opening Day adrenaline rush.” It continued when he went his first 21.1 innings without issuing a free pass. It was just the tip of the iceberg in the demonstration of his elite strike-throwing ability, though he claims he might have been disadvantaged by his control in the beginning. 

“The book was out on me,” he said. “They would try to ambush me early because they knew I was going to be around the plate. For a little bit there, they had one approach and it was to swing early and often. They knew they were getting fastballs early in the counts, and we had to adjust for that. It was cool but I was an open book at that point.” 

Statistically, Marks’ third outing of the season was an anomaly. He allowed more than twice as many hits than his first two starts combined, and the six earned runs he gave up against Radford account for more than a third of his season total now, after 12 starts and 82 innings. But it was a lesson for the righty in confidence and the way the game can speed up on a player. 

“I was rolling through five, hadn’t given up a run, went back out for the sixth and I was filling up the zone too much,” Marks said. “First 0-0 counts I was laying fastballs in there, almost too confident, thinking I was invincible. It’s not even like they hit me hard, they were poking balls where guys weren’t and we live and die with the shift. 

“There were a couple fists, a couple bleeders, and then it spun out of control. I gave up four in one inning and then went back out for the next inning and got pulled with two runners on and they ended up scoring. Baseball happens, things spun out of control, and especially with the metal bat, it’s bound to happen.” 

He had another significant learning experience a little more than a month later, when the Spartans hosted Gardner-Webb and No. 209-ranked draft prospect Mason Miller. 

“He was throwing 96 to 99, hit 100 that game, and I had a little ego with him,” Marks said. “I was trying to outthrow him. I was a little wild and didn’t have a great outing, and my coaches sat me down after the outing and they said, ‘Pitching is an art. You don’t have to be a thrower, you’re a pitcher. Pick your spots, be a Picasso back there. It’s an art what you can do with three pitches, putting them where you want, slowing guys down and speeding them up.’ After that game, it was lights out for me. I’ve been seeing the art in pitching rather than throwing.” 

 

Marks’ artistry includes a fastball-slider-changeup combination, adding velocity through strength training and also just growing into his frame, developing the slider in the fall of 2019 with help from Spartans volunteer assistant coach Patrick McGuff, and continuing to work on a changeup that he’s had since he learned what an offspeed pitch was. 

“I’ve always had a changeup,” Marks said. “My dad instilled its importance into me, because all dads are nervous of throwing curveballs too early, so I’ve always had a changeup and good feel for it, so I’m blessed to have that … The slider is not a complete pitch yet. I learned it not too long ago so there are still some bumps and challenges ahead. 

“When I’m throwing at my best, I’m really trying to throw the heck out of it because if I let my foot off the gas a little bit, it will get a little hump in it. But I’ve made strides with it this year. Early in the year I could get some guys out early because they weren’t used to seeing what I was throwing. Then some teams got lots of video on us so they started cueing on it. … There’s always room for improvement. It’s not a finished pitch yet. I see it getting harder and tighter.” 

The greatest works of art for Marks are his command and control. He’s allowed 52 walks in the entirety of his collegiate career, over 46 games and 244.1 innings. This year, he’s averaging 1.17 walks per start, and 1.54 walks per nine innings, with a 6.21 strikeout-to-walk ratio. 

“Personally I’ve always thought if a guy’s going to beat me, he’s going to have to beat me instead of me just giving it to him,” Marks said. “Even in my freshman and sophomore years, when I got hit around more, it was still if you’re going to beat me, you’re going to barrel me. You’re going to barrel me to death before I walk you to death. 

“It’s always been ingrained in me, going at hitters and not being afraid. It’s a sign of where I’m at confidence-wise—I’m going to fill it up with my best stuff and you can try and beat me—rather than pitching scared and nibbling off the edges.” 

While he takes the most pride in limiting the free passes, Marks also loves an opportunity for a stroll around the mound after sending an opposing hitter back to his dugout, and he can’t help but enjoy the reactions in the box when he can use his offspeed to put a guy away. 

“Strikeouts are definitely the coolest thing,” Marks said. “It’s a mano a mano thing, when you strike them out you’ve got that pride walking around the mound and you know you’re better than that guy you just struck out. There’s nothing cooler than that.

“I throw lots of right-on-right changeups and college hitters don’t see that much and that’s probably my go-to. It looks like a fastball pretty late and then fades away and is pretty slow compared to my fastball, so I like when guys take a full hack at it and blow out their back trying to hit it over the fence, and then they end up nowhere close to it.” 

As he continues to rack up those reactions and keep the Spartans in the win column, Marks is hoping that now’s the time that his bet on himself will finally pay off. 

“Being [Canadian], it’s hard to get signed,” Marks said. “You come down here and some guys of similar talent get more opportunities. Canadian baseball players have to be driven. The way [Great Lake coaches and former pro players Adam] Stern and [Chris] Robinson and Shane Davis and those guys are, they’re not looking for the limelight. They just love baseball and want to be good at it. I’ve definitely been overlooked in my career but obviously I know where I’m at now. Obviously when you’re younger, you always think you’re better than you are but I’ve put my head down and done what I needed to do to get to this point.”