Jimmy Reyes

College baseball offers few quality lefthanders for this year's draft, and Reyes was taking full advantage. He got off to a terrible start to his junior season, as a loss to Rice--his first after winning his first 12 decisions with Elon--sent him into a funk. He was pressing for scouts, trying to throw harder for radar guns, and lost the life and command on his fastball. When Reyes backed off to a still-firm 88-91 mph, his season took off. He creates some angle and downward plane on his fastball even though he's just 5-foot-10, 194 pounds. When he doesn't overthrow, he gets good life on the pitch with boring action in to righthanded hitters. That helps set up his slider, which can be an above-average pitch when he locates it well. It has tilt, and Reyes has shown the ability to back-foot it to righthanded hitters. His changeup has come along as well, giving Reyes another weapon to combat opposite-side hitters. He had thrown at least seven innings in six consecutive starts entering the Southern Conference tournament and had a gaudy 187-37 strikeout-walk ratio the last two seasons in 171 innings. Reyes offers little projection and lacks athleticism, his biggest negative. He has improved as a fielder and at holding runners, but neither will ever be a strong suit. His strong finish was pushing him up draft boards, perhaps as high as the fourth or fifth round.