Evan Rutckyj

At 6-foot-5 and 215 pounds, Rutckyj (pronounced ROOT-ski) is a big-bodied lefthander with a chiseled frame, thanks to his time spent as a youth hockey player and his current offseason workout of choice, boxing. He's relatively new to pitching, so he looked a bit raw on the showcase circuit last summer. He has worked hard with a private pitching coach and during his time with the Canadian junior national team to smooth out his mechanics and develop his secondary pitches. His delivery is looser now than it was in the summer, and he's getting better extension. His arm action is pretty clean, but he needs to keep working to repeat his delivery and throw strikes more consistently. His fastball sits in the 87-91 mph range, touching 92, and his slider is 80-81. The slider shows occasional fringe-average break and there's enough rotation to work with, but it's still a work in progress. As his background may suggest, Rutckyj has a real tough-guy mentality on the mound. He is a project and the team that drafts him will need to be patient with his development.