Baseball Prospectus - RHP - Jeff Hoffman

Jeff Hoffman

Hoffman was diagnosed with a torn UCL soon after the first mock-draft article was published, and his injury would surely have pushed the college product down the draft board. The amateur player pool has not been immune from the injury plague, though the relative predictability of returns from Tommy John surgery might minimize the dent to his draft stock, with some reports suggesting that he could follow the Lucas Giolito path and still land in the middle of the first round.

The lanky right-hander deals with the balance issues that one might expect from a pitcher with a slight frame, including a heavy drop-and-drive in his delivery in addition to lateral movement throughout the motion. On occasion, his lower half has also lacked stability from foot strike through release point. He has been known to overcome some of these deficits to find solid posture at release, but his degree of spine-tilt is volatile, and the shaky ride from leg lift through foot strike opens the door to inconsistency in the future.

Hoffman's momentum is shaped by a massive gear change that takes place after maximum leg lift as part of his drop-and-drive strategy. The secondary burst is impressive, but the big transition once again presents the opportunity for inconsistency of timing. His torque is hip-heavy thanks to a big delay of trunk rotation after foot strike, but this delay often dances past the point of no return, resulting in elbow drag. In fact, Hoffman presents all three of the ingredients that produce elbow drag: a pronounced scapular load, an “inverted W,” and an exaggerated delay of trunk rotation. The drag is most apparent on pitches when the arm is late, where he misses targets to the arm-side. This is not to suggest that the elbow drag was the sole scapegoat for his injury, but it is worth noting that Hoffman exhibits many of the mechanical warning signs for elbow damage.

Stability Grade: C
Power Grade: B