3/24/21

Mack's Mock Pick #52 - LHP - Evan Shawver


 

Evan Shawver


Mack's spin - 

Shawver might be the wost kept sleeper secret in this draft.

He is an electric prep arm with a full arsenal.

I have him at #52, but this could be low when draft day comes around.


 

LHP      6-0      175     Amherst Steel HS (OH) 

 

2-8-21 - Prospects Live  @ProspectsLive

 

Cincinnati LHP Evan Shawver is a favorite of our draft team. He's got a high-spin FB up to 97 showcasing big ride w/a flat VAA, exploding at the plate. Quite a data-darling. He also throws a good breaking ball and a firm CH. We've got him a day-one pick. 

 

2-8-21 - Joe @JoeDoyleMiLB

 

If you're looking for a sleeper in the 2021 MLB Draft, Evan Shawver  may be your man. Up to 97 from the left side, comfortably 93-94 this summer. Low release, big ride, flat VAA. Needs to throw strikes. First round potential. We've mocked him to Tampa Bay at no. 33 

 

1-20-21 - D1 Baseball's top 100 College Prospects -

 

45 Evan Shawver LHP P Cincinnati American 

 

1-20-21 - prospect live -

#33

Tampa Bay Rays

Evan Shawver

LHP, Cincinatti

 

The Rays pitching development has been top tier in recent years and they can add some fun clay in southpaw Shawver. Shawver has an explosive, riding fastball touching 94 MPH. The slider is gyro-heavy, falling off the table. He couples those pitches with a change-up that exhibits good fade and some tumbling action. Throwing strikes and performing will be key this spring. 

 

12-23-20 - prospect live -

 

Cincinnati lefty Evan Shawver continues to push his way up boards. He’s got all the ingredients teams like to see. Full arsenal, fantastic pitch data, clean operation, track record of throwing strikes.

  

11-11-20 - Prospects Live Top 300 Prospect List -

52. Evan Shawver - LHP

 

Bio:

 

Height: 6-0

Weight: 175 lbs

Hits/Throws: R-L

Hometown: Amherst, OH

School: Cincinnati

 

Diminuitive lefty with big, impressive pitch data built for the modern game. Fastball is routinely 90-91 bumping 94 with very good ride and some run. Slider is optimized gryscopic breaking ball that tunnels brilliantly off the fastball. Changeup dies at the plate and fades into left-handed hitters back foot. Shawver could stand to add a little more extension down the mound, but as it, projects a starting pitcher thanks to three above average offerings. Walks have been an issue in the past, but did improve in 2020. 

 

Prospects Live -

 

The biggest jump in two months? Cincinnati LHP Evan Shawver -- up 125 spots to no. 77. Shawver has some of the best pitch data in the entire class and was impressive in an abbreviated 2020. He’s now a second- or third-round value in our eyes. 

 

gobearcats -

 

2020 Season: Had 4 appearances with 4 starts… recorded 35 strikeouts in 22.2 innings with a 1.59 ERA… best outing of the year came vs. EMU where he pitched 8.2 innings allowing only 1 hit and 1 run with 12 strikeouts

  Click here for the full list of Mack's MLB Draft Scouting Reports.  

3 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Shawver sounds great - and he is a lefty. Ding, Ding.

Anonymous said...

Mack, fascinating article from Baseball Prospectus:

"The Mets should blow up their draft bonus pool in 2021. They should go way, way past their cap, maybe a hundred million past—maybe even more.

This is not the first time I’ve written about the idea of a team vastly exceeding their MLB-assigned bonus pool. The concept was originally presented on Baseball Prospectus by Grant Jones in 2016 and presented at that year’s SaberSeminar. I put my own twist on it at 2018’s SaberSeminar as part of a talk with Jeffrey Paternostro about how teams could improve player acquisition and development strategies with targeted spending.

To recap previous research, the penalties for exceeding your draft cap—loss of your next two first-round picks and a 100 percent tax on bonuses over 115 percent of your pool allocation—are not actually that onerous. Teams easily rate to get more than two first-round picks worth of value long-term just by scooping up a dozen or so top preps with signability problems. Front offices gamed the similar IFA pool caps so successfully that MLB tightened and then closed the loopholes over subsequent CBAs. Even though the draft rules are just as exploitable, no team has done so under the current system.

I’ve established two conditions that a franchise really needs to meet both of to consider blowing the draft cap:

An owner willing to spend exorbitant amounts of money to improve the farm. When the Padres nuked their 2016-17 international pool, they spent around $80 million in bonuses and penalties. A team willing to similarly blow past their draft cap rates to spend at least that much, and maybe significantly more.

A major-league team that projects to pick much lower in draft years n+1 and n+2 than they do in the current draft. Since you’re losing your next two first-round picks, one of the few ways this could go massively south is for one of those picks to end up painfully high to forfeit. Basically, you need to be a team on the upswing; luckily, a good front office should be able to figure out whether they are or not.

The 2021 New York Mets meet both conditions about as well as any team I’ve looked at for this purpose. Steve Cohen is the richest individual owner in Major League Baseball and keeps making comments about finding ways to improve their 24th-ranked farm system. The Mets hold the No. 10 pick in this draft and, after major improvements to the MLB roster, don’t seem likely at all to have a top ten pick in either of the next two drafts.

In previous versions and presentations of pool-busting ideas, I’ve focused on the ability to scoop a bunch of first-round talent with signability issues in the first five or six rounds and then all of the second and third-round quality prep talent who nobody is willing to pay seven figures to with your next dozen or more picks. The Mets should absolutely do all of that here—it would be an instant boon to a farm system very thin on potential impact talent outside of their top five or six prospects—but we’ll get to that.

There’s another, potentially more impactful, avenue available to a team really willing to push the edge, one where Cohen’s billions could play a huge factor: floating one of the top prospects in the player pool down to a pick where you could offer them whatever bonus number would make it worth their while. It might take $15 or 20 million, or even more. You’ve already blown the cap and Cohen will probably fund it, so what’s the difference?



Jimmy

Tom Brennan said...

Jimmy - fascinating - they should seriously consider that. It would truly be bold. I want BOLD.