Weekend Preview | Jon Harris/Missouri State Feature
No. 20 Iowa 13, Michigan 7
About 20-25 scouts packed into Michigan’s Ray Fisher Stadium on Friday afternoon, almost assuredly to bear down on the wonderful starting pitching matchup between Iowa’s Blake Hickman and Michigan’s Jacob Cronenworth. Both pitchers have been generating high round draft buzz this spring, as has Michigan’s third baseman, Travis Maezes.
Jacob Cronenworth started very strong, showing two above average pitches in an easy 1-2-3 first inning. His fastball sat 92-93, touching 94, with quality life to the arm side and good command down in the zone. He’s a very athletic prospect, hitting leadoff and playing the infield for Michigan when he’s not on the mound. His frame is still projectable enough to support a bit more added strength. His arm action is pretty loose from a high three-quarters slot, he uses his legs well throughout his delivery, and manages to generate some downhill plane to the plate. He turned over a few very good changeups in the 84-86 range, showing good fade and legitimate swing-and-miss potential. As his outing when on, however, he began to struggle with location and started to work up in the zone, where his stuff flattened out. Due to that, Iowa was able to make some good contact.
His calling card on the Cape last summer was his above average slider that would flash plus, but he struggled with the feel for the pitch on Friday. He flashed a few with legitimate, sharp, two-plane tilt in the 78-80 range, but would struggle with overthrowing the pitch and bouncing it. He would also occasionally drop his arm slot when throwing the slider, not only tipping the pitch to the hitters but also getting to the side of the pitch, making it flatten out and lose effectiveness as a result. At his best, you could see a starting pitcher with good mechanics, albeit with some effort in the delivery/arm action, with three quality pitches that all project to at least average. He had been Michigan’s closer for 2.5 seasons before Michigan made him their Friday starter a few weeks back, and the argument could be made that his stuff would play better in the bullpen once he’s into professional baseball. He maintained his velocity pretty well over his 68 pitch start, settling in mostly in the 90-92 range. Regardless of the rough start Cronenworth has established himself as a high-round selection at the MLB Draft in June, probably slotting into the 4-6 round range.
Cronenworth’s counterpart on the mound, Iowa’s Blake Hickman, came into his start on Friday with a good amount of buildup and hype. He has a near-ideal pitcher’s frame, standing 6-foot-5 with broad shoulders and a good build, with some physical projection still remaining on his frame. He employs a shorter arm action to near overtop slot, throwing with excellent arm speed and a pretty clean action, while generating excellent plane downhill to the plate. He also had a very short start, mostly due to command problems, which saw him on the mound for only 2 1/3 innings, throwing 59 pitches. His fastball sat in the 90-92 range across the whole start, touching 93 a few times early on my gun (one other scout reported a 94) and had difficulty to work down in the zone. The fastball is pretty straight, and when he left it up, Michigan barreled it up pretty easily.
This is PG 'DiamondKast' Level content.
You must be either an DiamondKast, Crosschecker Rankings & Scouting Reports, or Scout subscriber to read the rest.