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College  | Story | 4/7/2018

Big arms take the stage

Jheremy Brown
Vincent Cervino
Britt Smith
Greg Gerard
Photo: Tristan Beck (Stanford Athletics)



Midseason College Honors | Weekend Preview | College Player Database

During the season Perfect Game scouts will be traveling to some of the top series to watch the very best players in college baseball. Those observations, captured with both written notes and video, will be shared in the College Player Database as linked above, notes that can also be accessed on the players' individual PG profile pages. Throughout the season select reports will be shared in feature format to promote the players, the teams and college baseball as a whole.


Tristan Beck, RHP, Stanford



Throughout his senior year of high school righthander Tristan Beck steadily rose up draft boards though his commitment to Stanford was near iron clad and instantaneously vaulted his name to the top of any draft list for 2017 (as a draft eligible sophomore). His freshman season did nothing but solidify the notion of Beck becoming a top of the draft talent as he garnered a cabinet’s worth of postseason hardware before ultimately missing all of 2017 due to injury. 

Heading into Friday’s contest at UCLA Beck showed no signs of rust on the mound and though he took his first loss of the season, you can’t help but walk away impressed with the raw ingredients and what the complete version of what the Stanford ace may look like down the road. He did surrender eight hits scattered over his 6 1/3 innings, of which some were barreled hard as a result of missing his spot or staying up in the zone. 

Beck immediately catches attention with his long limbed, high waisted, and ultra-projectable 6-foot-4, 190-pound frame, and while he’s likely to gain strength at the next level, his athleticism and advanced arm speed already allow for a noteworthy arsenal. Beginning with his fastball, Beck opened and closed the game by bumping 94 mph and comfortably sat in the 91-93 range. And while the radar gun readings are nice, the ease of which he generates the velocity and the big plane he creates with solid extension out front are just as important in painting the bigger picture of Beck as a prospect. 

It became commonplace as the game wore on for the ump to say “strike one” after nearly every first pitch of an at-bat as Beck time and time again located his fastball to either side of the plate, occasionally mixing in a get-me-over curveball with big depth. His heater offered solid running life to his arm side, and when he was painting the lower third of the strike zone several pitches were simply of the “good luck hitting that” variety. He continued to show the life when working to his glove side, though by the end of the outing the heater showed more sinking life when working in on lefthanded hitters, still proving to be an effective offering. 

Of the three different secondaries Beck showed it was his curveball that he went to most often and at its best showed above average with potential for another bump on the scouting scale. Tunneling the pitch well with the same fast and loose arm stroke, Beck was able to add and subtract on the shape of the pitch as mentioned above, showing more depth in the mid-70s early in the count before showing a late, hard snapping version to put away hitters in the 78-80 mph band. His changeup is another pitch that flashed above average potential with late fading life down in the zone in the 82-85 mph range with a mimicked arm stroke and release point. Rounding out the arsenal was his slider, a pitch that offered a distinct difference in terms of shape and life, working mostly in the mid-80s with much shorter and tighter life through the zone.

Overall, the components for Beck are highly intriguing and he showed the ability to miss bats, punching out five while maintaining his delivery and arsenal throughout. He’s an alluring prospect who has been on the scene for a while and with continued success this spring should continue to solidify his standing come June.


Jake Bird, RHP, UCLA



Senior righthander Jake Bird took the mound for UCLA in a Friday night matchup against No. 2 Stanford and out-dueled touted draft prospect Tristan Beck for the majority of his outing. Bird did a very good job at pounding the strike zone and limiting hard hit contact en route to seven-plus innings on the mound and earning a hard fought victory. 

The righthander has a funky delivery, caused by a big rocker step into his delivery where he leans back hard into the gather, but does a good job at getting timed-up to get downhill effectively. The arm stroke is a bit long through the back, but again, Bird was very good at repeating the delivery to pound the strike zone with a strong, primarily two-pitch mix. 

The fastball worked in the 89-91 mph range for the majority of the evening, bumping a couple of 92's throughout. Bird maintained his velocity well as his final three pitches of the game were at 91 mph. He got downhill to create plane on the pitch but also flashed some hard life to the arm side. The fastball, however was pretty straight and fits the velocity range of about an average Major League fastball going forward. 

The frame is pretty filled out, so there isn't much room to project additional velocity, but the command of the pitch was good as he really didn't miss too often with his spots and could work side to side effectively. The cutter/slider was an effective secondary pitch in the 83-86 mph range while topping out at 87 mph. The pitch had short, biting life to it and he could sneak the pitch over the front door to righthanded hitters. The pitch flashed average potential, if not projecting for slightly better as he showed a pretty good feel for spin. Bird also flashed a traditional curveball at 76 mph with more 11-to-5 shape. 

Bird scattered eight hits across 7 1/3 innings pitched, and while he didn't miss many bats (only three strikeouts) he was adept at limiting hard hit contact. The righthander projects nicely as a senior sign come June's draft and will likely have a career in professional baseball.


Logan Gilbert, RHP, Stetson University



Early on it looked like Logan Gilbert was going to cruise to a win after his Stetson Hatters gave him an early 4-0 lead against Kennesaw State. Gilbert dominated the first 3 2/3 innings retiring the KSU batters in perfect fashion before running into some trouble. Giving up a pair of home runs in the fourth inning, Gilbert’s velocity dipped slightly and his fastball seemed to straighten up more than in the previous innings causing the KSU hitters to better square up the baseball.

Unfortunately after his stint of being perfect, Gilbert started to get hit around in the later innings. His fastball velocity dipped a couple of ticks after the first two innings of being in the 92-93 range. The velocity sat 89-92 later on and when that happened, the jump and short run it had lessened and allowed hitters to get the barrel on the baseball. The 15th ranked player on the Top 250 MLB Draft list took the loss to a well-balanced offense from Kennesaw State on this night giving up nine hits and six earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. The above average curveball he has did help the big righthander tally seven strikeouts in the contest.

At 6-foot-6 225-pounds and featuring a fastball that topped out at 94 mph on this night, it is obvious to see why Gilbert is such a highly regarded prospect. His delivery is so easy and clean as well. He drives off of his back leg extremely well for his size and gets excellent extension out in front. With a full arsenal of pitches Gilbert featured four on this night. The first he showed was his slider that was in the low-80s and had good sharpness to it. The next one that he displayed, and easily his best secondary pitch, was his curveball. At times the pitch showed true 12-to-6 shape and was virtually unhittable all night long. At other times, it showed more 11-to-5 shape and was still a big-time swing-and-miss pitch. On a few occurrences to lefthanded hitters he would throw his straight changeup that would get hitters out in front.


Jake Irvin, RHP, Oklahoma



Entering Friday night’s conference road opener for the Sooners, Jake Irvin had posted some outstanding numbers in the 2018 season. He had held opponents to a paltry .165 batting average and was averaging more than a strikeout an inning, while posting a 5-0 record. Friday night was not a typical performance for the junior righthanded pitcher, but he did show power stuff against TCU. With a pure power pitcher mentality, Irvin comes right after hitters with a lively fastball that sits 92-94 mph and will bump 95. Showing a good amount of arm-side run and slight sinking action, he shows that he can command it in the strike zone. Irvin has a longer arm circle and creates good hip and shoulder separation in his delivery. He can get amped up and will overthrow at times, but it is not the ordinary for him. 

Utilizing a two-pitch mix presently, Irvin may profile best as a reliever at the next level. His secondary pitch is an above average, 11-to-5 shaped slider, with good depth, thrown between 82-84 mph. He can get around it on occasion and create more lateral movement, but it is best when he drives through it and keeps good direction to the plate. It is rare to see a starter, at any level, that posts such good numbers while only throwing two pitches. However, Irvin has not struggled getting through lineups thus far in his Sooner career, as he has 14 starts that have seen him pitch six innings or more.

Although his command was solid average on Friday, his season numbers read that his command is better than shown. Possessing a strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly 4-to-1 coming into the contest, Irvin issued three walks against five strikeouts on Friday night. He was up to the task of facing a patient TCU offense that played with great intensity early in the game, as he brought his own level of swagger to the outing as well. With a strong and mature athletic build (6-foot-6, 225-pounds), Irvin looks the part of a professional presently. He will remain in the draft conversation as the season progresses but where and how high he will be selected might depend on an organization’s idea of how they would utilize his abilities.


Nick Lodolo, LHP, Texas Christian



With TCU riding a four-game losing streak entering their Friday night contest against Big 12 leading Oklahoma, Nick Lodolo appeared determined to change the Horned Frogs’ luck. With a long and lean frame, standing 6-foot-6, 195-pounds, Lodolo punched out 13 Sooner hitters over the course of six innings of work. Although he was unable to end the losing streak, he showed high-level stuff and the ability to locate it much better than a year ago. With a fastball that had tremendous tilt and sat 91-93 mph for the entirety of his outing, Lodolo also showed the ability to get it to both sides of the plate without losing the slight arm-side run. As a freshman, he struggled to reach the extension side of the plate, but it was not a problem for him on Friday night.

Helping his effort was a 2-to-8 shaped slider that he showed good feel for throughout the game and flashes as a potentially above average pitch. Sitting 78-81 mph, his slider shows good depth with later break and was consistently tunneled in a fastball slot, which produced many ugly swings from left and righthanded hitters. Lodolo’s feel for his slider was good enough that he scrapped the use of his curveball after the first couple innings. Formerly a go-to pitch for the lefthander, with 2-to-8 shape and a bigger break in the 73-74 mph range, it was not as effective as the simple two-pitch mix he used to tie the Oklahoma hitters in knots. 

Lodolo has a faster paced delivery with both good rhythm and extension out front. He will still run from his arm at times but not nearly to the extent that he did as a freshman. Seeing the development of his delivery it is simple to see where the improvement of his command has come from. On a night when both teams had issues with the small strike zone, Lodolo shined with his command.

With a clean arm action and a more consistent point of release, he is developing well in his sophomore season. He showed composure on the mound and the ability to pitch out of trouble that was created by some defensive miscues. The ability he shows to keep better direction to his target, the advancement of his breaking ball command and the ability to get his fastball to both halves of the plate are all huge steps for Lodolo. His ability to continue to improve will only elevate his draft stock moving forward.
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