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College  | Story | 5/21/2026

Coppy's Corner: May 21 POY Deep Dive

John Coppolella
Each week I huddle with Vinnie Cervino and Craig Cozart  to discuss Top-25 rankings and Players of the Week. In Coppy’s Corner, I dive deeper into these Players of the Week, providing analysis from 20+ years working in baseball front offices at the highest level.  

Co-Player of the Week: Carson Tinney – University of Texas 

As a Notre Dame alumnus, it pained me to see Tinney transfer from the Golden Dome to the University of Texas after an All-American sophomore season for the Irish. He’s picked up in Austin right where he left off in South Bend and is currently hitting .321 AVG, 20 HR, .475 OBP / .695 SLG / 1.170 OPS on the 2026 season. It’s plus right-handed power and a plus arm; with the numbers I have found indicating that Tinney has erased more than half of attempted base stealers over the past two seasons of college baseball. Tinney threw out 30% of baserunners in the Cape Cod League this past summer. And although he struggled offensively in the Cape, particularly with swing and miss, it’s a small sample size compared to his overall body of performance over the past two seasons. 



There are a lot of other positive indicators for Tinney. He’s hit right-handed pitching (.328 AVG / 1.170 OPS) a bit better than left-handed pitching (.304 AVG / 1.170 OPS) this season – something likely to change in professional baseball. Tinney has also thrived on Friday nights (.358 AVG / 1.225 OPS with 6 HR) facing the best pitchers in arguably the best conference in college baseball. The power plays, and if the plate discipline can continue to develop, there is real upside at a premium position.  

Carry Tool: Power. Tinney had 3 HR this past weekend and has been on a torrid pace since April 1st with .352 AVG / 1.368 OPS and 13 HR in 88 AB’s. Tinney has plus power and a plus arm and reminds me a little bit of Salvador Perez albeit with a little less hitability. The average batting line for an MLB backstop in 2025 was .235 AVG / .304 OBP / .389 SLG / .693 OPS, and those numbers were grossly inflated by a historic season from Cal Raleigh. It will be interesting to see how high Tinney goes in the MLB Draft – there is such a need for catching throughout baseball that it’s impossible to rule him out as a Day #1 pick – and wherever he goes will get a rare combination of power and arm strength at an incredible position of need. 

Co-Player of the Week: Tommy Harrison – Miami of Ohio 

Harrison had a big weekend, but, really, he has had a big year for the RedHawks, hitting .402 AVG with 17 HR, 85 RBI (!), and 3 SB in 52 Games. Yes, you read that correctly: 85 RBI in 52 Games (more on that below). Harrison also has produced a .527 OBP / .730 SLG / 1.258 OPS on the season over 204 AB. Those are impressive numbers, to be sure, but even more impressive is that Harrison – who bats left and throws right – has actually hit better against left-handed pitching (.510 AVG / 1.503 OPS) than he has against right-handed pitching (.358 AVG / 1.151 OPS), a feat that is quite rare for left-handed hitters. Likewise, he’s hit better on the Road (.405 AVG / 1.302 OPS) than at Home (.382 AVG / 1.161 OPS). 

Harrison will be 22.5 years old when the 2026 MLB Draft commences, and he’s a corner outfielder from a small conference school. If you’re an MLB team, when you draft Harrison, you are buying a bat – but there may be some hidden upside. Let me explain when I was General Manager of the Atlanta Braves, in November 2016, we acquired OF Alex Jackson and LHP Tyler Pike from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for RHP Rob Whalen and RHP Max Povse. Now do you, see? Still not? OK, let me explain further: Jackson was the 6th overall pick by the Mariners in 2014, arguably the best prep hitter in the class at the time, and was drafted as a Catcher. Seattle moved Jackson off Catcher to speed up his development. When we acquired Jackson, we went Back to the Future and reintroduced Jackson to the tools of ignorance. Jackson has played parts of six MLB season, with 3+ years MLB service time, as a Catcher.  

Harrison was also a Catcher – for almost the entirety of his 2023 season (25 Games). I don’t know if he can go back behind the dish, and this is a big man at 6’3 / 220, but I would sure like to find out because Harrison’s bat has been so good.  

Carry Tool: Hit. Harrison can flat rake with an AVG > .400 and OPS > 1.250. He’s got more walks (41) than strikeouts (32) this year and continues to improve each season. And he’s done it against the big conferences – his combined performance against Big 10, Big 12, and SEC teams this year is .375 AVG / 1.212 OPS. Yet what’s most impressive to me is the 85 RBI (!!) in 52 Games. Yes, I know, RBI are a situational statistic and don’t mean much of anything – except when you get that many, it must mean something. Harrison has almost identical numbers this year with Runners on Base (.394 AVG / 1.238 OPS) and Runners in Scoring Position (.382 AVG / 1.242 OPS). Miami of Ohio has scored a lot of runs this year and Harrison is in the middle of it. It would be foolish to bet against this bat and this hit tool. 

Pitcher of the Week: Jackson Flora – University of California Santa Barbara  

Flora is our Pitcher of the Week on the heels of a CG SHO performance on Thursday night where he only allowed 2 Hits, 0 Walks, and 12 Strikeouts against UC Riverside. I wrote about Flora in the “National Nuggets” section of Coppy’s Corner a few weeks ago (https://www.perfectgame.org/articles/View.aspx?article=24284), and he seemingly gets better and better each week. Flora reminds me of Kevin Brown, and on the strength of a devastating Cutter, is now 10-0, 1.03 ERA with 115 Strikeouts vs. 28 Walks. It’s almost a dead-cinch lock that he will be the first pitcher taken in the MLB Draft, and I wanted to write about what that means to a front office. 

In 2017, as Braves GM, we took Kyle Wright with the #5 overall pick in the MLB Draft. Wright was the first college pitcher taken in the 2017 Draft (note: 1B/LHP Brendan McKay went #4 overall to the Tampa Bay Rays, and they preferred McKay as a hitter – we did, too). Wright (6’4 / 215) and Flora (6’5 / 205) have similar builds, stuff, and performance. Wright reached Atlanta a year after he was drafted. I was no longer with the Braves, but I remember watching him on TV as he hit triple digits in his first appearance. A few years later, in 2022, Wright was the first 20-game winner in MLB. It’s a shame he got hurt – another casualty in this pitching injury epidemic – and hopefully he can get back to health and the show the talent that led to such a quick rise to MLB success. 

Carry Tool: Quick-to-MLB Impact Starting Pitcher. The benefits of an organization being able to produce a homegrown frontline starter cannot be overstated. You have that pitcher under contract for essentially the league minimum his first three years in MLB, and then the club has three club options (aka “arbitration years”) at below market values for that pitcher. How much is that worth in today’s game? Merrill Kelly – who has had a really good career – signed a 2-year, $40 million contract as a 37-year-old free agent this past offseason; Kelly has never won more than 13 games and only thrown over 180 innings pitched three times in his career. Wright went 21-5, 3.19 ERA over 180.1 innings pitched in 2022 and made $720,000 that season. Flora can have this type of impact – maybe even better if he can stay healthy. I could see him going as high as #3 to the Minnesota Twins and no later than #8 to the Athletics. 

Freshman of the Week: Clayton Namken – Texas State University 

Namken’s big weekend has added to a terrific freshman season for the Texas State backstop, who has produced a .309 AVG, 10 HR, 31 RBI, 1 SB with 24 BB vs. 40 SO, including a .407 OBP / .591 SLG / .998 OPS. Namken is a plus athlete, who played both ways in high school, showing good makeup and leadership as a catcher. Perhaps more importantly, at least in the Lone Star State, he was also a Quarterback. For his high school team. In Texas. If you don’t think that’s a big deal, check out Friday Night Lights – either the movie or the series would suffice – and you will see it is a big deal. Rest In Peace, James Van Der Beek. Gone way too soon. 

NIL stands for Name, Image, and Likeness – but it could also stand for Namken Is Legit. And I think he will be in high demand in the college baseball transfer portal with a lot of programs willing to throw around some money for a catcher with his skill on both sides of the ball. Catching is hard, and freshman catching is really hard. To put up a performance like Namken has invites a lot of larger programs to see if there is a fit. In fact, if and when Co-Player of the Week Tinney departs in the MLB Draft, Namken could be a potential fit at the University of Texas – or pretty much any other school. Or maybe he will stay at Texas State, which has built an exciting team this year and is a program on the rise. It will be fascinating to see how it all plays out.  

Carry Tool: Hit. Diving deeper inside the numbers makes Namken look even more impressive. Namken has hit better against right-handed pitching (.331 AVG / 1.065 OPS in 118 AB) than he has against left-handed pitching (.276 AVG / .752 OPS in 31 AB). It’s a small sample size against LHP, the kind of pitchers he should eventually crush with more experience, but that’s not important. What’s important is that he’s posted a 1.065 OPS in predominately righty-righty matchups as a freshman catcher. That’s impressive. And so is the fact that he can hit the fastball, with a .364 AVG against pitches 94 miles per hour and higher. 

National Nuggets:

Last week, I wrote about draft-eligible sophomore hitter rising up draft boards in Derek Curiel … this week I want to write about a draft-eligible sophomore pitcher risking up draft boards in Tegan Kuhns … our own Craig Cozart was in Knoxville last weekend and saw Kuhns shut down then-#4 Texas on Friday night, sitting 94-97 with good life … Kuhns went 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 15 SO – not a no-hitter so he didn’t qualify for Pitcher of the Week that week – and has had a strong sophomore season going 5-4, 3.39 ERA with 77.0 IP, 76 H, 15 BB, 100 SO … Kuhns pitches primarily off his plus-to-double plus FB that generates a 55% Swing % and 37% Chase % … his CB flashes plus, but has led to less success than it should, as Kuhns has actually been better against LH hitters (.228 AVG / .664 OPS) than against RH hitters (.282 AVG / .763 OPS) this season … there is a lot of upside in this arm with continued development … two other domination notes on Kuhns: he absolutely dealt in the Cape Cod League (1.35 ERA with 1 BB vs 20 SO in 13.1 IP) and has been lights-out the first time through a lineup, allowing .188 AVG / .527 OPS in the 1st inning and .208 AVG / .567 OPS in the 2nd inning of the 2026 season … the most impressive thing about Kuhns has been how he has cut his BB/9 IP ratio from 3.93 in 2025 to 1.75 in 2026 … alas, I would be remiss if I didn’t make a Tegan and Sara at some point in this writeup, and Kuhns’ song for this season could well be “Everything is Awesome” …with a prototype pitcher’s build (6’3 / 190), easy velocity and good stuff, it’s not a question of whether or not he’s a 1st round talent, but rather how high will he fly up draft boards 

 

 

 
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