21. AJ Smith-Shawver
Personal Rank: 21
The Braves tempted their 7th round pick in the previous draft away from Texas Tech with a $997,500 signing bonus. AJ Smith-Shawver was on his way to play both football and baseball in Lubbock before signing with the Braves, showing he is a high-caliber athlete.
He only became a full-time pitcher last year, but he intrigued everyone with his radar popping velocity that can easily get over 95 MPH. The arm strength is obvious, as he was the starting QB for his high school, throwing 29 touchdowns in his senior season.
AJ Smith-Shawver (2021, Colleyville, Texas) bumping 95 mph with the heater to close out the game for Stix 2021 Black. #WWBA17uSouth pic.twitter.com/wQHtDm3TOy
— Perfect Game Scout (@PG_Scouting) June 28, 2020
He will need to develop a secondary pitch, and it looks like the curveball might end up being that pitch. It is one that has shown some improvement and could be a future plus pitch. If he can add in a serviceable changeup, it would help his pitching arsenal drastically.
He only pitched 8.1 innings of pro ball last year, so the 8.64 ERA is something we cannot take too seriously at this moment. He will be nineteen this year, so a year of rookie ball will do him good.
Rookie ball will allow him to work on the curveball, changeup, and harness the control of that electric fastball that will be key to him rising up rankings. Even if the ERA is not as pretty as we would like, if he can learn how to pitch in rookie ball, it will be a successful year.
Consistency is going to be key with Smith-Shawver. He is still learning how to pitch. It may be a few years before we ever see him get close to the major league level.
He does have a lot of hype surrounding him right now, as MLB named him the “best young pitching prospect” in the Braves system. A lot of praise for a name we will need to keep an eye on in the future.