Arnett is the one that has separated himself not only from his own teammates, but from virtually every other right-handed pitcher in the nation. With a powerful, skyscraper build at 6’5”, 225, he has shown this year that he has the stuff to match his size, and is doing a better job carrying that improved velocity deeper into ballgames.
His stuff includes a heavy mid-90s fastball that he throws seemingly without effort. A good overall athlete with very good balance and coordination, he generates that velocity from the bottom up, incorporating his entire body and releasing the ball as though it looks it is thrown inches from the opposing batters given his size. The ball explodes out of his hand, and he repeats his delivery well.
His breaking ball, which most identify as a slider, is also a plus-plus pitch. It drops off the table and is really hard to hit when he his spotting his fastball as well as he can. He shows that he knows how to add and subtract off the pitch, dropping in more of a curve-like breaking ball for strikes before making hitters look foolish with his wipeout true slider.
Arnett also has a fearless approach, something you don’t always see with college pitchers, who frequently will work away from hitters instead of trying to record outs earlier in the count, often attributed to the presence of metal bats. He works both inside and out, up and down, in the strike zone, and his stuff is good enough to allow him to get away with mistakes, not to mention climbing the ladder with his fastball to record swinging strikeouts against pure gas.
I had the pleasure of watching Arnett pitch yesterday courtesy of the Big Ten Network (and in HD, a nice treat), and while I normally don’t write about the games I watch on a weekly basis, this performance definitely warranted mention. He shut down the Purdue Boilermakers over seven innings of work, allowing only four hits, (with three of those coming in the second inning), one walk and no runs while striking out 10. He seemed to gain momentum as the game progressed, and did a good job managing his pitch count, leaving the game with only 95 pitches, something I’m sure scouts were happy to see (there were easily 12-15 scouts visible just behind home plate for this game).
There hasn’t been much doubt the past several months that Arnett had placed himself as a legitimate first-rounder, but now the question is how high will he go? He has the prototypical size, along with athleticism, as well as a power arsenal. I didn’t see him throw any changeups yesterday, something he will need to work on, but he didn’t need to throw any. That package could easily lead him to being selected a lot higher on draft day than where some are currently projecting. Of all of the college pitchers in the nation not named Stephen Strasburg, in my opinion only Alex White and Tanner Scheppers have comparable command of a power repertoire. Since both are among the candidates being discussed to go second overall, it’s not a leap to think Arnett could go in the top 10.
With the win yesterday he improved to 12-1 on the season with a 2.58 ERA. He along with fellow rotation mate Matt Bashore (who has been strong in conference play with a 5-1 record and 2.36 ERA after a really slow start) give the Hoosiers a legitimate chance to take home the Big Ten conference crown.