Approximately 30 scouts were on hand last Wednesday to see the highly anticipated match up between Randleman RHP Daniel Tuttle and Ragsdale RHP Nick McBride.  Tuttle entered the game as the consensus top prep pitcher in North Carolina, but it was McBride who stole the show in a 12-0 Ragsdale victory, throwing a six-inning perfect game with 14 strikeouts.  While the score is indicative of a blowout the game was actually much closer as Ragsdale was leading 1-0 after three innings.

Nick McBride was in control the entire game with a fastball that sat at 88-91 range and touched 93.  He has a lean athletic build and he looks to be around 6’4” and 180 lbs.  Nick has the type of body that should fill out well and his fastball projects to be an above average pitch down the road.  While he was not forced to throw many off-speed pitches, Nick would occasionally show off a curveball in the 73-76 range.  Nick showed a fairly tight rotation on some of his curveballs, but scouts would like to see more velocity on the pitch.

While the final score of the game is not indicative of Daniel Tuttle throwing well, he showed scouts three potential average to above average pitches.  His fastball sat in the 90-93 range most of the night, topping out at 96 in the first inning.  Tuttle touched 95 once in the third inning, but the wheels started to come off in the fourth inning as he struggled with his control.

Tuttle gets very good life on his fastball with a low ¾ arm slot and long arm circle.  Although his arm action helps produce great life on his fastball, it is also the biggest area of concern for scouts.  Many scouts believe that he puts excess stress on his elbow and are worried about his durability down the road.

As far as his off-speed pitches go, Tuttle showed a slider and split-finger that would already grade out as average MLB pitches.  His slider is a hard knee-buckling pitch that sits in the 79-82 range.  He is able to backdoor right-handers with the slider and the pitch could possibly grade out as a potential 55 or 60 MLB pitch. 

Although he only threw his split-finger a few times, the couple he did throw looked very promising.  The bottom fell out of a few splits and the pitch sat in the 84-86 range.  Like his change-up, Daniel’s split-finger could also project out as a potential average to above average pitch. 

In terms of draft potential, neither pitcher did anything to hurt their draft status with their recent performance.  Nick McBride is a guy that could maybe sneak in to the top 10 rounds, but he could really benefit himself by heading to college and improving his off-speed pitches.

In terms of Daniel Tuttle’s draft status, he is going to be a guy could anywhere from the sandwich round to the fourth round.  Some teams might not be sold on his arm action, but there won’t be any arguments about his impressive raw stuff.  Daniel’s stuff could profile well to be a closer, but most likely teams will see him as a set-up man.