LNG
Jordan Balazovic, P
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Scouting report
After a breakout 2018, Balazovic spent most of 2019 dominating the Florida State League as a 20-year-old. Perhaps the most important takeaway was that he retained his stuff amid an innings increase. My hope was that he'd endure another 20-inning uptick in 2020 and continue tracking toward a traditional, innings-eating starter's workload. But, uh, he didn't get a chance to do that. Instead, Balazovic arrived at the alt site in September and looked his usual self, sitting 92-96 there, which is the top end of his velo band from 2019. He throws strikes with four pitches, several of which either project to miss bats or do so right now. Chief among them is his fastball, which is tough for hitters to pick up out of Balazovic's hand as they're misdirected by his limbs flying all over the place during the delivery. Even with a somewhat lower arm slot, Balazovic's heater plays at the top of the zone. He can vary the shape of his breaking balls -- the slider is the out pitch, the curveball gets dropped in for strikes -- and both play up against righties because of the mechanics. And while Balazovic's glove-side slider command should be enough for him to deal with lefties eventually anyway, his change improved in 2019. He throws an unusually high number of strikes for such a young, lanky, cold-weather arm with a somewhat violent delivery, and he's had no health or control issues thus far. He pretty firmly projects as a No. 4 starter right now. (Alternate site, Fall Instructional League)