Rays' top pitching prospect flashes triple-digit heat and elite whiff rates
Rays' top pitching prospect flashes triple-digit heat and elite whiff rates originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
The Tampa Bay Rays play in arguably the most competitive division in all of baseball: the AL East. To fight in this division, you have to be at your best, especially when your club lacks the star power the New York Yankees or other teams have.
However, despite the lack of star power, the team typically finds a way to stay in the heat of things, and you can never count them out. So far, that has remained true as they find themselves with a 5-7 record.
That's not ideal, but it could be a lot worse. Starting pitching has kept them in games, and the club has gotten enough offense at times not to worry too much right now.
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Rays' top pitching prospect flashes triple-digit heat and elite whiff rates
Speaking about pitching, you can never have too many arms ready to go. In this day and age of high velocity and max-effort pitching, pitching injuries have been more common than in recent years.
The front office has likely already thought about putting plans in place in case one of their starters goes down. They couldn't go into the new season banking on Shane McClanahan to stay healthy for 162 games.
This is where Brody Hopkins comes in. He is ranked the club's No. 2 prospect, and with his stuff, MLB Pipeline believes he could be an impactful call-up for Tampa Bay .
"No arm in the system has a higher ceiling than Hopkins does, and the 24-year-old righty has already touched triple-digits and generated a 36.2 whiff rate on his four-seam fastball. He's moved toward a cutter and curveball as his top two secondaries to keep himself more over the plate, and control will still be a focus in his push toward the Trop."
Hopkins could be a true ace in the big leagues, but there are some things he still needs to work on, like control. If he can get that dialed in, it might not be long before the hard-throwing righty makes his MLB debut.
