Jake Madden-RHP-Northwest Florida Junior College

Jake Madden is one of the better pitchers in this year's junior college class. Originally hailing from Pennsylvania, he is currently at Northwest Florida Junior College and is committed to Alabama next spring. With the college pitching class the way it is, guys like Madden have gotten more consideration than normal, and in this case it is well deserved. 

Madden is a tall, lanky righty (6'6" 185) with long limbs and on mound athleticism. Throws from a semi-windup with a lower 3/4 arm slot. He isn't able to work up in the zone the way that some L3/4 shorter pitchers are due to his height. He generates power effectively, with a deep back leg drop and moves down the mound quickly and matches his rapid arm speed. It's a fairly aggressive delivery with some head whack. On the surface level it implies bullpen in the future, but he is under control throughout and doesn't have much more reliever risk than your average high school/JUCO arm.

From a repertoire perspective, Madden is a pure power pitcher. I saw him throw against Chipola, where he sat 93-97 for the first 35 pitches, then was 90-94 for the rest of the outing (about 75 pitches). It has above average arm side run, which is expected from the low 3/4 arm slot. It's not going to miss a ton of bats due to shape, but has potential to rack up ground balls. While it may not be the traditionalist's favorite changeup, I really like it. It's a power changeup, sitting about 5-6 ticks off of the fastball, that plays off the FB well with above average vertical movement differential. Should be able to get K's against lefties with it. The slider is fringy to me right now but he has the arm slot and feel for spin to throw a good one. The slider shape is ok to me, mostly two plane break with sharpness but inconsistent in bite and movement profile. When the slider is off, it will be more of a gyro slider than a true two plane slider, and when this happens it looks more like a lack of feel than something he is going for. I don't like jumping on trends, but he seems like a good candidate for a more sweeping slider given his arm slot. 

Command wise, it is about what you would expect from a guy his size and age. His feel for location is scatter shot right now, but shows enough feel for the fastball and changeup arm side right now that there is potential for him to throw enough strikes to be a 5 and dive starter.

In summary, this is a power arm with starter traits. The median projection is most likely a short inning reliever because of his loud stuff and mechanics, but he shows enough athleticism and control for me to want to prove that he can't start, rather than just assume he cannot. 

Pitch	Velocity	Present	Future
Fastball	91-94 T97	55	60
Changeup	85-91	50	60
Curveball
Slider	84-88	40	50
Control		30	40