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Draft Prospect Watch: Grant Holmes Throwing Heat

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Just a couple links and notes before the Friday night starters take the mound on a busy night in college baseball.

Nathan Rode from Prep Baseball Report(formerly worked for Baseball America) tweeted Thursday that South Carolina high school righty Grant Holmes was hitting 98 MPH during a scrimmage on Wednesday night. He was previously topping out at 96 MPH. Holmes was covered in our draft preview for prep pitchers. I’ve included a video of him from Big League Futures down below. His school’s season doesn’t begin until March 26th.

Sox Prospects and Student Sports got together for a top 100 list of high school players in the 2014 draft. No surprise that Tyler Kolek was in the top spot. Grant Holmes came in at the 18th spot, which currently puts him right around the Pirates range. The current draft class is top heavy with pitching, though the college ranks seem to be the best group of players this year.

Dan Kirby from Through The Fences gave his list of ten college players on the rise. The Pittsburgh Pirates have the 24th overall pick in the 2014 draft and Kirby mentions Michael Conforto from Oregon State, who he ranked 24th, as a player on the move. Conforto was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week after he hit .500 in four games, with six walks, no strikeouts and 11 RBIs.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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