Lukas
Waite

Lukas Waite, Patrick Henry High School (CA), 2027 Arizona
Positional Profile: RHP/OF Physical hitter with an efficient, even barrel plane and present bat lag through the load.
Body: 6-2, 196-pounds. Firm, athletic frame with present strength throughout.
Hit: RHH. Wide lower half with a slight knee bend. Upper half is tight with the back elbow flared towards the catcher. Bat angled towards the third base foul line. Medium leg lift stride to initiate the load into the rear leg with the hands casting heavily outward to initiate the load. Hips and upper half stay mostly in sync. Very even barrel plane throughout with an efficient, easy swing. Upper half turns well for power with bat lag present. 80 mph bat speed with 8 G's of rotational acceleration.
Power: 102 max exit velocity, averaged 95.1 mph. 376' max distance.
Arm: RH.
ATH: 6.34 runner in the 60. 1.50 and 3.51 in the 10 and 30 yard splits.

Waite entered in relief and turned in a dominant, scoreless frame—his most electric outing of the spring out of the three live looks I’ve seen of him pitching. The stuff was as lively as it’s been, with the FB sitting 89-91 and touching 93 mph with explosive life through the zone. He attacked hitters with confidence and paired the heater with a sharp 75-77 mph SL that had tight spin and bite. Waite struck out two in the inning and overwhelmed hitters with the pure quality of his arsenal. The FB showed ride and late hop up in the zone, making it tough for hitters to catch up to. His SL tunneled well off the FB and gave him a real weapon to put guys away. The rhythm and body control down the mound were smooth and athletic, and he looked totally in sync with his mechanics. Waite continues to raise his stock with every outing and today was a loud statement. High-octane stuff from one of the top ‘27 arms in the state and definitely one to know moving forward.

Physical: 5-11, 155 pounds; Long/lean frame. Projectable build w/ room to fill/add. Standout swift athletic testing metrics. 

Offensively: RHH. Wider balanced stance. Simple trigger. Small negative move with lower half. Hands takeback and create quality separation. Above avg. bat/hand speed for level. Clean/connected bat path. Balanced. Trouble with timing at times catching it too deep which caused high % GBs. When on-time, he was pounding the LC gap with LDs. 

Defensively: OF- 82 MPH. Athletic actions in the OF. Aggressive approach. Comes in hard with momentum fielding it out front and clean. Quick exchange and transitions seamlessly into throwing motion. 4/5 accurate on a line throws from the OF. Loose arm action that works quick to release. 

Pitching: Efficient mechanics. Side steps into a upper-chest knee lift. Smaller driveleg sit but creates quality drift/momentum down the mound. Lower half works in-line. Decent block. More north/south plane of rotation. Clean/continuous AA that works into quality layback and to a H 3/4 slot. Advanced arm speed. FB worked up to 84 showing carry shape (20.7 avg. IVB). CH at 72-74 showed straight shape, similar movement profile off FB. CT at 70-71 killed some IVB off FB and added about 3 inches of lateral cut with quality feel in-zone for it (50%).