Jake
Irvin

3/28/18 - 6’6/225, Junior. Irvin’s impressive strong and athletic frame along with his ability to repeat a simple delivery with below average effort and a clean arm action all lend themselves to him having a solid chance to start at the next level. His fastball showed consistent run and slight sink at 91-93 for all seven innings and touched 94 mph a few times early. Also showed the ability to get swings and misses with the fastballs especially to the lower half of the order while most of the contact was on the ground. The slider had more depth early at 81-83 mph but was not as sharp or as well commanded in the later innings at 80-81 mph. The only runs he gave up were unearned in the 6th when his command waivered a bit, although he did not allow a walk. In the seventh he came back out sharp again, ending his night on 98 pitches allowing four unearned runs on five hits and no walks while striking out nine to improve to 4-0 on the year. 

2/22/18 - 6’6/225, Junior. Irvin certainly looks the part of major league pitcher with his tall, strong, athletic frame, clean arm action and sound delivery. However, his opening day performance left several question marks if he is to attain his preseason prediction of a top three round draft pick. Early in the game he showed good direction with a repeatable delivery. By the third inning, he had lost some direction to his finish, spinning off to the first base side. He maintained his fastball velocity of 91-92 throughout his five innings pitched, while touching 94 on occasion. Overall, his fastball lacked life and hit bats. It played below average, generating only a couple of swing and misses. He found the strike zone with his short-breaking, low-80s slider, yet it lacked power. He did get some swing and miss from the bottom of the lineup, but the better hitters fouled it off and got to the next fastball. On this day, Irvin looked more like a future major league middle reliever than a starter, therefore a sixth to eighth round pick instead of the top three rounds. However, it’s a 16-week season for a reason and Irvin will have plenty of time to shake off the rust, miss more bats with the fastball and refine the slider.