Matt
Bedford

Cape Cod: After throwing exclusively out of the pen for a talent Irish club this spring, Bedford continued to operate in relief for Brewster up until his final appearance of the summer – by far his best.  In his lone start of the summer, Bedford worked four scoreless, two-hit innings against Orleans, striking out four and walking none.  At his best, Bedford pounds the zone with his fastball/slider combo, with the heater generally working 93-94 mph (touching 96 in my viewing) and registering in the 2500-2650 rpm range. His slider is a hard-biting, tilted breaker with tight action in the low-to-mid 80s and logging as high as 2700 rpm. Bedford also mixes in an 80-81 mph changeup with quality fade that he throws with very good arm speed deception and a mid-70s curve that vacillates between true 12/6 and 11/5 action.  Bedford has the depth of arsenal and presence on the mound to transition into a starters role and looked every bit the part of a quality power conference starter in his four-inning stint against Orleans. In a relief role he has the quality of stuff to handle higher leveraged situations though his command in the zone can be loose at times, leaving too many balls over the white of the plate.  After an overall productive summer that has improved his draft stock, Bedford will be draft eligible as a very young junior, not turning 21 until almost six months after next year’s MLB draft. He will be closely monitored this fall be evaluators and could enter the spring as a premier helium candidate for the Irish.