Preamble
Watching Florida’s Hurston Waldrep early this season, I thought he had a chance to elevate himself on the same level as his SEC counterparts in Tennessee’s RHP Chase Dollander and LSU’s Paul Skenes. Another idea I had was Waldrep could be a more significant transfer addition to Florida than Skenes to LSU. That’s quite laughable now since Skenes is posting the best season for a college pitcher since Stephen Strasburg, if not ever.
Entering SEC conference play with a season ERA of 3.86, Waldrep had some work to stay in the Top 5 college starting pitcher ranking. Over five weeks, Waldrep regressed and saw that season ERA climb up to 5.07 after allowing six walks in three innings against Texas A&M on May 6. The following week, Waldrep threw ten pitches against Vanderbilt in one inning of work, but he did rack up two strikeouts. In his last SEC conference start against Kentucky, Waldrep went 6 IP 6 H 3 R 2 ER 2 BB 6 K, which dropped his season ERA to 4.83.
In that start against Kentucky, five of the six hits allowed by Waldrep went for extra bases with four doubles and one home run. With the non-conference buzz worn off, many mock drafts saw Waldrep dropping down boards past the Chicago White Sox pick at 15. Two months, I would have been shocked to see Waldrep even available for the White Sox to select. Now, I’m expecting him to be on the board.
Current White Sox pitching situation
Would Waldrep be a good target for the White Sox? Looking at how the minor leagues are faring and the team's contract situation with their current starting pitchers, more arms are a need. Last year's draft class heavily focused on pitching with college arms Peyton Pallette and Jonathan Cannon getting attention as possible fast risers.
Cannon with Winston-Salem has a solid start in his first seven outings. Covering 40.1 innings, Cannon has only allowed 32 hits and three home runs while striking out 29 and walking 11. You'd like to see more strikeouts, but Cannon is navigating his first professional season well.
Pallette is coming off Tommy John surgery, and the White Sox are handling him as extended rehab. In seven outings, Pallette has only thrown 21 innings. While the ERA is nice at 3.86, the strikeout-to-walk ratio could use some work (19 K to 11 BB).
Add the struggles of Sean Burke and Cristian Mena, and it's a murky picture of the White Sox's internal options to possibly replace a departing Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn, and Mike Clevinger after 2023. So it wouldn't be a bad idea for the White Sox to add more pitching help. It's a matter of if college starting pitching will be the best available prospect at pick 15.
Watching Waldrep against alabama
Pitching at the former Birmingham Barons home at Hoover, Waldrep started fast.
In the first inning, Waldrep was pumping four-seam fastballs that mostly sat at 95 to 96 mph on the TV gun but reached a max velocity of 98 mph. He racked up two strikeouts using a split-fastball and his curveball. The splitter has similar movement on right-handed hitters as a backdoor slider. After the first inning, I didn't see much of the curveball.
The second inning went 1-2-3 after Waldrep allowed a leadoff single. He was assisted by a tremendous defensive play by his first baseman Jac Caglianone who caught a line drive behind the runner and touched first for an easy double play. The inning ended with a 6-3 groundout.
The third inning also went smoothly, striking out the final batter to end that frame. After getting two quick outs in the fourth inning, things began to turn for Waldrep. Waldrep was late to the bag on a grounder hit at first base that pulled Caglianone far enough away from the bag that he'd need to make a toss for the out. On replay, Waldrep was trying to hold his cap down and lost track of where the ball was hit. After he recovered, Waldrep was a couple of seconds late to cover first base and was visibly frustrated.
That merited a visit from coach Kevin O'Sullivan who was attempting to calm down Waldrep. The frustration was not reaching former Gator pitcher Brady Singer's level, who would visibly be cursing up a storm after making mistakes.
With O'Sullivan calling pitches from the dugout, Waldrep started to nix using the four-seam fastball and leaned heavily on the splitter. The velocity drop is noticeable as the splitter was between 86-88 mph. Waldrep hit the next batter and allowed an RBI single to Alabama's Colby Shelton.
In the fifth inning, Waldrep walked the leadoff hitter. Alabama promptly dropped a sacrifice bunt to move the runner to second base, my least favorite play in college baseball. With that gift out, Waldrep didn't take advantage as he allowed a hard single to put runners on the corners. Jim Jarvis for Alabama tied the game with a sacrifice fly. Waldrep did end the inning with another strikeout.
O'Sullivan stuck with Waldrep starting the sixth inning, which appeared to be a good move early. A groundout not fielded cleanly started the frame, and Waldrep struck out Alabama's best hitter Andrew Pinckney. Pinckney almost took Waldrep deep for a home run during that at-bat, but it went just foul down the left-field line.
On the next pitch to Shelton, Waldrep allowed a big home run to give Alabama the lead. Waldrep finished his outing by walking the next batter on four straight pitches.
Waldrep’s final line: 5.2 IP 5 H 3 R 3 ER 2 BB 7 K 1 HBP on 87 pitches.
Assessment
Waldrep has first-round tools possessing a plus-velocity four-seamer, and the splitter does generate a good deal of grounders, especially against right-handed batters. I would like to see more of Waldrep’s breaking stuff in the start against Alabama to get a better feel of what could be offered at the next level. I thought Waldrep leaned too heavily on the splitter later in his start and allowed Alabama hitters to search for that pitch.
The pitch clock will not be a factor for Waldrep. He’s a speedy worker on the mound and is often ready with the pitch clock at 12 seconds. That type of rhythm is difficult for base runners to time a jump for stealing bases, and I think Waldrep will do an excellent job in the future holding runners on.
The biggest question I have for Waldrep is about handling pressure. For the first 3.2 innings, Waldrep was in control of the game. Then a weird thing happened with the hat that threw off Waldrep’s focus, and suddenly Alabama was back in the game. Florida will host a Regional and is a strong enough team to reach Omaha. Can Waldrep demonstrate that he can recover from a bad play or sequence on a big stage? We’ll learn soon enough.
Pitch Grades (20-80 grade scale)
Four-Seam Fastball: 55
Split-Fastball: 50
Curveball: 50 (Need to see more usage)
Control: 50
