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The Next Big Thing

August 30, 2022
Justin Goetz
PBR Georgia Assistant Scouting Director

Season after season and class by class, every baseball evaluator has a list in their minds of players that most caught their eye. Scouting/coaching staffs often get together with the purpose of thoroughly combing through a specific class, identifying potential game changing players they want to be part of their organization. When certain names are mentioned, you just have that feeling in your gut of “he’s different”. Deep in the baseball industry, this is called a “gut feel guy”.

You might have a tall projectable pitcher who’s a good athlete with raw talent & lightning arm speed, but lacks polish. Braves RHP Freddy Tarnok for example - the uber athletic SS/RHP was a gut feel guy for PBR Florida who didn’t have much experience on the mound. The Braves felt the same way, as they took him Rd 3 and paid him big money, which surprised most of the industry. Well, he made his MLB debut this year! When all stats, tools, intangibles, characteristics have been discussed, who do you feel is going to be truly great?

Standing at 6 foot 8, 235 pounds with an XL frame and long levers is the Toombs County Terror, RHP Brantley Upshaw. This Georgia State commit is one of the lesser known players I feel strongest about in the upcoming classes. Yes, he’s one of the largest, most projectable arms I can remember scouting in the last 10 years. But that's only part of what is going to make him an elite prospect in the future. His athleticism and pitchability at such a tremendous size are true separators. It’s been proven over time that the taller a pitcher is, the harder it becomes to repeat a timed up delivery. They typically have longer arm actions, less balance, and take longer for things to click. There are always exceptions, and Upshaw is one of those.
His delivery is incredibly compact and well sequenced, which was the first thing that caught my eye. It’s absolutely shocking how a teenager the size of an ACC power forward can move so well through his delivery with balance. Yep you guessed it, he also plays basketball. Brantley has just as much potential on the court, but baseball is his favorite sport. He owns the boards, blocks everything in sight, and dunks with ease. It’s the same ease of operation he shows on the mound, creating unreal explosiveness with almost no effort. His arm action is a clean, efficient short circle that drops loosely out of the glove. This helps gravity create the momentum for him as he works into throwing position. Loose muscles are quick muscles, and a big part of why Upshaw has both arm speed and arm strength.

Brantley is able to work in a perfect progression of tempo from start to finish in his all stretch delivery, starting at medium & gradually working to fast after he lands. When guys his size try to pitch with tempo, the results are typically erratic with lots of drifting to the plate. He’s able to keep his upper half over the rubber - gradually working his core to the back hip & his shoulders slowly uphill at the same pace of the stride. This creates unreal torque in separation and perfect timing. The core twisting to the back hip allows it to fire rotationally at the same time the arm does, creating more explosiveness. The north/south tilt neutralizes the rotational firing of the core - enabling him to keep in a straight line to the plate, connecting the arm action with his largest backside muscles, and creates violent downhill leverage. The delivery & arm action are as close to perfect you’re going to get in a player this size.

The Repertoire : His heavy running FB sits in the 87-88 range, regularly touching 89 T90. The heavy running life is quite electric already, and I believe its his highest potential pitch of four offerings. With what I just explained above (athleticism, delivery, arm action, sequence, torque, timing) I feel the velo will be a consistent mid to upper 90’s in the future with a legitimate chance at triple digits. No need to predict when, just that it will come to fruition. His 79-80 SL might be his 3rd-4th most used pitch, but has plus potential and gets a large amount of swing & miss. It tunnels extremely well on the steep FB plane, with vicious downward tilt and late bite. He uses it currently for K’s.

Upshaw has one of the better SPL’s I’ve seen at the HS level in the 80-82 range. The pitch has a serious tumble with an insanely low spin near 900 rpm and has A/AVG potential. These two vertical secondary pitches make it very tough to sit on his FB, and when the next velo jump comes the FB will be unhittable. But that's not all, the Toombs County Terror also has a sweeping CB in the 76-78 range that he throws for strikes and has tons of potential. It’s the icing on the cake, preventing hitters from just tracking vertically on his offspeed pitches. He reminds me of Blue Jays prodigy Nate Pearson, who is one of the most electric in recent memory (delivery comp Pete Fairbanks). Yes Pearson throws 100+ mph, but his top velo was 93 in HS and he’s 2 inches shorter. So don’t tell me this is unrealistic. Whatever you do, just keep a close eye on Brantley Upshaw when he toes that bump!

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