Prep Baseball Report

Top Prospect Games Spotlight: Unicoi County 2017 LHP Brandon Garland



By Matt Byrd
Tennessee Director of Scouting

We continue to take a look at players who will be participating in the PBR Tennessee Top Prospect Games at the University of Tennessee on June 9-10. The event affords players the opportunity to showcase their abilities in a combination showcase/game play event and will feature some of the top uncommitted Class of 2016 and 2017 players in the state.

Brandon Garland, a LHP from Unicoi County HS, established himself as the top Class of 2017 prospect ingarland the state at the Preseason All-State Showcase in February. He routinely lit up the radar gun with ease as his fastball sat 89-90 mph, touching 91 on one occasion. Below is a look at his scouting report from the event.

2/7/15 - The 6-foot-2, 182-pound LHP has a good pitcher’s frame that projects well at the next level. The lefty has a balanced delivery that creates momentum and torque to create his velocity. Shows a high-level caliber fastball that sits at 89-90 mph with good arm-side run topping out at 91 mph, Due to Garland’s long release the ball seems to explode from his hand and jumps on the hitter very quickly. His curveball shows depth with a 1/7 sharp/late break at 75-77 mph, Garland’s changeup at 69-71 mph can be very effective with a 20 mph pitch differential and gradual fading action. Garland will undoubtedly be a highly-sought prospect moving forward.

Not only does Garland sit at the top of Tennessee’s 2017 class, but he is also the No. 1 ranked 2017 prospect in the Prep Baseball Report overall rankings. An ankle injury kept him from throwing much this spring, but he is healthy and back on the mound, and there will be no shortage of coaches to get an early summer look at him at the Top Prospect Games.