VA/DC Scout Blog

Ward has a big frame, he can still add strength to it as he trims down some and therefore he has a lot of projection left to his frame. Short loose arm action that is quick with normal effort to his delivery. Simple delivery, stays online, athletic finish, repeats it easily. Fastball was 86-87, touching 88 in the first inning, he then settled into 84-86 for the rest of the game, and held that through five innings. Fastball has angle and some late run to it, showed ability to command his fastball within the strikezone, working it in and out throughout the game. Curveball has big sharp 1/7 break and good armspeed, running 71-74. Showed ability to throw it for strikes to both sides of the plate and to bury it out of the zone. Also got to see a changeup, which had great armspeed and heavy fade at 75-78. Both offspeed pitches are swing-and miss. Showed feel and command of all three pitches. Struck out 12 in five innings, with no walks and just three hits. Already has high level stuff, still has a chance to add notches to his velocity as he gets onto a good strength and conditioning program.

PBR Future Games

 Durable frame with room to shape at 6-foot-2, 230-pounds. Compact controlled build up style delivery. Average leg kick while working down to out gliding downhill. Get some hip load with weight back and gets nice lower half involvement working down-hill and some backside drive. Has a longer arm action with slight pause after break. Whippy, fast arm speed throwing from a high three quarter. Fastball shows natural run to the pitch up to 88 mph. Breaking ball has depth on the pitch with a bigger 1/7 action. Good pitch that hitters struggled handling. Change up showed later dive on the pitch and looks to have potential as a solid third pitch. Did not throw in game, only in warm ups. Ward had one of the more impressive outings for Team Mid-Atlantic during the Future Games, controlling a Florida lineup for his two innings on the bump. One of the high risers of the event from the team.