Nicholas
Swiney

2020 DRAFT: After a strong sophomore season, primarily out of the Wolfpack bullpen, Swiney was one of D1Baseball's preseason Picks-to-Click. The slender bodied southpaw transitioned to the rotation this spring to tremendous effect, posting a perfect 4-0 record through the first four weeks of the season. Through this period Swiney held opponents to a .144 batting average while posting a 1.29 ERA and punching out a whopping 42 batters in 28 innings of work. Tossing from a high-three-quarter release he mixed three pitches with plus command of each, helping to keep opposing bats off balance and off time. The best of his offerings is a plus fading changeup at 78-80 mph, which generates loads of swing/miss when he maintains his hand speed. His fastball sits 89-91 mph and reaches 93 with fair action, but plays even louder with his ability to work it to both sides of the plate with an impressive 21.2 inches of vertical movement. Swiney also shows an average curve ball at 76-78 mph with 11/ 5 rotation and a longer break. However, it too can play up with his ability to spot backdoor to right-handed hitters or finish to his gloveside away from lefty bats. There's effort in the delivery with a head snap finish, as well as a soft/bent front leg landing working against velocity and a firmer breaker. He currently projects comfortably in the third round as a future back-of-the-rotation starter.

2/29/20: After a strong sophomore season mostly out of the Wolfpack bullpen, Swiney was one of D1Baseball’s preseason Picks-to-Click. The slender bodied southpaw started slowly in his Saturday start against Purdue, but found his stuff halfway through the first inning and went on to retire 22 batters in a row. In his third start of the season, Swiney went eight, allowed one hit and fanned 15 Boilermakers. From a high-three-quarter release he mixed three pitches with plus command of each to keep the Purdue bats off balance and off time. The best of his offerings was a plus fading changeup at 78-80 mph. In the early innings he slowed his hand speed, but made an adjustment in the second inning and the pitch became lights out, generating loads of swing/miss. His fastball ranged from 89-91 (T93) mph with fair action, but played up with his ability to work it in/out and his very good 21.2” of vertical movement. The least of his offerings was an average curve ball at 76-78 mph with 11/ 5 rotation and a longer break. However, it too, played up with his ability to spot backdoor to right-handed hitters or finish to his gloveside away from lefty bats. With a longer arm path and a hook in back, how he does it is not ideal. He also has effort in his delivery, a head snap finish and lands on a soft/bent front leg. The bent landing leg is the chief concern as it works against velocity generation and developing a good breaking pitch. Overall on this latest look, he performed really well in front of many MLB decision makers who will undoubtedly remember his dominance and pitchability of his three-pitch arsenal. If the draft were tomorrow, Swiney would sit comfortably in the 3rd round. (Seifert)