Tom
Bushnell

5/6/14 - Ranked No. 175 in Illinois’ 2015 class.  6-foot-2, 175-pound skinny frame.  Long arms, long legs.  Slow tempo in repeatable delivery, drops and drives bending down at the waste before rising back up and jumping at the hitter.  Opens up with lower half of delivery.  Delivery creates deception, and almost lulls hitters to sleep.  Fastball ranged from 76-81, mostly in the 78-79 mph range.  Fairly straight, but gets on hitters and appears faster thanks to varying curveball shape and speed.  Pitched backwards, throwing 63-68 mph curveball a majority of the game.  Varied shape between 12-6 when going front door to righty’s and back door to lefty’s.  Threw it slurvier away from righty’s.  Fastball was located down all game, and took advantage of umpire’s zone by expanding when necessary.  Hits from an open stance, aggressive early in the count.  3-for-3 on the day with an impressive double down the first base line after battling with two strikes.  Competed all game pitching and hitting.

9.25.13 - 6-foot-2, 175-pound frame, solid build. Throws from a ¾ slot with a loose arm action. Has a drop and drive delivery with clean direction. His fastball showed occasional running action on both the 4-seam and 2-seam. 4-seam velocity was 81-83 mph; 2-seam velocity was 80-83 mph. The changeup had arm side run with occasional sink at 63-67 mph. Changeup showed potential to be go-to pitch in future. Curveball has a 10/4 shape with gradual break at 63-67 mph.