SoCal ProCase Spotlight: RHP Eric Van Valkenburg

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THE REPORT:

Body: 6-foot 2, 185 pounds. Athletic build with a high waist. Some present upper half strength with a solid base. Room to fill out in all areas. 

Delivery: Simple, efficient delivery with no wasted movement. Side step with a medium high leg kick and a small kick out. Gathers over the rubber at peak leg lift before starting his move down the mound. Shorter arm path that is quick and makes the ball jump out of the hand. Sits into the glute well and works in more of an east west plane of rotation resulting in a high ¾ slot. Quiet head that allows him to command the baseball exceptionally well with all of his pitches. 

FB: Ranged from 81-84 in his outing with above average movement characteristics. While average spin on this pitch was only 2050 RPM, that does not tell the entire story here as he averaged just above 16” on both vertical and horizontal movement, while peaking at 19.7 and 18.9 respectively. This easily puts him into the top 10% of high school pitchers when it comes to total movement. Average extension from the rubber on the day was 5 feet 5 inches feet while release height off the ground averaged 5 feet 9 inches. The most impressive stat for this pitch, however, was his 83.3 in zone percentage, with a large percent of them coming as quality strikes that induced weak contact. 

CB: Velocity ranged from 67-69 MPH with sweeping action. Average spin on this pitch came in at 2160 RPM and while it may not pop out to the eye, once again he creates more movement  than one would expect when looking only at spin. The pitch featured some depth, with an average of 5.3 inches of drop, but was primarily dominated by sweep which had an average of 14.4 inches which for reference, is nearly the width of the plate. While this pitch is already a quality offering that can be thrown for strikes, adding velocity to it will only increase the amount of swing and miss it gets. 

CH: Only threw one changeup in his outing, coming in at 70MPH. Quality separation from Fastball characteristics killing off 6 inches of Induced Vertical Break, while having 19.7 inches of horizontal run. Arm slot stays similar to other pitches with no noticeable difference in release data. Has potential to be an above average pitch, the one he did throw was for a strike.

Summary: With an impressive three pitch arsenal and an advanced feel for pitch ability, Van Valkenburg showed extremely well to MLB scouts and our PBR staff. While the velocity will need to trend up in order to get legitimate draft looks, the control and feel for the game is already present within him. Assuming this does happen, he will have all the makings of a top tier collegiate starter if the way of the draft does not claim him first. Look for him to add some mass moving into the fall as he gets closer to his senior campaign. 

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