By Rob Sidwell
Florida Scouting Director

Tampa, FL—The Chain held their tryouts this past weekend at Steinbrenner field, spring training home of the New York Yankees. Players from several states were in attendance, including Florida. One Floridian that stood out was 2018 RHP Nic Daniels (East Lake HS, FL). Daniels is 6-foot-3, 180 pounds with a tall, loose, lean, athletic and projectable body. It's a very good looking, young pitcher's body. He has a loose, easy arm at a high-3/4 slot. In two innings of work, he showed a fastball that was downhill at 84-87 mph. The curveball was a big, loopy breaker at 70-71. The slider was his best pitch, which was a short, tight pitch with 3/4 break and good depth at 76-78. It has the potential to be a swing-and-miss pitch. His release was a bit inconsistent and would occasionally pull off-line, but for the most part he threw a lot of strikes. Daniels' velocity has jumped up a bit this fall and is now starting to get in that upper 80s range where college recruiters are starting to notice. As he continues to get stronger, his breaking stuff will also improve with added velocity.