Socal ProCase Spotlight: LHP Chase Hoover

San Juan Capistrano, Calif - One of my biggest regrets of the 2021 HS season was not making my way up to Santa Barbara. There are plenty of great arms up there and one of them is the #2 LHP in the state in Chase Hoover. I lucked out in that he was able to make the long drive down to make it to our ProCase. Hoover had a ridiculously good season for San Marcos HS going 7-1 with a 0.79 ERA in 53IP and striking out 94 for a K per 9 of 16Ks. He showed the same strikeout stuff at our ProCase where he breezed through his six batters striking out three and gave up no hard contact. After his outing, it was of no surprise to me in why he is committed to one of the top programs in the country in TCU. 

The Report: 

Body: 6-1, 180 pounds. Athletic build with present lower and upper half strength that help in giving him good rotational and linear power in his delivery. Still believe there is some room to fill out which gives him some upside. 

Mechanics: Smooth repeatable delivery. Side steps into a high knee tuck that gets him engaged into his back hip. Sinks into his backside/hip while maintaining his hinge down the mound. Keeps a higher chest into foostrike showing flexibility with t-spine. Still head throughout. Avg. length stride. Consistently in line with lower-half direction. Gets into a good fielding position. Average lead-leg block with present forward trunk tilt at finish. Arm action is loose/continuous. Creates easy effort armspeed. Present scap retraction. Arm stays in quality positions throughout the action. Decent layback. Clean mechanically. More in the tank to unlock.

FB: Sat 88-90. 44% in-zone with misses still around the zone. Some present late ride through. Up/away tendency. Spin rate sat around 2200 rpm. Induced vertical break avg of 18.5 inches. Extension on his FB was 6.08 ft (average MLB: 6.5ft). 

SL: Sat 75-77. Mixed some different shapes. Majority sweeper with avg. 3:30 tilt that got around 9-11 inches of IHB. A few more slurvy ones were mixed with about 6 inches each of IHB/IVB. Spin rate average was 2133 rpm and max spin was 2291 rpm. Drops arm slot slightly when throwing it. Induced swing and miss in-zone during outing. More of a ball-strike pitch right now with added velo needed for it to become more of a chase pitch. 

CH: Sat 78-80. Only threw 4 but showed effectiveness against RHHs. More of a fading CH getting up to 15 inches of IHB. About 10 inch difference in IVB off the FB (8.3 inch avg IVB). Consistent armside location placing all 4 on or just off the black. Consistent arm speed as his FB. Shows potential to grade out above avg. with it currently tunneling well off the FB. 

Summary: Besides the stuff it’s the confident mound presence that really stood out. He attacked hitters with the trust that he can execute all his pitches and when he actually does, he’s just unfair. There's a lot of upside with his present stuff as none of his pitches are easy to square up, especially his FB/CH combo. They profile well and tunnel off eachother. If he can further develop his slider I don’t see any high school hitter touching him. Chase exploded onto the scouting scene last summer and with what I just saw he should see a continued rise this summer.