Jason
Rackers

Fall '18 - Committed to Tennessee out of Jefferson (MO)

10/11/15 - Rackers is a physical 6-foot-5 200-pound right-handed hitting first baseman.  Rackers ran a 7.59 60 and hand an exti velo of 75 mph.  At the plate, Rackers starts slightly open with his front foot, controls front leg with leg kick, minimal hand load, level path, strong and quick hands, middle to pull approach, ran 4.56 home-to-first.  On the infield, has a 73 mph positional velo, fluid and clean actions in hands and feet, soft hands, accurate throws.

9/15/18: Tall, large framed righty with intimidating presence and Noah Syndergaard hairstyle. Big sink on 91-92 mph FB. Average SL at 83. Have seen average to above average sinking CH during previous look. Looks like a reliever, but he's a strike thrower with pitchability. Pro prospect with Day Two draft potential. (Seifert)

5/28/18 NJCAA WS: Huge kid, big and intimidating on the mound. Looks a lot like Syndergaard, long hair and all. FB 88-92, heavy, 4 seam look to it. Able to work both sides of the plate with it, pounds the zone. CB 78-80 occasionally tight, can get slurvy at times, but has a feel for it and can throw it for strikes. CH is a circle type, gets good dip at the plate, will be more of a weapon against better hitters.

3/20/18: Tall, extra large bodied righty with a downhill delivery from a slot. Featured a sinking fastball, average changeup and a short, late breaking slider. I didn’t see great arm speed or the reported low-90s velocity the scouting buzz had indicated, but I did see a promising pitching prospect who repeated his delivery, had feel and filled up the zone with three pitches. He’s a strike thrower who kept his 86-88 mph sinker down in the zone, touching 89 a couple times while elevating his fastball on two strike counts. Also flashed an average changeup with fastball arm speed at 77 mph and a short, late breaking slider at 75 mph. Usually 75 mph sliders don’t break all that hard, or late, but his did, and it was an effective pitch. He struck out batters with all three pitches over the course of his four-inning start. On the day he issued a leadoff walk to start the game, then was perfect from that point forward finishing with five strikeouts, four groundouts, two flyouts and picking off the only base runner he allowed. Overall, he looked like a pretty easy guy to develop. It’s all there from his size and delivery to his feel and ability to pitch. However, a report to a scouting director on him will be much more enticing with low-90s velocity, as opposed to the upper-80s that I saw today. He’s a prospect to definitely keep an eye on this spring. (Seifert)