The MLB Draft is quickly approaching on July 11th and one player to look out for is Matt Mikulski. Mikulski is a 22-year-old LHP from Fordham University. In his four seasons with Fordham, the lefty posted a 3.17 ERA with a 21-12 record. He is the 50th ranked prospect on MLB.com. In addition to pitching for Fordham, he played in the draft league, a collegiate league for 2021 MLB Draft prospects. While Mikulski has been a starter since high school, it is possible that he could transition to the bullpen, as many prospects have throughout the years. Mikulski was eligible for the 2020 MLB Draft, but didn’t end up getting drafted most likely due to the draft being only five rounds and not the typical forty.
Strengths
Mikulski’s biggest strength is his fastball. This season he was throwing harder, sitting at 94-95 mph and also hitting 98 mph regularly. In a game against Seton Hall in April, Mikulski spent nine innings clocking 95-98 mph in a two-hit shutout. He also showed an above-average changeup and slider that made many hitters miss this past season. He has cut his walk rate down considerably, going from 41 walks in 2019 to 27 in 2021. This number still needs to go down, but that’s something that can be fixed with good coaching. Left-handers notoriously take longer to develop, so with the right work ethic and the right process, it’s a good bet that Mikulski will one day be successful in the Major Leagues.
Weaknesses
The main reason why Mikulski isn’t ranked higher is because of his control. As stated earlier, he’s worked on it and it has shown in the results, but the walk numbers are still very high given the amount of innings he’s pitched. This has concerned many scouts, which is why he’s not a top-ranked prospect. Also, given the fact that this draft has so many highly ranked pitchers, Mikulski’s name has gotten a bit lost in the shuffle. Some have attributed Mikulski’s control issues to his delivery, which has a lot of moving parts and has been described as “violent” by scouts. The question is would he be able to change this delivery if he needed to and would the results show a positive change.
MLB Player Comparison
Matt Mikulski is listed at 6′ 4″ and 205 pounds, so in order to properly compare him to someone, they would need to have the same presence that Mikulski has on the mound. They would also need to have some control problems. Max Fried is exactly same height, nearly the same weight, and has also struggled with control throughout his career. Fried has improved over the years, though. In 2017, his first year in the big leagues, he had 12 walks in 26 innings. This year, he has 20 walks in 57.2 innings. That’s just eight more walks over 31.2 more innings. As Fried has shown, control issues don’t have to be permanent. This is also true with Mikulski, which is another reason why Fried is the perfect comparison.
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