{"id":31216,"date":"2020-05-12T13:56:05","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T17:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=31216"},"modified":"2020-06-06T19:41:29","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T23:41:29","slug":"slade-cecconi-2020-mlb-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/05\/12\/slade-cecconi-2020-mlb-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Slade Cecconi 2020 MLB Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Miami is one of college baseball&#8217;s great programs. It has produced pitchers like <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/graveda01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danny Graves<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=fernaal01,fernan012ale&amp;search=Alex+Fernandez&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Fernandez<\/a><\/strong>. The highest selection for a Miami pitcher is <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/murphro01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rob Murphy<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s third overall selection in 1981. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=ceccon000sla&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Slade Cecconi<\/a><\/strong> won&#8217;t go that early in the 2020 MLB Draft but he is a strong prospect coming out of south Florida.<\/p>\n<h2>Slade Cecconi 2020 MLB Draft Profile<\/h2>\n<p>The right-handed Cecconi is listed as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/prospects\/draft\/slade-cecconi-677944\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">31st-best prospect<\/a> on MLB&#8217;s current big board. He stands 6&#8217;4&#8243;, 219 pounds. That is prototypical size for a major league starter. He was early into his sophomore year before the NCAA cancelled the remainder of baseball in 2019. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/baltimore-orioles\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Baltimore Orioles<\/a> originally selected Cecconi in the 38th round of the 2018 draft. Cecconi opted to attend college and improve his draft stock.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Soph. RHP Slade Cecconi, Miami, 2020 Elig.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kow_PwPEvtE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Strengths<\/h3>\n<p>Cecconi has a strong four-pitch mix with a fastball, slider, curveball and changeup. The fastball is the best at a 60\/80 right now but the slider is also a plus offering. MLB.com currently rates it as a 55\/80. The curve and changeup are at 45s right now but there is plenty of promise in the secondary offerings.<\/p>\n<p>The fastball typically sits around 96 MPH, but he needs to develop better stamina throughout outings. His slider is also quite good with a velocity of around 87 MPH. The fastball\/slider combination is very popular in modern baseball and should form the core of Cecconi&#8217;s repertoire. He will also need to improve the curveball or changeup if he wants to stick as a starter. The two secondary pitches are both 45s right now but there is potential for more. At worst, his primary pitch combo would look great in a major league bullpen thanks to its velocity and movement.<\/p>\n<p>Cecconi was off to a solid start in 2020. He had four starts for the Hurricanes with a 3.80 ERA and 30 strikeouts compared to just seven walks in 21 1\/3 innings. His best game came in a 9-3 win over Towson. Cecconi did give up three earned runs in the fifth inning but still pitched 4 1\/3 innings with eight strikeouts and three walks.<\/p>\n<h3>Weaknesses<\/h3>\n<p>Cecconi has some issues with command at this point in his career. He walked a very average three batters per nine innings in 2020. That would be fine if Cecconi were in professional baseball but it won&#8217;t impress anyone looking at college stats for top programs. It&#8217;s also a worse rate than in 2019 when he walked just two batters per nine in 80 innings pitched. Cleaning up the free passes should be one of Cecconi&#8217;s top priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Cecconi&#8217;s other issue is stamina. He has seen his velocity drop off in games, and he failed to go more than five innings twice in four starts. That is a concern for someone with stuff as good as Cecconi&#8217;s. Some of that might be due to a lack of experience but it lowers his potential ceiling in the absence of more games. He is only a sophomore so returning to college for a full season might be an idea. That would allow Cecconi to clean things up and push his draft stock into the first round.<\/p>\n<h3>MLB Comp<\/h3>\n<p>One of Cecconi&#8217;s best comps might be <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/grayjo02.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jon Gray<\/a><\/strong> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/colorado-rockies\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Colorado Rockies<\/a>. Gray is a very similar build at 6&#8217;4&#8243;, 227 pounds and his fastball in 2019 was consistently around 96 MPH like Cecconi&#8217;s. Gray largely threw the same fastball\/slider\/curveball\/changeup mixture. <a href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/savant-player\/jon-gray-592351?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Baseball Savant<\/a> also tracked a tiny number of sinkers, but there is plenty of overlap in Gray and Cecconi&#8217;s profiles.<\/p>\n<p>Gray has had an up-and-down career with Colorado but has been a consistent presence for the past four years. He has struck out over nine batters per nine innings and generally survived the perils of Coors Field.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<a id=\"hxtBd649RpJw-mOkaeOTLA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/878562516\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'hxtBd649RpJw-mOkaeOTLA',sig:'Fl0xwgpZRm_EMTA9jHTi6LhUNBCqHMPw2jYM64EROp8=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'878562516',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Miami is one of college baseball&#8217;s great programs. It has produced pitchers like Danny Graves and Alex Fernandez. The highest selection for a Miami pitcher is Rob Murphy&#8216;s third overall selection in 1981. Slade Cecconi won&#8217;t go that early in the 2020 MLB Draft but he is a strong prospect coming out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3127,"featured_media":31502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1644,3598],"class_list":["post-31216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jon-gray","tag-slade-cecconi"],"modified_by":"DJ Kleinbard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}