{"id":32567,"date":"2020-06-06T01:17:57","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T05:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=32567"},"modified":"2020-06-06T01:17:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T05:17:57","slug":"petey-halpin-2020-mlb-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/06\/06\/petey-halpin-2020-mlb-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Petey Halpin 2020 MLB Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Centerfield prospect Petey Halpin is among the best high school hitters in this year&#8217;s draft class. St. Francis High in Mountain View, CA&#8217;s last draft selection was <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bishobr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Braden Bishop<\/a><\/strong> in 2012. Halpin is a good bet to be among those selected in the five-round draft next week.<\/p>\n<p>Halpin is a six-feet tall left-handed hitter from California, who weighs 180 pounds. He is currently the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/prospects\/draft\/petey-halpin-690984\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">77th-best prospect<\/a> on MLB.com&#8217;s big board. Halpin is committed to the University of Texas if he does not sign with the team that selects him.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Petey Halpin Prospect Video, OF, St  Francis High School Class of 2020\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aDnvF9VCHLg?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<h2>Strengths<\/h2>\n<p>Halpin has a solid bat for his age. He just turned 18-years-old in May so he would be one of the younger players selected; only <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/2020\/05\/15\/2020-mlb-draft-profile-blaze-jordan\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first baseman<\/a> Blaze Jordan is younger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/prospects\/the-board\/2020-mlb-draft\/scouting-position?sort=3,1&amp;type=2&amp;pageitems=200&amp;pg=0\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according to FanGraphs<\/a>. Some teams might look at Halpin&#8217;s youth and see more room for growth.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his age, Halpin has advanced bat control and has a 50\/80 grade on his hit tool. That is great and gives him an edge when it comes to players who might make less contact.<\/p>\n<p>Halpin looks like a plus runner and has a very good arm. These are his best two tools, both graded 60\/80. That is a perfect combination for someone who wants to stick at center field. There aren&#8217;t many left-hitting, right-throwing 6&#8217;0&#8243; outfielders in the modern game but Halpin&#8217;s tools are very exciting.<\/p>\n<p>The short high school season may have hurt Halpin&#8217;s stock, but he looked good with USA Baseball&#8217;s PDP League. He stole six bases for his PDP team without being caught. Additionally, he was an All-Star at the MLB High School game in Cleveland in 2019, as well.<\/p>\n<p>Halpin also interested some people on the mound where he threw up to 92 mph. He isn&#8217;t a pitching prospect but that demonstrates just how strong his arm is at this point in his career. There are some very interesting tools in Halpin&#8217;s game that could make him a strong draft choice.<\/p>\n<h2>Weaknesses<\/h2>\n<p>A lack of a full senior season and the dangers of high schoolers are the main negatives against Halpin right now. He demonstrated some power at a showcase at Angels stadium in the fall, but his power rates below-average at this point in his career. High school hitters are also risky compared to college options; their developing bodies simply give them more chances to get hurt or underperform against professional competition.<\/p>\n<p>A few seasons at the University of Texas would give Halpin a chance to develop into a regular power hitter with advanced bat control. Developing more power would also help extend Halpin&#8217;s career if a team ever wanted to move him out of centerfield to a corner outfield spot.<\/p>\n<h2>MLB Comp<\/h2>\n<p>Halpin will get bigger and stronger over time but one possible MLB comp could be <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goodwbr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brian Goodwin<\/a><\/strong> who played for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/los-angeles-angels\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Angels<\/a> in 2019. The 29-year-old hit a respectable .262\/.326\/.470 with 17 home runs and 29 doubles in 458 plate appearances. He also stole seven bases. Goodwin&#8217;s career slash line is .255\/.320\/.461. Halpin has a higher ceiling than the 2011 first-round selection, but Goodwin would represent a solid floor for someone of Halpin&#8217;s abilities.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: <a id=\"SMaU6oWKQjBMh3D_IT5Row\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1213373867\" 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:'SMaU6oWKQjBMh3D_IT5Row',sig:'tOBNxgBuNwvOWkXDyZWxC4ZKBwyAUMNuZ4k5ceQ9sJc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1213373867',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>Centerfield prospect Petey Halpin is among the best high school hitters in this year&#8217;s draft class. St. Francis High in Mountain View, CA&#8217;s last draft selection was Braden Bishop in 2012. Halpin is a good bet to be among those selected in the five-round draft next week. Halpin is a six-feet tall left-handed hitter from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3127,"featured_media":32691,"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":[3752,3742],"class_list":["post-32567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brian-goodwin","tag-petey-halpin"],"modified_by":"DJ Kleinbard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32567","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=32567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}