Royals' pick in Baseball America's just released mock draft.
6. Royals — Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas
In terms of strikeout rate and batting average against, no pitcher in the country has been as dominant as Hagen Smith this spring. His 48.3% strikeout rate is tops among qualified D-I arms and so the .136 opponent average he’s posted. Smith allowed three earned runs in his first outing of the year (just one inning against James Madison) and since then he has allowed just six earned runs in 40 innings.
He’s currently generating a 47% miss rate on all of his pitches, sitting 94-96 with his fastball from the left side and batters are hitting just .087/.125/.152 against his slider. He’s a nightmare matchup at the moment.
Potential critiques include the Tommy John survey on his resume, a walk rate that is higher than you’d like for a top-10 pitcher (10.6% this season and 12.7% for his career) and perhaps some questions about what his third pitch is going to be beyond the fastball/slider combo. Even with those, he fits as a tier-one arm in the class. It wouldn’t be shocking if he were the first pitcher off the board.
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