2013 Draft: Ian Clarkin

The 2013 amateur draft is less than one week away, so between now and then I’m going to highlight some prospects individually rather than lump them together into larger posts.

Ian Clarkin | LHP

Background
A San Diego kid out of Madison High School, Clarkin has played exceptionally well on the showcase circuit over the last year. He’s committed to San Diego.

Scouting Report
Clarkin is listed at 6-foot-2 and 190 lbs., and a 90-94 mph fastball highlights his quality three-pitch mix. A hellacious power curveball he can drop in for strikes or bury in the dirt for swings and misses is his top secondary pitch, and his changeup is solid but far from a finished product. He pitches to both sides of the plate with the fastball and curve, and he isn’t afraid to stand hitters up with some heat inside even though his command wavers. Clarkin has a a big exaggerated leg kick but otherwise clean mechanics. He’s more polished than the average prepster but still needs to do a better job of repeating his delivery to improve his command and the quality of his pitches. There are a bunch of videos of YouTube.

Miscellany
Baseball America and Keith Law (subs. req’d) ranked Clarkin as the 17th and 64th best prospect in their latest rankings, respectively. That’s a pretty big spread, obviously. Lefties with some projection left, low-90s velocity, and an out-pitch curveball always get drafted high and Clarkin should be no different. The Yankees have been connected to all sorts of high school arms recently — not Clarkin, however — and scouting director Damon Oppenheimer definitely favors polished pitchers. He seems like someone right in their wheelhouse.

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Michael Axisa