MLB Prospects

For Daniel Espino, a thud against the wall came before the pop of the mitt. The Georgia Premier Academy senior is the hardest-throwing prep pitcher in next week's MLB draft, unleashing 100 mph fury from the mound the same way he used to let loose in his living room.

His father is a doctor, so there was always an available stash of medical tape in their Panama home. Espino and his oldest brother would return from school and adhere a strike zone to the wall. They would take baseballs and fire away, to the detriment of family members seeking siestas.

"My grandma used to sleep on the other side of the wall, so in the afternoons, she was taking a nap," Espino said with a laugh. "And I would throw it until late in the night, and she would get mad at me."

Espino grew up in Panama City, tagging along to his brother's baseball games. He dressed up in catcher's gear for fun. He watched Yankees games, idolizing local legend Mariano Rivera. He first came to the United States to play baseball when he was 10, staying with an uncle in Miami, and then moved for good at the age of 15. Espino recently graduated from Bulloch Academy, where he attended classes every morning before training and playing in the afternoons at Georgia Premier in Statesboro.

While his parents were debating whether he was ready to live abroad, Espino emerged from his bedroom with his bag packed and said he was ready.

"For me, it was for baseball," he said, "but for my parents, it was for education."

The right-hander's fastball sits between 94 and 96 mph but hurries up against the best competition. At the 2018 Under Armour All-American Game at Wrigley Field, Espino fired a heater clocked at 99. That broke the game's velocity record set by Reds prospect and 2017 No. 2 overall pick Hunter Greene two years earlier.

Daniel Espino, upper 90s FB/mid-80s slider (from last night. 11Ks in 4 innings).

There are HS kids who have to try to hit this. 😳🤣

Full video of his outing here: https://t.co/BO3n4rfapo pic.twitter.com/ufxU7jVr6c

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 9, 2019

During last summer's East Coast Pro Showcase in Hoover, Alabama, Espino opposed pure-hitting outfielder Riley Greene, a projected top-five pick from Hagerty High School in Oviedo, Florida. Espino's second-pitch fastball tailed just wide of the strike zone, but its impact in catcher Jonathan French's mitt reverberated around a back field of the Hoover Met Complex. Scouts looked at their radar guns and, for the first time, saw a third digit. Espino had thrown 100. (He later struck out Greene with a 98 mph dart down and in.)

Baseball America has written that Espino "has—easily—the best pure stuff in the 2019 draft class," and the magazine quoted one evaluator as saying the right-hander has a "90-grade fastball" on the 20-to-80 scouting scale. PitchingNinja, a popular aggregator of pitching dominance, tweeted video of Espino's fastball-slider combo with the reminder that high school kids are trying to hit that.

Espino won all nine of his senior season starts at Georgia Premier, throwing 44 innings and allowing only two runs for a 0.41 ERA. He gave up only eight hits and seven walks. He struck out 109. Espino faced top-300 high school draft prospects 27 times; those hitters went 1-for-25 with 17 strikeouts and two walks.

"I've been around a lot of good high school baseball players," said Georgia Premier head coach Gene Reynolds, a 2003 ninth-round draft pick by the Rockies, "and he's the best I've seen."

The sight of 40 big league scouts crowding around one of his bullpen sessions wasn't uncommon, but for games, organizations often sent two evaluators apiece—for a total of 60—and there wasn't sufficient seating behind home plate.

"They brought in bleachers for the scouts to be able to watch him behind the plate," said Eddie Phelps, Espino's summer league coach with the GBSA Rays. "It's been almost like rock star status."

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When Espino arrived in Georgia during summer 2016 before the start of his sophomore year, he weighed 156 pounds. He stood about 5'10". He threw in the low 80s. He had never lifted weights. He barely knew what long tossing was.

Reynolds and pitching coach Gary Cates Jr., who played 10 years of minor league ball, employ a modified version of the Alan Jaeger throwing program with daily long toss, extensive resistance band work and a heavy emphasis on stretching. Espino was already limber—"He can stretch almost like a pretzel," Phelps said—but had plenty of frame to fill out.

In a year's time, Espino added more than 30 pounds and 10 mph of velocity. In his first intrasquad batting practice in January 2018, just before his junior season, he jumped to 96, where he remained for the duration of that season before escalating to 100 that summer.

"He gets into his legs really well and takes a lot of the stress off his arm," Reynolds said. "That's what allows him the ability to drive with the power to throw as easily as he does without having to stress too much."

Espino said he embraced the gym workouts, medicine ball routines and towel drills guided by the Georgia Premier coaches. Leg workouts were especially important. His lower-body muscles started showing definition. He said he's now 6'2" and 210 pounds—more than 50 pounds heavier than when he matriculated.

When asked about the thrill of throwing 100 and the prospect of receiving draft riches, Espino demurred and credited the support around him and his faith.

"To be honest, I've been working hard for this. I just want to grow even more and get better every single day," he said. "I know what God has done for me. I knew that when I came I always had in my mind I wanted to be the No. 1 pitcher in the nation. I feel I am. The support I have from my family and friends and my coaches here is a blessing, and I couldn't do it without them and without the Lord's help."

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Espino has the No. 1 fastball in the nation—and the No. 3 breaking ball, according to Baseball America. His mid-80s slider has a sharp bite. His curve has good depth. He occasionally mixes in a changeup. But is he the No. 1 pitcher in the nation?

The MLB draft is notoriously inefficient when it comes to projecting future potential by selection order, especially with the advent of amateur draft pools and the creative ways clubs disperse their assigned dollars. For example, a college senior may be chosen much higher than expected by a team trying to save bonus money to use on a high-upside signability risk later in the draft.

Baseball America listed Espino as high as No. 6 in an early-season mock draft, but most such resources peg him to be picked near the end of the first round. His own camp is confident he'll go higher than those mocks forecast.

What's hurting his stock is arm action deemed too long, command thought to be inconsistent and a physical frame projected to have peaked. Even the league's official draft analysis site, MLB Pipeline, stated Espino is shorter and lighter than his listed height and weight. (He nevertheless ranked 23rd on that list, and Baseball America placed him 26th.) Velocity is the prime currency of 21st-century baseball, yet some predecessors who threw hard early in their careers had trouble sustaining success.

MLB draft expert Jim Callis noted a longstanding bias against right-handed high school pitchers and said Espino's command is inconsistent, as is typical for a young pitcher.

"There isn't much projection, but at the same time, he's a guy you don't need to project on because his stuff's already good," Callis said. "With him, it's going to be the consistency of the quality of his pitches and where he locates them."

Some believe Espino may be better suited as a reliever than a starter, and though that move used to be perceived as a step down, it is now highly valuable in a modern game of openers and bullpenning. Plus a similar transition worked out pretty well for his fellow Panamanian and idol Rivera.

And Espino's having reached the U.S. when he did made him a mainstay on the showcase circuit, so there's no concern about the competition he faced.

Cates and Reynolds both said Espino has identical arm action to when he came to the U.S. and that this is what works best for him. The only notable change he's made is to include his legs more in his delivery. And, even if his delivery is a little unorthodox, plenty of big leaguers with unique aspects to their games have had great careers.

"I don't think everything has to be a cookie-cutter way for somebody to be successful," Cates said.

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Espino only competed for Georgia Premier and never Bulloch, but the assistant head of school at Bulloch, Holly Greeson, and another teacher drove to see their pupil play a game in the fall. His talent was obvious, and Greeson was impressed at how calm Espino was despite the daunting sight of several dozen scouts and radar guns populating the section behind the plate.

After the game, Espino signed autographs and took selfies with all the children who had come to watch him pitch. Then he approached the Bulloch faculty members.

"Even after having all of the attention, he came up to the other teacher and myself and he said, 'Thank you so much for coming to watch me play,'" Greeson said. "To me, that just meant so much. I felt like he was the superstar of the show, but he was so humble and thankful that people had come to see him play."

In school, Espino stood out for the questions he asked. He also took the initiative to be diligent about making sure his coursework set him up for graduation and NCAA eligibility (he signed with LSU).

Espino is traveling to the New York City area a few days before the draft and will sit in the dugout of MLB Network's Studio 42 during the event itself. His whole family will join him, including his parents, brothers and grandmother, eager to watch Daniel realize his dreams.

And what better place for it all to happen than in the shadow of the city where Rivera became an immortal—putting Panama on the baseball map and inspiring a generation of kids like Espino to follow in his footsteps.

Everyone wants to know whether Jerrion Ealy prefers baseball or football. The quick answer is no.

"If God would have blessed me with seven more inches, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Ealy said by phone one evening this spring. "I'd probably be committed to Duke University to play basketball."

Alas, Ealy stands 5'10" tall, not 6'5". He was gifted with speed, strength, athleticism and instinct. But not height.

The NBA was never going to be in his future.

The NFL? That's another story. As a record-setting running back who patterned his game after Saquon Barkley's, Ealy was very much in demand to play big-time college football.

Major League Baseball? That too, because as a five-tool outfielder who has been compared to Mookie Betts and Andrew McCutchen, Ealy is a prospect any team would love to work with. He's fast enough to steal bases, powerful enough to hit home runs and possesses such a strong arm his throws from the outfield have been clocked at 98 mph.

He plays both sports with enthusiasm that matches his ability. He has a competitive nature and sense of team that his coaches in both sports rave about.

In the fall, he's not a baseball player moonlighting on the football field. In the spring, he's not a football star biding his time on the diamond.

He's one of just four players to make the Under Armour All-America team in both sports. One of the other three was Kyler Murray, who was a first-round draft pick by baseball's Oakland A's before he chose football and went first overall to the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL draft this April.

Scouts who saw both players say they see similarities between the two. But they also say they always knew Murray would choose football.

"He was clearly a football-first guy," said David Rawnsley, vice president of player personnel for Perfect Game USA, which hosts prospect tournaments and events and calls itself the world's largest baseball scouting service.

The difference with the 18-year-old Ealy is it's never been clear whether he's football-first or baseball-first. Once basketball was no longer an option, even his coaches couldn't tell you which one he prefers.

"I'd have to ask what time of year it is," said Ricky Black, his football coach at Jackson Prep in Mississippi. "What season?"

So far, Ealy hasn't had to choose. He has been able to do both. Black never complained when Ealy spent his summers playing baseball, missing some early training sessions. Jackson Prep baseball coach Brent Heavener was happy to see Ealy when football ended and was even happy for him to miss some baseball practices to run sprints and relays for the track team.

But when the MLB draft begins June 3, Ealy could be picked as high as the first or second round. A team that drafts him that highly likely would do so with the idea of giving him a big enough signing bonus that he'd give up football.

Ealy has told teams he would consider doing that, even though he has also signed a football letter of intent to attend Ole Miss. But he has also said he would consider playing both football and baseball in college, or playing pro baseball in the summer while playing football for the Rebels in the fall. (The NCAA has long allowed players—Murray and John Elway to name two—to turn pro in one sport while maintaining their amateur status in another.)

"Anything and everything is an option," he said.

And how will he decide what to do? He said he'll follow his heart.

"That's exactly, 100 percent, what I'm going to do," he said. "It doesn't matter how much money you're making if you're not having fun. At the end of the day, it's where I'm going to have the most fun."

He just needs to figure out where that will be.

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The tools are all there, as baseball scouts like to say. He's a good enough outfielder to handle center field, but the arm is strong enough to make him a fit in right field too. He's a legit base stealer, but his bat speed and power make him a home run threat as well. 

Still, he isn't major league ready. Not yet. And there are concerns about how long it will take his batting skills to develop against better pitching, and whether Ealy can remain patient if progress doesn't come quickly.

After all, he'll always have football as an option.

On the football field, Ealy has emerged as a game-changing running back who's so highly regarded that both Clemson and Alabama heavily recruited him. Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban created something of a stir when he showed up on campus at Jackson Prep to see the 5-star talent in January.

At the Jan. 3 Under Armour All-America Game in Orlando, Florida, Ealy ran for 119 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. He broke the game's rushing record by the end of the third quarter, getting there on a 38-yard touchdown run.

"He has unusual balance," said Black, who has coached football for 48 years. "He has a great combination, with speed and the ability to catch anything. He would have been our best receiver or best defensive back.

"He dropped a pass in the state championship game because his visor fogged up. The following Monday, his teammates wanted to run the film back three times, because they'd never seen him drop anything before."

Ealy was heavily recruited by out-of-state powerhouses, but in a February signing-day ceremony, he announced he would stay closer to home. Black tossed him a football covered in gold sequins, and after Ealy caught it and opened it up, he reached in and pulled out an Ole Miss cap.

But will he actually get to Oxford this fall? As excited as Ole Miss and its fans were to land one of the nation's top recruits, they also knew a big baseball contract could keep Ealy from ever wearing a Rebels uniform.

"If Ealy decides football is his passion and decides to put pro baseball on hold for a few years, that could be one of the biggest wins for Ole Miss in recent recruiting history," Nick Suss wrote in the Clarion Ledger in mid-April.

Six days after he officially signed with Ole Miss, Ealy began his senior baseball season at Jackson Prep. He would go on to bat .373 with six home runs and 22 stolen bases, but scouts said the competition in Mississippi was weak this year, and they expected more.

"His stock has dropped a little," said one National League scout who has followed Ealy's career closely. "He's a tremendous athlete, but my assessment is football comes easier to him than baseball. In the first game this year, he struck out to start an inning and then when his team batted around, he struck out again. That stuck with me."

While one published mock draft (Draftsite.com) had Ealy going sixth overall to the San Diego Padres, draft analysts at MLB.com and Baseball America have dropped him out of the first round. Baseball America has him as the 45th-best prospect available, down from 32nd earlier in the year. MLB.com has him 77th.

The issue, one scout said, is that many teams view Ealy as more of a long-term project as he develops his hitting skills. A team that might otherwise risk first-round money on his potential may fear that if things don't go well in the first year or two he could quit baseball and go play college football.

If he's struggling in Clinton or Delmarva, will he decide he'd rather be running around in front of 100,000 fans in Tuscaloosa or Baton Rouge?

"It's a longer journey [for him in baseball]," the scout said. "If he said he's not playing football and is devoting 100 percent of his time to baseball, you could get a dynamic player."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=104o8lynEEU

While Ealy has indicated to scouts he's open to signing with them and dropping football, the risk may be too great for some teams.

Even if he doesn't go in the first few rounds, though, Ealy will almost certainly get drafted and be given a chance to sign. A team could take him in the middle or lower rounds and then offer him the chance to play pro baseball in the summer and college football in the fall.

Or maybe one scout and one team will believe so much in the talent that they'll take the chance and give Ealy enough money to commit full time to baseball now. Even with his less-than-dominant senior season, it's not that hard to convince yourself he's worth it.

"I've been scouting 30-plus years, and one thing I've learned is you don't find these special athletes very often," said Perfect Game's Rawnsley. "He's one of the very few who qualifies as a special athlete.

"Mike Trout in high school was not this kind of athlete. [Ealy's] athleticism is absurd."

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There's more to Ealy than just absurd athleticism, more reason for anyone who loves baseball to hope he eventually finds his future on the diamond.

"His character and work ethic are just off the charts," said Chris McRaney, who coached Ealy the last three summers at Team Georgia Baseball Academy. "It's a LeBron James-type personality.

"Everybody loves him. Everybody wants to be around him. I talked to a scouting director who said he has the best charisma in the draft. He's just different. Truly a special young man."

Ealy lived with McRaney's family while playing for Team Georgia, and coach and player grew close enough that McRaney considers Ealy to be almost like a son. But others who have spent time around Ealy tell similar stories.

"I've never met a guy as humble with all the national attention he has received," said Brent Heavener, Ealy's high school baseball coach at Jackson Prep. "It's always, 'How can I help my team? What can I do to help win a state championship?'"

He has helped. Jackson Prep won the Mississippi state championship in football in each of his four seasons. The school won its third straight baseball state championship this month.

But there are individual goals, too.

"He won't be happy just being a first-round draft pick," McRaney said. "His goal is to be an All-Star, one of the best players in the game. I've said this to scouting directors, and I've said it to others. If he signs and decides to play baseball, I would say in five years he's going to be in the All-Star Game.

"This is not a normal young man. I would almost be surprised if he doesn't do it."

As humble as he can be, Ealy didn't back down when told what McRaney said.

"No doubt," he said. "I'm not out there to be an average Joe. I don't like being average in anything I do. I'm a competitor."

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Ealy remembers being seven years old and running down the hallway toward his parents' bedroom. His father would toss him a football.

"And I had to catch it," he said.

Football came from his father. Baseball came from the other side of the family, from his uncle, Arthur Gardner. For years, Gardner worked for the Major League Scouting Bureau, covering Mississippi and Louisiana.

"Growing up, he taught me pretty much everything I know about the game," Ealy said. "He's the one who introduced me to baseball."

Ealy enjoyed it, but he never committed to the game. He would only pick up a bat when baseball season was coming around. McRaney said when Ealy first came to Team Georgia at age 15, baseball was little more than a hobby.

"He had played since he was nine or 10, but it was still a hobby to him," McRaney said.

It's much more than that now. As he spent more time on the game, Ealy felt himself getting better and getting more comfortable.

"I would definitely love to be in a major league locker room," he said.

He's well aware that baseball players have longer careers than football players, and his high school teammates made sure he knew about all the big-money contracts signed this spring. While Trout, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado all inked deals that guaranteed them $300 million or more, no NFL player has ever received more guaranteed money than the $107 million in Russell Wilson's contract with the Seattle Seahawks.

But baseball players almost always spend time in the minor leagues, riding buses and playing before small crowds in small towns. Football players serve their apprenticeship while playing in front of huge crowds on Saturday afternoons.

There was a time when an athlete like Ealy could consider having it all. Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders and Brian Jordan all played in the major leagues and in the NFL.

That's the one possibility Ealy seems to rule out—not because he wouldn't enjoy it but simply because he believes that path won't be open to him.

"Teams want your undivided attention," he said.

He'll have to choose, either this summer after the draft or in a few years when college is done. But as his teammates like to remind him, it's better to have two good options rather than none.

"The joke around the locker room is you've got good problems to have," Heavener said.

One way or the other, he'll have a chance to do something he loves, and he won't let the tough decision get him down.

"I hate bad energy," he said.

With his talent, either way, it's all going to be good.

             

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.