LATEST PG SHOWCASE REPORT
2003 National Showcase
We’ve seen Graham before and the first thing that impressed us was that it looked like he’d worked hard to bring his big body under control and get in better baseball shape. He listed himself on the program at 6-6, 245 lb. but he looked to be significantly lighter than both that weight and what we’ve seen him in the past. No mistake, Graham is still a big boy, but it was a good first impression in Lincoln.
The other thing that we liked was Graham’s sinker and his ability to throw consistent strikes with it. He has a big hip and shoulder rotation in his delivery and comes around the ball from a mid ¾’s release point, getting very effective sinking and boring action on his fastball. Graham probably throws about 75% sinkers in the 84-87 mph range and throws a very, very high percentage of those for strikes. His approach says “here’s my pitch, let’s see if you can lift it out of the infield”. Graham allowed a number of ground ball base hits during his three innings but also got just as many ground balls that were fielded. Graham’s second best pitch is his 78-80 mph change up, which utilizes the same arm action, release point and spin as his sinker. It’s an effective pitch that he could probably use more often. Graham’s breaking ball is a 71-73 mph curve, but realistically it’s very difficult to get good spin on the ball from his arm action and release point. He’ll be searching for an effective third pitch to get hitters to move their eyes and bat head the other direction from his other two offerings. Connor is on the way up, it will be interesting to see him right up until the draft. He could be a big sleeper for the draft or he might be one of those who really blossoms at the college level. He's a good student.