Vanderbilt Has the Most Underrated Arm in the Country
By Baron Dionis
The Vanderbilt Commodores have had many pitchers selected in the Major League Draft as of recent years. This year they have another pitcher that has great stats, but is not getting the recognition he deserves.
Devin Futrell is a junior left-handed pitcher who has been in the Commodores starting rotation since his freshman year. He has been a consistent starting pitcher in each of his two seasons with Vanderbilt.
In his freshman season, Futrell posted an earned run average of 3.41 in 63.1 innings pitched with 64 strikeouts. His earned run average was good enough to be eighth in the whole Southeastern Conference as a freshman. He also had a 1.04 WHIP and a 66 strike percentage.
In his sophomore season, Futrell posted an earned run average of 3.44 in 83.2 innings pitched with 72 strikeouts. This year, his earned run average would jump to third in the entire Southeastern Conference. He also had a 1.09 WHIP and a 64 strike percentage. After the season, Futrell was named to the All-SEC Second Team.
With numbers like these, how can a pitcher like Futrell be considered underrated? MLB Pipelines Top 100 Draft Prospects did not include Devin Futrell, despite his very effective numbers in the Southeastern Conference.
Futrell has recieved a little recognition as he was ranked the 259th best prospect for this years Major League Draft on Future Stars Series Top 300 Prospects. Futrell has a career earned run average of 3.43 and a career WHIP of 1.07, which makes a ranking like this seem extremely inaccurate.
His style of pitching may be the reasoning to his low ranking. Futrell is described as a pitch to contact kind of pitcher. He does not have elite strikeout stuff, but he effectively produces outs.
Futrell has a solid pitch arsenal to work with. His fastball is low to mid 90s with very good command. He has a good changeup to work with and a slurve type of breaking ball.
I think Devin Futrell is one of the best pitchers in the Southeastern Conference. He has had consistently good numbers in each of his two seasons with the Commodores. If Futrell has another good season, he may jump the rankings, but for now, he is one of the most underrated pitchers in all college baseball.