The Blue Jays look for young, athletic, tall pitchers who have a good fastball when scouting for the draft.
And 17-year-old right-hander Phillip Bickford, who is listed at 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, fits the prototype.
He was available for the Blue Jays who picked 10th overall in the first round and they took him, confident that they can sign him even though he has a letter of intent to attend Cal. State Fullerton, a school with a good baseball reputation.
Bickford finished his season 12-1 with a 1.72 ERA, allowing 44 hits while striking out 159 in 99 1/3 innings.
“He has outstanding fastball command,” Blue Jays director of amateur scouting Brian Parker said. “He’s got a big arm. We’ve seen him up to 97 this spring, (he) sits at 93, 94. One of the things we like and one of the things we work on in this organization is fastball effectiveness, fastball command and the ability to throw strikes and get people out with his fastball.
“We feel he had one of the best fastballs, college or high school, in the draft. We’ve seen a good changeup from this kid. We think his secondary stuff is developing, we think the changeup is the better pitch right now.”
Bickford led his high school club to its first Southern Section Division 4 Championship, where struck out 18 in the final, including 11 consecutive.
He has shown mound composure, which works in his favor.
“No. 1 he’s a competitor,” Parker said. “He’s all about baseball.”
Parker said the Blue Jays had been following him since last summer.
“We had lined up our board and when it came to the 10th pick, he was the top guy,” Parker said. “We thought that he would be there.”