In the baseball's version of Christmas, the Astros just added 6'7" 250 pound Forrest Whitley from San Antonio Texas. Oh, and he's coming out of high school. I pinged subber10 at the Crawfish Boxes for his reaction and here's what he has to say:
"Big strong body. As he fills out his fram and gets stronger his low 90s will get more consistent and into the mid90s. Good mechanics especially considering his size."
He loves the pick.
During his profile video after the selection it was mentioned that he models his pitching style after Jose Fernandez.
I will be scoring the interwebs for links. Refresh regularly and feel free to drop any links you can find in the comment section below.
2016 MLB Draft Profile: Forrest Whitley, RHP, Alamo Heights HS (TX) by leistomania409 - Crawfish Boxes
Forrest Whitley's Twitter account
Forrest Whitley is pitching in the state semi-finals the same night as the draft - Alamo Heights' Whitley remains calm in busy time by David Hinojosa - San Antonio Express-News
He's already got a Wikipedia page
2016 MLB Draft: Forrest Whitley, RHP, San Antonio, Texas by John Sickels - Minor League Ball
Forrest Whitley Tosses a No-Hitter Against McCallum by Travis Recek - Time Warner Cable News Austin
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Baseball America Forrest Whitley archive
Facebook (I'm starting to feel like a stalker)
Jim Callis analysis over at MLB.com:
"In four years of high school, Whitley went from a sub-6-footer with a
mid-70s fastball to 6-foot-7 and throwing in the mid 90s. He did a great
job of improving his conditioning heading into his senior season and it
paid off with improved stuff, including a power curveball and a
promising changeup to go with that heat."
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
