Kyle Zimmer to Royals: Video Highlights, Scouting Report and Analysis

Position: RHP

Height/Weight: 6’4”/220 lbs

Bats/Throws: R/R

DOB: 9/13/1991

College: San Francisco

Year: JR

A former position player who’s only been pitching for a few years, Zimmer is already highly advanced with a relatively fresh arm. In the past year, the right-hander has gone from a virtually unknown college arm to a player who has received consideration as the No. 1 overall draft pick.

However, he put himself on every organization’s radar with a eye-opening performance in NCAA Regional play against UCLA’s Gerrit Cole. San Francisco won the game 3-0 as Zimmer fired a four-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts and zero walks, retiring 26 of the 28 batters he faced.

His fastball has been as high as 98 mph this spring, though he typically works in the 93-96 mph range. Zimmer has a whippy arm with clean mechanics and significant core strength.

His curveball has late, sharp break and is viewed by some as the best breaking ball in the draft. As he gains more of a feel for it (and pitching in general), it should become a legitimate plus offering.

His changeup lags behind his breaking ball, but considering how quickly he’s put everything together on the mound, there’s no reason to doubt the pitch will be anything less than above-average.

Because his arm is still so fresh, I doubt he reaches the major leagues as fast as Kyle Gausman, Mark Appel or Michael Wacha. At the same time, he won’t be eased along either. His stuff will always be excellent; once he develops a firmer grasp on pitching, he'll start moving through the system quickly.

Pick Analysis:

The Royals add a big, strong RHP in USF's Zimmer. While he not be as polished as a guy like Appel (who was still on the board), he has electric stuff and with the right grooming, should be a staff anchor at the MLB level in 4-5 years.