Zeke Spruill: Scouting Profile on Prospect Reportedly Dealt for Justin Upton

On Thursday morning, reports came in that Justin Upton had been traded from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Atlanta Braves. The deal includes a handful of other players, including pitcher Zeke Spruill.

He is the news from the MLB Twitter account:

"

Source tells @mlbbowman: @braves get Justin Upton, Chris Johnson from @dbacks for Martin Prado, Randall Delgado, Nick Ahmed, Zeke Spruill.

— MLB (@MLB) January 24, 2013"

Minor league infielder Brandon Drury was also included in the deal, according to the MLB on Twitter:

"

Minor League INF Brandon Drury also part of package @braves sending to @dbacks for Justin Upton, confirms @mlbbowman.

— MLB (@MLB) January 24, 2013"

So, who is Zeke Spruill? In five years, will we look back on this deal as a win for the Diamondbacks because they landed him?

By most accounts, Spruill looks like a fourth or fifth pitcher in a starting rotation in the big leagues. Mark Anderson of Baseball Prospect Nation has the following insights on his potential:

"

Spruill continued to gain consistency in 2012 and he looks like a solid number four starter at the big league level. His sinking fastball that generates plenty of ground balls will sit at 92-93 mph and touch 95. He trusts his heater and attacks hitters with it early in at-bats. His breaking ball shows as an above-average pitch and his change-up is certainly useable. He could use some polishing at Triple-A in 2013 but his big-league debut may not be far off.

"

In 2012, Spruill went 9-11 in 161.2 innings with a 3.67 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and 106 strikeouts for the Mississippi Braves in Double-A ball. He went 2-2 in 22.1 innings with a 3.63 ERA and 13 strikeouts for the Devil Dogs in the Arizona Fall League as well.

Spruill isn't a flashy prospect. He won't blow batters away with overwhelming stuff or accumulate a ton of strikeouts, but he is a consistent and steady pitcher that gets the job done more often than not. 

Baseball America ranked him as the Atlanta Braves No. 9 prospect after the 2012 season.

Yes, some folks will regard this trade as a major win for the Braves since they didn't give up either of their top two pitching prospects, JR Graham or Julio Teheran. But Spruill is a very nice prospect, even if he doesn't have the name recognition of the top two guys.

I would expect him to make a run at the Diamondbacks staff in 2014.