The CBB continues our countdown for the 2010 College Baseball season by checking in on the Top 100 Players in the country. We will be providing one player per day until we reach number 1.
We continue the list today with number 15 in our countdown with junior RHP Kevin Jacob from Georgia Tech. He is a 6’6 228 pound right hander from Baltimore Maryland where he attended Parkville High School. As a senior in high school, he went 9-2 with a 0.45 ERA while holding opponents to a .112 batting average. He was honored as a first-team all-metro by the Baltimore Sun and an All-American by Louisville Slugger. In 2006, Baseball America rated him the fourth best player in the state.
Kevin decided to continue his career with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets of the ACC. He appeared in 20 games in relief as a freshmen without recording a decision as he accumulated an ERA of 4.50 in 30 innings of work. He struggled with his control as he walked 17 batters while hitting two batters and tossing eight wild pitches. Jacob’s sophomore season saw him go 5-3 with a 4.69 ERA in 22 appearances (7 starts). He ended up striking out 54 batters in his 55.2 innings of work while holding batters to a .270 average. He continued to struggle with his control as he walked 29 batters, tossing 12 wild pitches, and hitting two batters. He spent the summer of 2009 in the Alaskan Baseball League with the Anchorage Bucs. He had an unbelievable summer which saw him go 2-1 including 12 saves with a 0.34 ERA. He ended up striking out 45 batters while cutting down on his walks as he only allowed four on the summer. The most impressive stat was that he only allowed nine base hits in his 26.2 innings of work. Baseball America named him the best prospect in the Alaskan League.
If Kevin can find his control like he did this past summer with the Anchorage Bucs, then he will be able to bring his dominance to the backend of the Georgia Tech bullpen and bring up his draft stock. He already has a 97 MPH fastball and needs some work on his breaking stuff but as I always say you can’t teach talent. We have included a video of his pitching from the Georgia Tech scout day at the bottom of this article.
You can check out the rest of our Top 100 by clicking here.
