Baseball America has released its top 100 draft prospects for 2019 and there are three Razorbacks on it. They are:
Jackson Rutledge, the former Arkansas pitcher who now is at San Jacinto College in Texas, is No. 97 on the list. Rutledge recently committed to Kentucky’s 2019 signing class, but there is no guarantee he will play there. All JUCO players are eligible for the draft.
How quickly I forget; isn’t Rutledge the tall kid with lots of velocity, very little control, and a bad attitude?
I don’t know about the attitude part, but he was the pitcher who transferred at the end of the regular season, before the SEC Tournament. He had a lot of command issues during an April homestand against Texas Tech and Alabama, and never pitched again.
When he first arrived, to start fall he was everywhere with his fast ball. But he could locate his breaker. Then, in the spring, he lost command of the breaker, too. He was one frustrated pitcher. He has the kind of frame that will get him a long look in pro ball. But in college, you must throw strikes to keep getting sent to the mound.
I thought there were some inferences that he and DVH had differing opinions on how frequently and in what roles he was being used, and they “agreed to disagree”, so he moved on. Or am I mixing him up with someone else? The guy I’m thinking about left before the season was over, as I recall.