Blake Whitney (Front Royal 2016) is one of the more intriguing prospects this college season. The 6-foot-3 senior righthander is pretty well known to outlets because he misses bats at a high rate, but his other stats could use some improvement.
So far in 2018, though, Blake has put it all together. After his dominating start of Longwood on Friday (6 IP, 6 hits, 2 unearned runs, 1 walk, 8 K’s), Blake is 2-0, 0.53 after three starts, with 15 hits, 3 walks, and 21 strikeouts in 17 innings pitched.
Blake had an excellent year in the Valley in 2016; he struck out 55 batters (leading the league) in 48 2/3 innings. (ATVL named him the 13th best starter in the league.) He followed that up with another outstanding summer in 2017 in the New England Collegiate League, where he struck out an incredible 80 batters in 52 innings. He threw 2 1/3 shutout innings at the end of the summer in the Cape Cod League as well.
College Baseball Daily recognizes his potential; the publication named Blake the 96th best player in all of college baseball in their preseason list.
If Blake can keep up anything close to this performance the rest of the year, he will hear his name called in the draft in June…
All Things Valley League 