Teach Me About Jarred Cosart

38th round pick by the Phillies back in 2008 and bought out of a scholarship to MIzzou for $550K. Flashed fantastic arm strength in high school, but Phillies needed to revamp his mechanics; that plus some lingering shoulder soreness limited him to just 25 GCL innings last year. Created a serious buzz in Phillies camp this year with the raw stuff he was showing, and was pegged by many insiders as a huge breakout candidate.

He’s still very raw, but reports have him sitting 92-94 with his fastball and touching 97. Has a curve that shows great potential, though the change up needs work. Was a very good two-way player in high school (he was likely to play both ways at Mizzou). As far as ceiling goes… he’s a flamethrowing righthander with top of the rotation potential. But like any 19-year old flamethrower, there are plenty of things that can go wrong, so we’ll have to wait and see.

“I’m not really sure what you’re asking, but if you live near Lakewood, go see them when Jarred Cosart pitches. Apparently he’s added a lot of velocity – I just heard he held 95-96 in a late-March start – and he might be the second-best prospect in that system all of a sudden.”

He’s doesn’t turn 20 until late May, so he’s still got a good deal of development ahead of him. But he’s a different prospect if he’s holding in the mid-90’s, and he could very well be their second-best prospect now. Law said that he could arrive by 2012, which would have him at just 21-years-old. That’d be pretty quickly, and Law isn’t exactly the most optimistic of evaluators.

He really appears to have turned a corner, which is lucky for a Philly farm system that took a huge hit in the Halladay and Lee deals.