The Diamondbacks spent the 88th overall pick on Robby Rowland.
Follow the jump for his pre-draft report.
Robby Rowland Position: RHP School: Cloverdale HS State: CA Height: 6’6’’ Weight: 205
Birth Date: 12/15/91 Seiler Rating: 1C1 Commitment: Oregon
Robby Rowland is a projectable right-handed pitcher from Cloverdale High School in Cloverdale, California, a small Northern California town about 80 miles northwest of San Francisco. Rowland is the son of former Major League catcher Rich Rowland, and Robby is likely to be the third Rowland to ever get drafted from Cloverdale, following his father and brother Richie, also a catcher. Robby, on the other hand, is a pitcher with a good amount of projectability in a tall, attractive frame, and he’s incredibly raw, having been a basketball player for most of his life instead of concentrating on baseball. However, instead of accepting two-sport scholarships for school, he’s decided to concentrate on baseball, where he projects to be a solid number three starter if things come together for him. His current fastball is nothing special, sitting 88-90, touching 92, but it projects to gain a few miles an hour, becoming a plus pitch in the process. He can stand to gain as many as thirty pounds in muscle in his frame, which is lean from his basketball days. His offspeed stuff is currently similar to his fastball in that it isn’t overly exciting, but he throws four offspeed pitches, one or two too many for such a raw prospect. His best offspeed pitch is an above-average splitter, and the next pitch in line is a solid-average curveball. Throw in an average changeup and a fringe-average slider, and you have a thoroughly confused high school catcher. There’s so much based on projection here that it’s hard to predict much of anything for him, but there’s enough to like that he could go in the second or third round to a team that loves his projection. His Oregon scholarship might cost over slot money to buy out.