Jackson Jobe is the consensus top pitcher in the 2021 high school draft class. He’s rated as the top pitcher of the high school crop by Baseball America, ESPN, Fangraphs, and MLB Pipeline.
Jackson Jobe Scouting Report
Height: 6′ 2″ | Weight: 180
Bats: Right | Throws: Right | Position: RHP
Highest Ranking: 8th (Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, ESPN)
Somewhat of a fast riser, Jackson Jobe has exploded into the first round in the last year. As a junior he was viewed as a quality prospect as both a pitcher and a shortstop, but what he’s been able to do on the mound this year has erased all doubts as to where his future lies in professional baseball.
This spring the right-handed starter out of Heritage Hall High School in Oklahoma City has been sitting 93-95 and touching a little bit higher with high spin rates. But there are some scouts out there who rate that as his worst pitch. His slider is already flashing itself as a plus-plus offering in the low 80’s and has shown spin rates over 3,000. Unlike most high school pitchers, Jobe also has a change up and not only does he have it, it’s a plus offering that works in the low 80’s with some fading action. At times he will also mix in an average to slightly above-average curveball.
The only two things that you can really look at with Jackson Jobe and have some questions with are the facts that he is a high school pitcher, which always creates more risk for many reasons (the competition level, lower baseline of innings and thus a longer timeline to reach the big leagues), and that he’s a little newer to being a full time pitching prospect compared to some of the other high-end high school pitchers in the class.
You can read all of the 2021 MLB Draft Scouting Reports here.
Jackson Jobe Video
Basic Information
For this draft scouting report series we are going to look at prospects rated 6th through 50th in a cumulative ranking based on the Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, ESPN, and Fangraphs draft rankings. The guys in the top five seem to have no chance of dropping to Cincinnati at 17, so we’re skipping them to focus a little more on guys with more of a shot to be Reds. The national rankings are updated throughout the month leading up to the draft, so there could be some slight changes from when the cumulative list was compiled and when you read this.
The 2021 Major League Baseball Draft will begin on July 11th and end on July 13th, taking part over a three day period of time. The Cincinnati Reds will have selections 17, 30, 35, and 53 in the first two rounds of the draft. Despite not selecting in the top five, or even the top 10, the Reds have the 4th largest bonus pool allotment to work with due to their compensation pick from losing Trevor Bauer in free agency, as well as a competitive balance round A pick (35th) that adds a lot of additional pool money.