Detroit Tigers draft board: 4 sneaky good pitching prospects in the draft class

Detroit Tigers need to consider former EMU pitcher Zach Fruit.

The Detroit Tigers have to consider grabbing Zach Fruit late in the draft. He's since transferred to Troy, where he has been working as a part of their pitching staff with impressive stuff. Similar to Beard, he's got bat-missing stuff, which is the attractive part of his profile.

A former Lansing JuCo product turned Eastern Michigan arm, who has landed in Troy. He's a graduate student eligibility-wise, but who's to say the Tigers cannot grab him late on day three and fall in love with projectable stuff?

Fruit is a 6-foot-4, 203-pound right-handed pitcher with arm talent to work the upper-90s, getting up to 99 mph on his fastball from a high over-the-top arm slot. The breaking ball has improved, showing sweeper qualities and becoming a pitch that will miss barrels.

The fastball and breaking ball are the two big pieces of the puzzle here, both being plus offerings at the pro level. The arsenal spans four pitches with a high-70s breaking ball and changeup in the low- to mid-80s as well, but the selling point is the fastball & slider.

The most significant part of what makes Fruit so valuable is the projection as a bat-missing reliever at the next level. Fruit's fastball has a ton of ride, and out of that high slot he works from, it can be a real problem for the opposing hitters. He can make for a tough at-bat.

The stats are not jumping off the paper, with a 6.59 ERA over 11 appearances (six starts), but the punchout numbers are high, with 60 of them over 41 innings of work. The control could be refined, but in shorter stints as a reliever, I like his odds to be beneficial at the next level.

Given Fruit's age and projection as a reliever with good stuff, the Tigers could look to grab him near the backend of the draft and save some money. It would allow some slot money to be allotted elsewhere or enable them to find some value in their draft class, selecting Fruit late on day three.

Again, he's not some groundbreaking future prospect or the next great Tigers ace, but he's a day-three talent who has a shot to play well in a big-league bullpen.