The Colorado Rockies went to the prep ranks with their first-round pick, selecting Kansas high school right-handed pitcher Riley Pint with the fourth overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft.
2016 MLB Draft: Rockies select RHP Riley Pint with No. 4 overall pick
David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
Pint comes with the allure of triple digits on the radar gun, averaging in the high-90s with his fastball and regularly hitting 100 mph, up to 102. He is also a good athlete, an all-state basketball player as a junior at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, Kan. But in his senior season Pint focused on baseball.
“To stay away from injury, the best thing for him with where he’s at was to not play basketball this season,” Pint’s high school baseball coach Lorne Parks told USA Today in May.
He was rated as the second-overall prospect in the draft back in May by Baseball America. Both BA and Keith Law of ESPN compared Pint's repertoire to that of Detroit Tigers All-Star and former No. 1 overall pick Justin Verlander, with Law going as far to say of Pint, "It's as good an arm as I've ever seen on a teenager, with velocity you can't teach, but I'm also unsure what you can do here to get him to throw more and better strikes or to develop at least an average slider."
The 6’5, 195-pound right-hander is committed to play college baseball at LSU, but could be lured to turn professional with a lucrative bonus. The fourth overall pick has a slot value of $5,258,700.
Pint has mastered the non-answer answer for the past two years when asked whether he might go to college or turn pro out of high school.
“I’m just going to let the process play out and see what happens,” Pint said to the New Orleans Times-Picayune in January 2015. “It’s my dream to play in the College World Series for LSU, but it’s also my dream to play pro baseball. Whichever direction it takes me is where I’ll go.”
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