Detroit Tigers Flamethrower Surges in Prospect Rankings During Debut Season
The Detroit Tigers took a high-ceiling, low floor pitcher in the 2023 MLB draft and it already looks to be working out in their favor.
Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report looked around the league for some breakout stars of the farm system and found Jaden Hamm for the Tigers.
Hamm was taken in the fifth-round of the 2023 draft after three seasons with the Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders.
While with the Blue Raiders, he showed some major 'boom-or-bust' potential. He had a poor freshman campaign with a solid sophomore season before falling back behind during his senior year.
Overall, he had a 4.56 ERA over 41 appearances. He walked a lot of batters and had struggled with home runs at times, but still showed enough promise to get drafted.
What he did show in college was growth into a potential starting pitcher and constantly increasing strikeout numbers.
"His 92-95 mph fastball averaged 20.3 inches of induced vertical break during his Florida State League spin last year. He can wear out the top of the zone with the heater and then bury an 78-82 mph curveball that drops off the table and gets some funny swing," says his scouting report. "His mid-80s changeup has been a point of improvement in 2024, and he’s been working on adding a slider to provide another dynamic in his repertoire."
The 21-year-old has excelled in his first season in the minors. He's quickly risen to the High-A level where he was a 2.45 ERA with 11.4 K/9 and a 1.055 WHIP.
His pitch count has been solid this season, peaking at 90. Knock on wood, but he hasn't really had a disastrous start yet. The Western Michigan Whitecaps can usually rely on him to get at least four innings and sometimes stretching out to five and some change.
It's no surprise that the hype is building around him as he's made it look relatively easy so far.
After starting the year unranked, he's worked his way to the No. 18 spot in the Detroit farm system. He's still just the seventh-ranked Tigers right-handed pitcher in the pipeline thanks to the influx of talent at the position that they have.
It wouldn't be surprising to see one or two of those players moved as they try to capitalize with a playoff run over the next couple of seasons before Tarik Skubal leaves town.
No matter what happens to some of their prospects, Hamm has started to make himself look extremely valuable.
