This is a follow-up article to my original feature article on Alex Speas that I did earlier in the year. You can read that article here.
Alex Speas has only pitched for the last four years. But, as a senior right-handed pitcher from Georgia, Speas has a bright future ahead.
A 6-foot-4, 190-pound right-hander, Speas owns a fastball that sits in the mid-90s with life, along with a power slider and changeup.
While Speas is still figuring out his control, his potential and extremely high ceiling make him an intriguing option in the 2016 MLB First-Year Player Draft, which begins on June 9.
Speas will likely be a top 50-selection and has spent the weeks leading up to the draft working out with numerous teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers, he said.
With the pre-draft workouts occurring around the same time, Speas hasn’t thrown at any of them. Instead, he’s spent the time meeting with teams, allowing them to get to know him, he said.
Despite the draft being less than a week away, Speas is unsure if he will go straight into professional baseball or honor his commitment and further his education and baseball career at the University of Auburn.
“It’s really just a waiting game,” Speas said. “If it doesn’t look like it is my time to go then at that time I will go off to school and develop with Coach (Butch) Thompson. But, if I feel like this is what I need and this is what I want, then I’m going to go ahead and play professionally.”
While, Speas has sat down with his parents to discuss his future, he made it clear that he’ll be the one deciding if he begins his dream of playing professional baseball this year.
“They have really left it up to me,” Speas said of his parents. “My parents were first big on me possibly not being ready for it [pro ball]. But, as we sit down and talk about it and they hear what I have to say about professional baseball and what I want to do with my career, they have just left it up to me.”
Find more MLB Draft coverage here.
Over the last few months I’ve interviewed 31 of the top MLB Draft prospects. Read my profiles on these draft prospects here.
