Class: Junior
Hometown: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Height/Weight: 6-2/174
Born: June 5, 1991
Heaney’s name is familiar in draft circles–the Rays drafted him in the 24th-round back in 2009–but just in the past few weeks he has come on like a freight train, and now it wouldn’t surprise anyone if he heard his name called on day-one of the draft.
Heaney has garnered very little attention, but that has more to do with how bad the Oklahoma State baseball program has been, and less with how bad he’s been. In fact, he’s been very good, leading the Cowboys in victories in each of the past two seasons. This year he’s been better than ever.
With a 5-1 record, a sub-2.00 ERA and 69 strikeouts (3rd in NCAA), Heaney has established himself as a bonafide ace, and a rival to Texas A&M’s Michael Wacha as the conference’s best pitcher. Furthermore, he’s boosted his draft stock, making scouts and crititcs forget about the fact that he’s only 6-foot-2 and 174 pounds, which is actually quite the improvement from the 6-foot-1 and 150 pounds he was as a high-school senior.
His most recent start, against Baylor, was by far his worst of the season. He needed 95 pitches to get through 5.1 innings, in which he gave up eight hits and four runs. The two previous games saw Heaney pitch back-to-back complete-game shutouts, the first OSU pitcher to accomplish such a feat in more than a decade.
Heaney’s stellar performance this season comes on the heels of an eye-opening campaign in the Cape Cod League last summer, where he struck out 46 batters in 45 innings.
Heaney has a decent fastball, and while his velocity isn’t much to get excited about, the fact that he controls it so flawlessly is. He’s also seen improvement in his two off-speed pitches this year, a changeup and a slider.
It’s unlikely that Heaney will work his way into the top half of the first-round, but he could easily find a spot in the last ten or so picks, if not in the supplemental first-round.
Fastball: 88-94 mph
Changeup: 79-84 mph
Slider: 83-87 mph
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Andrew Heaney is consistantly coming up in MLB draft polls around #18. That said, I project him alot higher, easily in the top 10 if specific MLB Scouts are smart!! This future star in the majors reminds me exactly of Jamie Moyer. He only pitched 20 years in MLB and Heaney has very simlilar traits…
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