Position: RHP
Age: 18?
Height: 6-3
Weight: 190
B/T: R/R
Acquired: 29th Round of 2011 Draft
From: Rock Falls, IL
Jake Junis's presence on this list is thanks to two things. First, he was a Royals bonus baby, signing for $675K despite being selected in the 29th Round of last summer's first year player draft. Second, Junis's name surfaced several time during instructs with glowing reviews.
I admit that even with these two factors I'm hesitant to include a player that I know so little about, especially when I consider that there were 28 other players that the Royals picked before the two way Illinois kid. Thanks to some quality work by Clint Scoles at Pinetarpress.com I was able to learn that Baseball America considered Junis a top 10 round pick entering the draft. In fact according to this the Twins even planned on drafting him in the second round before eventually balking at Junis's asking price.
The primary reason for Junis's predraft standing was a low 90s fastball, coupled with a curve that showed "flashes" as a plus pitch. However, in a separate scouting report I found that Junis's velocity was in the mid 80s and he displayed a decent slider at times.
According to that same scouting report, Junis was an excellend hitter in high school with a strong glove in the middle infield. Junis also was a basketball star at his high school, so there isn't any doubt that he is an athletic individual. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do in the system, I expect him to be assigned to short season Burlington this summer.
I played against Jake in highschool. He is by far the best player I have ever played against. More needs to be said about his bat...... he is an excellant hitter with power. As he fills out his body, he should be able to easily transition his power to wooden bats. As for him as a pitcher, I batted against him once. Effortless 80mph.
ReplyDeleteDo you believe he would be a better prospect as a hitter?
ReplyDeleteI played against him as well and while he was a good hitter we "shut" him down as he went 1 for 3 against us and his hit was a blooper off the end of the bat...but then again we played a plethora of D-1 and pro prospects that year and the year after in the QC area... Dan Robinson (sterling, Murray state) Michael hermosillo (Ottawa, Illinois) Dan Cutkomp (Illinois state) Cody Sedlock (Illinois) and finally the trio f Galesburg kids in Tyler Farrell (western Illinois) Nick Milligan (western Illinois) and royals 2012 5th rounder Chad Johnson who as I know from experience and can hit any pitch in any location...it's dumb but Hermosillo, Farrell, and Johnson were or are better talents in my personal opinion. Junis really didn't stand amongst the guys that we went up against all the time
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