Sam Bachman, RHP Miami University (Ohio)
Draft Eligible: 2021
Year: Junior
DOB/Age: 9/30/1999 (21)
H/T: R/R
HT: 6-1
WT: 235
Video Courtesy of Burke Granger 2080 Baseball
Physical Description: Average height, but strong physical, maxed out body. Overall fitness is high, thicker build in the middle, which will require maintenance but his physicality is muscle meets country strength.
Mechanics: Semi-windup; short fast arm action, high ¾ slot; drop and drive delivery. Up-tempo motion with a high leg kick, gets way downhill quickly. Low release that plays up his fastball. Struggles to repeat his release point consistently, and high effort motion saps energy quickly.
Fastball: 95-98 mph; touching 100+ mph at peak, heavy cut, landing a high number of pitches glove side. Struggles to land armside with consistency; will miss high arm side and shows little feel for the upper quadrants. Will show sink and run, despite heavy glove side location. Bowling ball that drives a high amount of groundball contact (80% groundball rate in 2021). Difficult to barrel, will generate swings and misses, and foul balls hitters are late on. Not a put-away pitch or a strike stealer, but improved command and the ability to land high and arm side might get it to double plus territory. GRADE: 60
Slider: 86-88 mph, up to 91 mph with tight break that shows a variety of shapes; mostly hard breaking sweep with late drop. Not a tremendous amount of vertical drop, but it’s thrown hard and he dares hitters to barrel it in the zone. Strong control of the pitch landing it for a strike nearly 80% of the time. 22% swinging strike rate while being thrown nearly as frequently as his fastball. In fact, it’s used more than his fastball versus right-handed hitters. Bachman’s go-to out pitch that dominates in right on right matchups. Infrequently used versus left-handed hitters, leaving some question as to whether it’s a viable pitch in any matchup. GRADE: 60
Changeup: 85-88 mph, used exclusively to left-handed hitters. Lacks feel for the pitch leading to inconsistent shape and location. Will flash an above-average version one out of five times, but it’s too infrequent to matter. Below average with projection to be fringe-average or better. Part of his arsenal but lacks the stuff of his fastball + slider combination. GRADE: 40
Control and Command: Average control and fringe-average command. Shows the ability to throw his fastball and slider for strikes. Fastball command is behind the slider, as he struggles to land armside with any consistency. Slider command is above-average pushing plus, showing the ability to manipulate break and land it where he wants to for a strike. Changeup has poor command and lacks the control needed to steal strikes on the outer half of the plate to lefties. CONTROL: 50 COMMAND: 45
Overall: Bachman has the type of stuff that will always be difficult to fully command, but an improvement in fastball command and changeup feel will boost his chances of starting. Has the floor of a high leverage pen arm with the ability to fill that role as soon as this fall. Has the fastball + slider combination to get right-handed big leaguers out. With the lack of a true third pitch, Bachman will have to rely too heavily on his fastball versus left-handed batters. This is my first question mark around Bachman’s future as a starter. The second is his high effort, up-tempo motion that seems to wear on him and make him susceptible to potential future injury. He already missed time in 2021 and has thrown more than 75 pitches in just one start this season. There’s a high level of relief risk here, but the potential to start is not zero. Fortunately, the stuff is so good that it could play in a major league pen in short order. Not too dissimilar a profile from Chicago White Sox 2020 first-rounder Garrett Crochet. Outside of the obvious differences in handedness and pitch shape.
OFP: 50
Role: 50 - #4 Starter - High Leverage Reliever
Risk: High
Round Grade: Early to Mid First Round