Figured we could have a thread here for our newest farm addition, who will be reporting to Billings, seperate of what this deal means for the big league club.
Marinan was taken in the 4th round last year and got twice the slot amount to break his Miami commitment. MLB.com had him at #65 overall last year before the draft, here was their writeup:
http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2017?list=draftEvery Draft class has what's known as "pop-up" guys, players who may not have registered over the summer or even early in the spring, but then take a leap forward performance-wise, sending scouts scurrying to see them and driving them up Draft boards. Marinan was the perfect example of that in Florida as a spike in velocity raised his profile considerably.
Early on, the big right-hander had been throwing in the 87-91 mph range. He first jumped on the radar when he lit up the radar to 92-96 mph, and sat mostly 94-96 in a two-inning relief stint against powerhouse American Heritage. That put him on a must-see list and when more than 50 scouts arrived to see him throw against lefty standout Jake Eder, his stuff was just as good. He currently throws a hybrid breaking ball that gets stuck in between a slider and curveball, but looks more like the latter with some bite when it's on. Marinan will mix in an occasional changeup, but it's far behind the other two pitches. He stays around the strike zone and should have average control and command in the future.
Marinan's size and arm strength -- he'll show a 70-grade fastball at times -- kept scouts pouring in as the Draft approached. His ability to put together multiple strong outings has moved him into top-three-round consideration.