Sunday thoughts: Bubba's prospect rise was inevitable

This was always the Bubba Chandler we expected, one of the best pitching prospects in baseball

Photo Credit: Ryan Palencer

The thing I love about this ‘job’ the most is watching these prospects develop into well-rounded professional ball players.

It’s like laying all the puzzle pieces out on the dinner table and then looking at the box to see what the finished product should be.

You see all the pieces: an athletic frame, plus-plus fastball, everything you need to be a legitimate frontend pitcher. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.

In 2021, I saw Jared Jones throw his first professional pitch, a 99-mph fastball. The video is on my YouTube channel for anyone to see and saved on one of four hard drives containing baseball videos I’ve taken over the years.

I saw Jones go from a flamethrowing teenager in 2021, who struck out over 100 batters in Low-A at 19, to a major league starter this past year. Endy Rodriguez was a key player on the 2021 Bradenton team that won the division. The following year, he climbed three levels and became a Top-100 prospect.

While he has yet to start his major league journey, Bubba Chandler has pieced together his picture over the last couple of years into a budding star and one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball.

Baseball America and MLB Pipeline both dropped their initial Top 100 list for the upcoming season, and Chandler was among the top 15 prospects in all of baseball on each.

He was ranked seventh, the third-best pitcher in Baseball America, and 15th in Pipeline.

When he made his Bradenton debut, the arm talent was apparent from the get-go, but it was obvious that it was going to be more of a process than some of the others in his draft class.

He struck out four batters in 2.2 innings that day (July 15, 2022) but allowed four earned runs on four hits and three walks.

A little over a month ago, Chandler tossed five no-hit innings, striking out five, walking two, and making an insane diving catch off the mound to keep his no-no intact.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that let you know that someone is going to be special. It may be a little hyperbole to pick a highlight reel play like that to make that case, but it’s also a testament to his competitive drive.

The fact that Chandler was so athletically gifted that he was a highly touted baseball and football player actually seemed to ‘hold’ him back from what he was always seemed destined to do: pitch.

After getting an opportunity to hit and pitch in 2022, Chandler focused solely on pitching. That insane athletic and natural talent that allowed him to be a highly touted baseball player and a four-star quarterback who was supposed to head to Clemson zeroed in on the mound. After an adjustment period, he’s taken off and hasn’t looked back.

Chandler has improved his walk rate in his three full pro seasons, which has allowed his stuff to take off now that it sits in the zone more often.

That allowed him to go from being an incredibly talented but raw thrower in Bradenton in 2022 to dominating hitters at the Triple-A level two years later.

Chandler posted a 1.83 ERA in seven starts with 54 strikeouts in 39.1 innings pitched. In two of those seven games, he posted double-digit strikeouts.

You wouldn’t have blamed Chandler if it took him a little longer to get where he was at, but the star was always going to shine bright until he reached the top of the prospect ladder.

His next step is the majors, where he is already one of the early favorites for the NL Rookie of the Year award.

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