Stephen Pryor, RHP

Stephen Pryor is a big, strong right-hander that rushes his fastball to the plate in the mid-90s, touching 99 mph. But it lacks movement and an flatten out when he loses form in his delivery. He's 6-foot-4, so he should be able to stay on top of the pitch, creating some downward plane to help keep the pitch from being battered all over the yard.

When he left high school he had a curve ball in the 81-84 mph range, but he's since developed that into a slider that clocks in at 83-86 mph when it's at its best, but can get short on break when he throws it too hard. His command is spotty at best, but he's shown stretches late this spring where he's repeated the release point, held his delivery together for full innings and pounded the strike zone, which is what he'll have to do in pro ball.

Pryor uses his lower half well, driving into the pitch much like that of Joel Zumaya of the Detroit Tigers.

TOOLS -- NOW/FUTURE
Fastball -- 65/80
Slider -- 40/55
Control/Command -- 40/50

Analysis
Taking a pure reliever in round five is ideal, even if he's a bit of a project, since his ceiling is as high a non-closer's can get and closing certainly isn't out of the question, as we have seen power arms find enough command of their stuff to save a lot of games in the big leagues, such as Bobby Jenks and David Aardsma. At 235 pounds, Pryor profiles as a durable, multi-inning bullpen arm in the mold of an Eric Gagne or Jonathan Broxton. The one question comes with signability, as Pryor could conceivably go back to school, have a great year and find his way into the top three rounds, but there are many reasons to believe he's not about to do that. One, the M's probably don't take him in the top 200 if they don't feel they can sign him. Two, next year's draft class is much deeper and three, there's no reason to think he's going to flip a switch and become the best pure reliever in the class to assure a spot in the top 100.

Pryor could reach the big leagues within two years, but much of that relies on the control, not so much the command within the strike zone, and the breaking ball becoming more than a show-me pitch.

-- Jason A. Churchill