2020 Draft Profile: Ty Floyd

RHP Ty Floyd, Rockmart HS [GA]
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DoB: 8/28/2001.  Commitment: Louisiana State.

Georgia tends to be a hotbed for prep talent, though 2020 has been a bit different with only Decatur's Jordan Walker generating any real first round buzz. The best high school arm in the state is Rockmart's Ty Floyd, coming from just beyond the northwest reaches of the Atlanta suburbs. What Floyd lacks in polish, he makes up for in upside, and the LSU recruit has as wide a gap between his present ability and potential ability as anyone in this class – somewhat similar to lefty Ricky Tiedemann.

Floyd is a 6'2" righty with a fastball that typically sits in the low 90's, showing nice running action on the pitch that makes it hard to square up. That fastball comes from an extremely loose right arm that scouts can dream on, but the rest of his game is fringy. He throws a curve with good shape down in the zone, but it lacks power at this point and he doesn't locate it consistently. There's a changeup in there as well, but like the curve, it needs work. Floyd throws his fair share of strikes, though as has been the theme throughout this paragraph, he needs to refine his command in the zone.

So what makes Floyd a special arm? It's the looseness and athleticism that comes with it. He's very raw mechanically, just kind of flinging the ball towards the plate, but his arm works so well that it bails out his mediocre mechanics and helps him hit 95 with movement regardless. Teams that are confident in their pitching development pipelines look at that right arm and dream on what they could do with it. "If he's hitting 95 with these mechanics, what could he look like when we smooth him out?" On the slight down side, his August birthday makes him just a bit old for the class.

LSU already steered potential second round pick Dylan Crews away from the draft, and if they can do the same with Floyd, he could develop into a first round pick in 2023. Some teams undoubtedly would like to jump on him in the second or third round this year, before that happens, but they'd be doing so while taking on a lot of risk and a complete project. That limits his market a bit, while sharpening the interest in what remains of that market.

Pitching in 2020
Pitching over the summer