RHP Cole Wilcox, Georgia
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DoB: 7/14/1999.
2020 Stats: 3-0, 1.57 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 32/2 K/BB in 23 IP
Wilcox was a top prospect coming out of high school just outside Chattanooga, and he could have gone in the middle of the first round if he was signable. It turned out that he wasn't, and he ended up heading to Georgia. His freshman 2019 season with the Bulldogs was up and down, as he put up a 4.07 ERA and a 64/38 strikeout to walk ratio over 59.2 innings, and his brief Cape Cod League stint wasn't any more consistent. In his first start, he struck out six over four shutout innings, but in his second and final start he allowed six runs while walking four over four innings. However, his sophomore 2020 season has been excellent, as he has walked just two batters while striking out 32 over 23 innings with a 1.57 ERA, and his best start of the season came against a strong Georgia Tech lineup when he struck out eleven over seven shutout innings. Unfortunately, the stoppage in play never gave him a chance to build on that.
Wilcox is a physical beast, listed at 6'5" and 232 pounds, and he looks every bit of it. His fastball comes in with consistent mid 90's heat and great movement, and he can run it up to 98 or higher when he needs to. He also has a slider in the mid 80's that fluctuates between average and plus, often showing serious late bite but occasionally shortening up a bit. At its worst, its velocity still makes it a tough pitch to square up. Lastly, he throws a very good changeup with similar mid 80's velocity and nice sinking action down in the zone, giving him three potential plus pitches. Coming from that big 6'5" frame, it's not easy squaring up against him.
The biggest question mark scouts have with Wilcox is the command. It's been shaky for most of his high school and college career, but after walking two batters in five innings in his season-opening start against Richmond, he has gone three starts spanning 18 innings without issuing a single free pass. That's certainly progress, though two of those three starts were against weak competition in Santa Clara and UMass, and scouts would have liked to have seen him maintain that progress against a tougher SEC schedule. His mechanics can waver a bit, as he struggles to keep his long arms and legs in sync at times, but he was doing a good job of repeating his delivery in 2020. So overall, put a question mark next to his command. Either way, the hope is that pro pitching can help him get more consistent with those mechanics, and in turn, his command. It does help that as a draft-eligible sophomore, he won't turn 21 until July, making him younger than most other 2020 college draftees.
Wilcox could realistically go just about anywhere in the first round outside the top ten to twelve picks. If scouts buy into the progress he made at the beginning of the season, that puts him right in the middle of the round and could push him into the low teens, but if teams opt for track record after a shortened season, he fits more towards the back of the round. He has a high ceiling as an impact starter and potential ace, but he comes with considerable risk as someone who has not consistently shown they can throw strikes. He also might be a tougher sign given how the play stoppage hurts his stock combined with the fact that if he returns to school next year, he'll still have two years of eligibility left.
2020 footage of Wilcox making hitters look really, really foolish
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