How good was Ricky Tiedemann in the Arizona Fall League this year?
Despite making just four starts and his time with Surprise ending early, he still earned Pitcher of the Year honors, as announced by Major League Baseball on Saturday.
Having missed time this year due to a reported biceps issue, the 21-year-old southpaw was a perfect candidate for the AFL to make up for some of that lost time, and did so and then some; he struck out 23 batters over his 18 innings of work, held batters to a .190 batting average against and pitched to just a 1.11 WHIP over his four outings.
Tiedemann was still a work in progress during his days with the New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series days, as he was still fine-tuning his mechanics in his outing at 2019 International Week, where the scouting staff identified him as having a “D1 future, but pro ball if mechanical issues are ironed out.”
Two years later, and it was clear they were.
After not being selected in the abbreviated 2020 MLB Draft and going the JUCO route, Tiedemann was a steal at No. 91 overall for the Toronto Blue Jays a year later, but not before making another FSS appearance, this one a dominant-at-times showing at the Pre-Draft Combine in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Since then, he’s established himself as one of the game’s top pitching prospects, and could make his MLB debut as early as the beginning of next season; there was some speculation last spring that he was a darkhorse to make the Blue Jays even then, and a potential call-up at the end of this past year was essentially squashed due to his injuries.
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