Nathan Lavender, Second Scrapper Drafted of the Day

Jordan Boitnott

Day 3 is starting to become a big day for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers at the MLB Amateur Draft. In round 14 with pick 412 the New York Mets selected Scrappers pitcher Nathan Lavender.

With the Scrappers Lavender posted a 7.65 ERA over 20 innings of work. He made six appearances, five of them were starts. Lavender is known as a strikeout pitcher, he sat down 31 batters on strikes and only allowed opponents to bat .237 against him.

Lavender features a three pitch arsenal. He throws a fastball, slider and changeup. What makes him such an intriguing player is the amount of movement on his pitches. His fastball comes in at 90-92 MPH, sometimes hitting 94 with 16.721 inches of vertical break and -9.278 inches of horizontal movement (

Prep Baseball Report). His slider also features a lot of movement, at 81-84 MPH it moves -4.759 inches vertically and 12.161 inches horizontally. Lastly, his changeup might be most impressive, moving 13.709 inches vertically and -13.121 inches horizontally at 82-84 MPH

In college, at the University of Illinois he posted a 4.10 ERA over the last two seasons (

FightingIllini). Lavender has thrown 85.2 innings, struck out 116 and held opponents to a .237 batting average. He was also the college teammate of fellow Scrapper Andrew Hoffman who was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 12th round earlier today.

Coming out of high school at El Paso Gridley in Illinois he was all-state in 2017 and was the 11th ranked prospect coming out of Illinois by Prep Baseball Report.

Going into his junior year he will face the same decision as his teammate Andrew Hoffman, sign with the club who drafted him or return to Illinois for another season.