Scouting grades 20–80
45Fastball
50Slider
45Curveball
60Changeup
50Control
Knaak has been one of the better known arms in the class dating back to his freshman year, consistently performing at the ACC level and showing off an exciting blend of pitchability and stuff. He'll be one of the higher floor arms in this class.
Knaak is a strongly built 6 foot tall right hander who gets down the mound fairly well. He'll drop into his back leg before getting to a short, over the top arm slot. Knaak's mechanics can get stiff and robotic at times, but he's done a great job at repeating them up to this point, not really having much trouble with filling up the zone.
Knaak's fastball will sit in the low 90's, touching 96 at it's peak. The pitch will flash some life up in the zone, though it's missed bats at just an average rate. Knaak's best pitch his by far his changeup, which has a chance to be the best of such in the entire college class. It sits in the upper 70's, falling of the table and running arm side, extremely effective at the bottom of the zone. Knaak has shown a ton of confidence in the pitch dating back to his freshman year, and it has a strong track record of missing bats and performing against high level hitters. Knaak will also flash two breaking balls, a low 80's curveball, and a mid 80's sweeper, which both have flashed just average up to this point.
As a guy who throws plenty of strikes and projects as a starter moving forward, Knaak will be one of the higher floor option for teams to target. He'll fit perfecty in the back of a rotation. Some question how much upside there really his here, but Knaak is a very, very solid arm.
