Scouting grades 20–80
60Fastball
65Slider
50Curveball
55Changeup
45Control
A highly touted recruit out of high school, Peterson has some of the better stuff out of any college arm in the class. Peterson is strongly built at 6 foot 5 220 pounds, with long levers and a whippy arm on the mound, working downhill with a bully mentality towards hitters. There is a good bit of effort to his delivery, and a big head whack can cause his control to be fringy at times. Still, Peterson has had his flashes that suggest he could eventually grow into average command.
Peterson will work in the mid 90's with his fastball, and he'll get up to 99 with riding life and carry. There is a ton of vertical life to the offering, and he commands it decently well. His best secondary is a high spin slider sitting in the mid to high 80's with depth and occasional two plane shape. It pairs well of his fastball, and he'll throw it against both righties and lefties. Peterson will also flash a curveball, a big bender that hitters will swing on top of, but there's not a ton of feel for that pitch yet and he won't throw it as much. Peterson will round out his arsenal with a high 80's changeup that dosen't have dynamic shape, but he posseses great feel to throw the pitch on the outer half of the plate to lefties.
With a strong season, there's SP1 type potential for a guy with Peterson's frame, stuff, and starter profile and there's definitely more jumps he could make as an arm between now and the draft. Performance will have to match, but it's hard to find a guy with some of the traits here.
