0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Scouting grades: Fastball: 70 | Slider: 55 | Control: 40 | Overall: 45All summer long, Sime Jr. showed off what scouts like about him, namely his arm strength, and what concerns there are, namely his command. The New York City native who attends Poly Prep announced his presence with authority at events like East Coast Pro Showcase and PG National but often struggled with finding the strike zone. At the Area Code Games, he walked the bases loaded, then struck out the side, which looked like he was turning a corner. That trend continued when he largely filled up the zone and struck out two at Major League Baseball’s High School All-American Game and he showcased similar stuff, and a little better feel, this spring, including at USA Baseball’s National High School Invitational.A participant in MLB Develops programs like the Breakthrough Series and Dream Series, Sime has been lighting up radar guns for some time. He averaged over 95 mph with his heater throughout the summer and is routinely up to 98-99 mph, touching triple digits at times, and he’s been reaching those elite-level velocities this spring. The pitch has serious life to it, and he can sink it, with one scout calling him a “pure rock thrower.” The pitch can be so devastating that he hasn’t always needed anything else, but he’s worked hard on his breaking ball. He has feel to spin a 78-81 mph hard slider, landed a good one in the zone in the All-American Game and seemed more comfortable with it during his senior season. The biggest thing holding Sime back is his ability to consistently land his power arsenal in the zone. It was better at the end of the summer and for much of the spring, and it’s clear he understands he needs to improve that and the consistency of his secondary stuff to move up boards. Likened to a better-conditioned Armando Benitez, Sime is committed to Louisiana State should the Draft not work out.
Nice debut: 2.1 IP | 1 H | 1 R | 1 ER | 1 BB | 6 SO
Sime Jr., taken with the 111th overall pick in the draft out of Brooklyn’s Poly Prep Country Day School, lit up the pre-draft scene with multiple record-setting appearances in the MLB Draft League and the national travel baseball circuit. He consistently reached triple-digits with his fastball and was one of the most polarizing arms in the entire class.The lack of polish with his secondary offerings and overall “pitchability” caused most scouts to view him as more of a project, but his 70-grade fastball alone makes his potential sky high. Washington was enamored enough with his arsenal to hand him a hefty $2 million signing bonus to secure his services, and they are banking on their ability to mold the teenager into an impact arm down the line....Facing the Augusta GreenJackets, the Atlanta Braves’ Single-A affiliate, he began his pro career with 2.1 innings of 1-run ball, striking out 6 batters, walking just 1, and giving up a single hit. The metrics looked the part as well, sitting around 100 MPH with his fastball and showcasing some early action with his offspeed pitches, including getting 2025 1st-round pick Tate Southisene to chase on a breaking ball out of the zone.
https://www.federalbaseball.com/washington-nationals-prospects/89943/washington-nationals-prospect-miguel-sime-jr-electrifying-single-a-debut
Nusbaum reports that the Nats have taught Sime a slider, which helps his chance of remaining a starter. He now has the 2nd highest K ratio in minor league baseball.
Miguel Sime Jr. (RHP)Current level (age): Class-A Fredericksburg (18)The Athletic’s rank: UnrankedWhat he’s doing: Throwing a slider.What it means: There is a potential starter inside that arm.After Sime’s first outing on the amateur circuit last spring, Nationals scout Arnold Brathwaite called the rest of his draft group. He thought he found something. Sime came into his draft year known almost entirely for his arm strength and good makeup.In that first start? He was throwing better strikes. The breaking pitches were sharper. He looked like an upper-echelon talent in person, and their data backed it up. He had everything, but a true slider.He has that now, as well as the second-highest strikeout rate in affiliated baseball (minimum 10 innings).The development of that slider, from that high of an arm slot, has changed his whole trajectory. It keeps hitters honest and acts as a “bridge pitch” that has velocity between his fastball and curve. While there is still relief risk — there always is when a player sits triple-digits — those three pitches, plus a splitter, make it easier to see a future in the rotation. The Jarlin Susana comparison is probably a bit lazy, but squint a bit and you’ll see it.If Sime keeps this up, there is a legitimate chance that he could be in High-A Wilmington shortly after he turns 19 on May 8. By then, he may have nothing left to prove against this class of hitters.
Sime, an LSU commit from New York City who signed for $2 million, looks like a mirrored image of José Alvarado. He’s built like Alvarado at a monstrous 6-foot-4, he has a long, overhand arm swing similar to Alvarado’s, and Sime (pronounced siMAY) brings triple-digit heat and a devastating slider to the party. Sime touched 102 in Washington’s Spring Breakout game and will sit 95-99 throughout his starts. His fastball might play down against better hitters because it rides downhill and Sime struggles to command it. He isn’t the most graceful, athletic mover, and his delivery requires a ton of effort for him to throw this hard.Every cubic inch of his 250-plus pound frame is squarely in the “relief likelihood” prospect bucket (he’s walking a batter per inning as of publication), but Sime is about as exciting and nasty as a teenage version of that prospect can be. He was working with a slower, low-80s curveball in high school and has now added a gyro-style slider to his mix, and that pitch has been utterly devastating during the start of 2026, more than his fastball. He worked with a splitter in high school, but that pitch has largely been absent in the early portion of Sime’s pro career. His arm angle appears a bit higher now than in his amateur days, which might impact what kind of offspeed pitch he eventually settles on. This is a high-upside relief prospect who is way down in A-ball. There are outcomes where Sime is a dominant reliever and ends up toward the back of a future Top 100 list once he’s closer to the big leagues. In the meantime, he’s worth developing as a starter if only to give him plentiful reps with his secondary pitches. Hopefully that will help him harness his stuff so he isn’t walk prone in a way that hinders his impact
6’4” 235 lb. Without a clue where the balls going. That’s terrifying.
Sime, 19, started the year in Low A, where almost two-thirds of the batters he faced either walked (21 percent) or struck out (45.4 percent), so the Nationals promoted him presumably so he’d be more challenged by better hitters. Bowling Green’s lineup is loaded and did test him, as Sime allowed five hits, matching his season high, and walked two in 3 2/3 innings.His four-seamer ranged from 95 to 101, mostly sitting 96 to 98. He showed three off-speed pitches, with none of them better than average. Sime has a changeup that he throws hard, so the arm speed is good, although its movement is just fair. His vaunted slider was below average, and he had no feel for it, faring better with his low-80s curveball, which has the power of a slider or slurve but curveball shape and appears to break downward very late.Overall, however, his biggest issue is throwing strikes, and I think a lot of that is the delivery and the whole style of pitching. This is all power, all the time, like you typically see in a reliever. He comes from a high three-quarters slot, and his arm is always fighting to catch up to his front side, with his front shoulder still tilted skyward when his front foot is planted, so he’s coming back uphill and then trying to get the ball back down into the zone.Before the Nationals took him in the fourth round last year, paying him an over-slot bonus of $2 million, I believed he was going to end up in the bullpen because of the delivery, the lack of athleticism and the reliance on velocity. What I saw Friday doesn’t change that evaluation.
