Georgia Tech Gets Huge Boost To Its Pitching Staff As Cooper Underwood Officially Signs With The Program

Here is the scouting report on Underwood courtesy of mlb.com:

Scouting grades: Fastball: 50 | Curveball: 60 | Slider: 55 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 50 | Overall: 45

"Underwood rarely touched 90 mph with his fastball last summer and looked like a projectable high school left-hander who would need to develop in college before he was ready for pro ball. Now that he has begun to add strength and velocity as a senior, he could get drafted high enough to divert him from a commitment to Georgia Tech. He possesses some of the best feel for spin in this year's prep class.

Underwood has averaged 90 mph with his fastball this spring and topped out at 93 with carry and armside run, and he still has room to add plenty more muscle to his 6-foot-2 frame. There's some debate as to which of his high-spin breaking balls is better, with his upper-70s downer curveball a tick more reliable than his tighter and slightly harder slider. His 82-85 mph changeup features promising fade but is a bit firm.

Underwood uses his athleticism to repeat his efficient delivery well. He shows aptitude for throwing strikes and mixing four pitches, all of which he trusts. If he continues to get stronger and better, he might become a No. 3 or 4 starter one day."

How will Georgia Tech approach roster building with Ramsey now in charge? He addressed that topic head-on in his introductory presser earlier this summer:

"Where do we go in the future? So just to be clear, our roster is going to have a high school focus. We're going to use the portal as a supplement when needed. We've done a fantastic job of bringing players in that have had successful careers or not a lot of success. We've used technology and our scouting acumen to say we think this player could become a great player here. One of the most important things to know as the last two years, we've led Power 4 Baseball in the most amount of freshmen played. So recruits are seeing that, they're continuing to buy in, and we will continue to see more impactful commitments come our way in the coming days. Culture is important to us. And having a stable culture of players that come here, that buy into a vision, that stay here to see it through, and that realize they have unfinished business left, it takes time. Baseball is all about chemistry, and if we want to go where we want to go, we need to make sure that we are continuing to place players want to buy into. Coaching staff gets them better, and they know that we have their backs.

I think it's become something that, you know, once again that teams are able to look at players and project them better, the physicality is better than it has before. I think in our league, which, you know, I didn't speak on the ACC as much as I wanted to earlier having heard from Commissioner Phillips, and just knowing that this league has been made up of a lot of great coaches and great players that, you know, night in and night out in the MLB you can watch, I think that appeals to people, but nobody wants to sit the bench. And I think all these kids that come in, I think they're continuing to see track records of teams across our league or teams across the country is if you don't play freshman, you don't have a chance to really build it from within and I think if you look at the championship rosters that are about to compete for one, the hit rate on bringing in all new players is not very high and it's embedded in this place's DNA as well. We have to get people that want to be here and want to stay here. I think that's the only way that we can build it at Georgia Tech and compete with the top programs."

Will Underwood play next season? That is still up for debate, but he is another talented arm that the Yellow Jackets can put on the mound as they try to make it to Omaha next summer.

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