Jeff Manship - Notre Dame, Junior
Righthanded pitcher

6'1", 195
1/16/86

2.65 ERA 9-1 88.1 IP 69 H 19 BB 102 K .212 BAA

One of the things teams will look long and hard at when evaluating Notre Dame righthander Jeff Manship will surely be his medical records. Manship went through a complete reconstructive elbow surgery (good ole Tommy John surgery) in February of 2004, but has since come back strong enough to become the legitimate draft prospect he is today. On top of lingering medical concerns over his rebuilt right elbow, Manship has had to battle hard throughout his career to overcome the stigma that comes with being a short righthanded pitcher. These are two major strikes against him in the minds of many big league scouting directors – it is not uncommon for some teams to totally disregard any righthander under 6’2”/6’3” (the Phillies recent draft philosophy seems to support this claim). Manship may be short, but he knows how to pitch. He throws three pitches for strikes including a fastball that sits in the low 90s, a developing change, and the most impressive pitch in his arsenal, a plus plus curve. Watching where Manship goes in the draft will be very interesting – again, I go back to mentioning the short righthander prejudice of scouts (not to mention his injury past) to highlight the battle between projectibility versus past results. Manship may not have all that room to grow as a thrower, but he knows how to pitch (102 K/19 BB plus only 69 H in 88.1 IP is pretty good proof of this). He has gotten stronger as the season has progressed and as more and more time passes between his injury two years ago; look for Manship to go anywhere between rounds 2-4 come June…and for the team drafting him to be very happy with the results.