Tennessee Volunteers Pitcher Chase Hollander could be the best pitcher draft prospect since Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg, both of whom were selected with the no. 1 overall pick of their respective drafts.
Tennessee Volunteers pitcher Chase Dollander is entering the 2023 season with sky high expectations.
Dollander is the projected no. 2 overall pick on MLB Pipeline's latest mock draft, put together by Jonathan Mayo. Mayo dubbed Dollander 'the best arm in the class.'
"Last year, there wasn’t a college pitcher who belonged in conversations up here, but Dollander, considered by some to be the best college pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg and Gerrit Cole, could end up going 1-1," Mayo wrote.
As a high school senior, Dollander went unselected in the five-round 2020 Major League Baseball Draft, and chose to attend Georgia Southern University. Dollander logged a 4-3 record with a 4.04 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 49 innings in 2021. He then transferred to Tennessee for his sophomore year in 2022, in which he excelled. Dollander went 10-0 with a 2.39 ERA and 108 strikeouts in 79 innings. He was named the SEC Pitcher of the Year.
Strasburg and Cole were a pair of can't-miss prospects, each of whom have found great success in the big leagues. Both were dominant at the college level, and each was selected with the no. 1 overall pick of their respective drafts.
Strasburg's 1.32 ERA in his junior season at San Diego State made him the no. 1 overall pick of the 2009 MLB Draft, by the Washington Nationals.
The Pirates made Cole the no. 1 overall pick, out of UCLA, in the 2011 MLB Draft.
If Hollander really is a Cole or Strasburg-type prospect, he could be the no. 1 overall pick come July.
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