Rich Hill

Hill was the same hot-and-cold pitcher (3-6, 3.50) this year that he was last year (3-5, 3.84), though his approach, stuff and command were consistently better. His fastball continued to hover in the 88-90 mph range, and he developed a harder curve to go with it. His curveball became his primary strikeout pitch--he fanned 98 in 69 innings, compared with 72 in 61 innings a year ago. He also cut his walks considerably. Hill went in the seventh round a year ago to the Angels as a draft-eligible sophomore and reportedly turned down $200,000. His improvement this season should bump him up into the top two or three rounds.