Prospect Profile No. 23: Caleb Cotham, RHP

Caleb Cotham was born and raised in Tennessee, and then attended the prestigious Vanderbilt University after graduating high school. Cotham pitched for two full seasons before being selected by the Yankees in the fifth round of the 2009 Rule 4 Draft. The instant he was drafted, Cotham was a signability case. He had a year left of NCAA eligibility, and his stock was not too high because of injury concerns and an inconsistent junior year season. However, he did manage to strike out over a batter per inning in the SEC, a very tough baseball conference.

After undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, Cotham went to the Cape Cod League to continue garnering experience against wood bats. In 2008, he had success in the Cape as he struck out 51 batters in 46 innings. Even though he had just had surgery, pitching in the Cape Cod League allowed the Yankees to continue scouting him while deciding how much they were willing to offer him; luckily for the Yankees and Cotham, he impressed.

He only pitched fourteen innings, but he didn't allow a single run, struck out fifteen batters, and walked only one. This was the Cotham the Yankees were hoping to see, and the one other teams would have drafted if they didn't fear his knee injury and signability.

The Yankees signed the young right hander for a well-above slot bonus of $675,000 right before the deadline. It would have been nice to see Cotham get some more professional experience, but he just pitched eight innings in 2009 between the Gulf Coast League and Staten Island. In those eight innings, he did manage to strike out 13 batters, a nice start for him.

From a scouting perspective, the reports on Cotham have a lot to like. He's 6'3" and weighs 215 pounds, which allows him to throw a heavy power fastball that gets a lot of ground balls. Reports on his velocity vary, but I'm under the impression he sits 90-93 and tops out around 95. He's able to locate the pitch well, and it does a good job setting up his putaway pitch: the slider. His slider can come in as fast as 85 and has some serious bite when he throws it well. It profiles as a strikeout pitch for him as he moves along.

Caleb Cotham also throws a curve and a change, but these two pitches lack the depth and are much further behind than his fastball and slider. The biggest thing for Cotham heading into 2010 is experience. He really hasn't pitched that much, but whenever he has, he's been very effective. It's likely he'll start the season in Tampa, which should be a good first test for him. If Cotham excels in Tampa, he'll be on the fast-track to the big leagues.