Prospect Profile: Getting to Know Tyler Schlaffer a Little

In the Theo Epstein era, the Cubs have not been big on picking high school arms. In 2014, they picked four of them in Justin Steele, Dylan Cease, Carson Sands, and Austyn Willis. Only Steele is still with the system while Cease is with the White Sox.

Last summer, the Cubs took two high school arms with their eighth and ninth round picks on day two of the draft. In the eighth round they took lefty DJ Herz and in the ninth round they took Tyler Schlaffer of nearby Homewood-Flossmoor High School.

For Schlaffer, it was a dream come true. Schlaffer grew up a Cubs fan and dreamed of playing in Wrigley Field. Prior to the draft he committed to the University of Illinois at Chicago but the chance to play for his favorite team as a kid was one he could not pass up.

Basic Info
6’1″, 190 lbs.
Throws Right
Age – 18 through May 24
Homewood, Illinois

For Schlaffer, he benefited from playing later in the spring. When he was a sophomore, he tended to throw his fastball in the low to mid 80s. As a junior, that velocity ticked up to 90 to 91. His fastball reached into the mid 90s as a senior. Most games, he could sit 94-95 for a few innings before his velocity began to drop.

When you watch him in the following video, you can see that he has a pretty clean delivery that looks almost effortless. At times, he can fall off to the first base side of the rubber.

IL: @HFHS_BASEBALL leads @tboltbaseball 1-0, T3. @TylerSchlaffer was 91-92 in the second and started mixing in S&M CH at 78-79. K’d two in the frame pic.twitter.com/zBUaqCSEs0

— PBR Illinois (@PBRIllinois) April 5, 2019

What I like in the video that I’ve seen on him it’s just how clean his arm action is. He’s not really a max effort kind of arm and the fact that he still growing and increasing his velocity bodes well for his future development. Here’s some more video of him throwing indoors and you get a good idea of the clean action he has.

In addition to a fastball, He throws a change up and a slider. The changeup seems to have some pretty good action on it in the upper 70s. That’s a pretty good deviation between his fastball and his change. He is still working on the shape of his slider which he threw in the mid to upper 70s in high school. The Cubs might want to tweak his grip on that pitch a bit.

As a senior in high school, Tyler went 7-3 with a 1.81 ERA and struck out 98 in 56.2 innings. After signing, he only saw action in three games in Mesa, all as a reliever. He pitched a total of 5.1 innings and allowed two runs for a 3.38 ERA and struck out five.

Since the Cubs haven’t really taken a lot of high school arms in the past few years, his career path is a little uncertain. If he’s going to be used in a relief role, he could end up at Eugene this summer. If he’s going to be used as a starter, I would not be surprised to see him begin this summer In Mesa.

I’m excited to see what he can do. So, hopefully he gets a crack at Eugene at some point this year to get him ready for full season baseball in 2021.