David Hill, RHP, Colorado Rockies

Once a fairly high-level prospect for the Colorado Rockies, David Hill missed nearly two full seasons dealing with thoracic outlet syndrome in his throwing arm. Back healthy now, I observed his second start since 2016 on June 9 against Lake Elsinore here … Low three-quarters release with quick arm action in the back and life across repertoire, particularly in hard-sinking fastball with arm-side run. Hides the ball OK; decent extension out front with loose, whippy arm action; generally finishes straight on to the plate … Four-seamer sat 90-92 in my look; paired it with a two-seamer (sinker) at 88-91 which he threw most often, an 83-85 changeup with some split-like life, and a 74-77 curveball (flashed a few infrequent slow hooks at 70-73, too) … Timed 1.50 – 1.59 to the plate with runner on first; holds runners OK and moves well off the mound to field his position … Sinking fastball isn’t super heavy or boring in on RHH, but it gives good late depth to the plate, particularly when it’s down in the zone. Very little margin of error, though; sinker will flatten considerably when left even a few inches up in the zone above the knees, and Hill doesn’t have the height/arm angle for considerable natural downward plane to help sink … Changeup has splitter-like life to it, plenty of tumble with hard drop down in zone, particularly when starting down; don’t know whether it’s a split-change, or a Vulcan, or something like that, but pitch is firm with downward life and some ability to get off barrels. Changeup looked useful particularly against LHH, to get them off balance and miss bats/draw weak roll-over contact. Some fade to it, too, towards arm-side; OK pitch to tunnel with fastball and get hitters off balance with velo differential … Curveball gives a fairly conventional look; decent break with depth in 11-to-5 path, consistent ability to throw it for strikes to each side of the plate; not the most significant hammer out there but could miss its fair share of bats when sequenced well. Hill infrequently flashed a super slow (70-73) curveball, but not much utility with that one; sharper, harder breaking ball looked better and fared better against opponents, particularly RHH … David Hill throws a lot of strikes and works very quickly, pushing the tempo on hitters and never really letting up. He’s a pitch-to-contact guy almost to an extreme with that sinker ideal for ground ball contact and without above-average off-speed stuff to really, consistently miss bats. To that end, command is imperative, and he’ll need to consistently work ahead of hitters to find success as he moves up to higher levels. Now that he’s past injury problems, there could be some value here for the Colorado Rockies, and Hill may one day find himself a back-end rotation arm at ceiling. For me, though, it’s more likely that he’ll settle in as a middle/long reliever who can throw multiple innings in low-leverage situations, and perhaps get a few opportunities to start games as an emergency fill-in/swingman rotation arm as needed. I’d grade him as a 40 FV arm based on this initial look; will update if I see David Hill more this summer.

Below, game video to supplement our Colorado Rockies RHP David Hill scouting report. For a few thousand more prospect videos, click here and subscribe to our YouTube channel.