Twins Take South Jersey's Chase Petty in First Round
You’ve probably heard about Chase Petty. He’s the South Jersey kid that flashed an upper-90s fastball for Mainland High School this past spring.
The 2021 Gatorade New Jersey High School Player of the Year was also the NJ.com Pitcher of the Year and Courier-Post Player of the Year. He flew out to Denver this weekend for the 2021 MLB Draft where he was taken with the 26th overall pick by the Minnesota Twins.
Petty became the third South Jersey kid drafted in the first round, joining Millville’s Mike Trout (2009) and Bishop Eustace’s Billy Rowell (2006). Barnegat’s Jay Groome was taken 12th overall by the Red Sox in 2016, but the school falls beyond the SJ classification.
Here’s Petty with Mainland head coach Billy Kern and assistant coach Mike Edwards before the draft. Pretty cool moment for these guys.
Almost time. Could not be more proud of you!! @ChasePetty11 pic.twitter.com/UTSnirHCsC
— Mainland Baseball (@MRHS_Baseball) July 11, 2021
Want a brief scouting report? He’s pretty damn good. I can tell you from experience.
Drafted as a pitcher, Petty can also swing it. He would’ve been a high-level D-I recruit as a position player.
With his team trailing 7-4 and two away in the sixth inning of a South Jersey Group 3 playoff game, Petty slashed a game-tying three-run homer out to left through a tough wind. An inning later, with the go-ahead run on third base, he made a difficult play ranging to his left at second base to keep the game tied. His team would walk it off in the bottom of the inning to advance.
The coach of the losing team? That would be…me.
Yeah, we pitched to him, and he made it happen in a key spot. That’s what stud athletes do.
I had a couple writer-types I know — and some fans watching the live stream — give me a hard time for challenging him in that spot, but first base wasn’t open and the kid behind him was a stud, too, so I can live with the result.
We didn’t see him on the mound, but that’s where the Twins expect Petty to emerge as a front-of-the-rotation arm. During his senior season, Petty struck out 99 batters in 48 2/3 innings. He allowed just 17 hits and posted a 1.15 ERA.
Eight pitchers ranked among our Top 200 prospects had 70-grade fastballs.
New @Twins RHP Chase Petty was one of them.
Big time stuff.
Scouting report: https://t.co/Kh26PVz49m pic.twitter.com/pDx25QKuWD
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) July 12, 2021
Sounds like he has a pretty solid Monday lined up.
Chase Petty talks to Mike Trout “quite a bit” and has dinner plans with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado tomorrow.
You cannot possibly flex harder on draft night.pic.twitter.com/6lPtSq60GW
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) July 12, 2021
Good luck to him. It’s an amazing accomplishment.