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Florida State LHP Jamie Arnold (Photo courtesy of Florida State Athletics)
With under a month left in the regular season, there is more than enough of a sample size to examine a handful of 2025-eligible prospects who have improved their respective draft statuses. In addition to a new No. 1 arm in the class, I’ll take a look at a trio of impact bats, as well as another lefthander who is making plenty of noise down south. It is important to remember that while these five players have improved their standing, the 2025 draft cycle has not even begun. A lot can—and will—change over the course of the next 15 months.
Jamie Arnold, LHP, Florida State
Arnold has been one of the best arms in all of college baseball this year. He owns a minuscule 1.32 ERA with 78 strikeouts to just 12 walks across 54.2 innings. He has made mince meat of every opposing lineup he’s faced to this point, but most notably held Clemson to one run on three hits across seven innings.
The 6-foot-1 lefthander has seen both his stuff and velocity tick up since last year. He deploys a three-pitch mix that includes a fastball, slider and a changeup. There isn’t a whole lot of effort in Arnold’s delivery and he attacks from a low three-quarter, borderline sidearm slot with present arm speed. His fastball sits in the 92-95 range, but has regularly touched 96 and 97. It explodes out of his hand and features run and ride through the zone, and is at its best when elevated on the arm side. Opposing hitters are hitting just .190 against it, and so far it has an impressive miss rate of 34%.
He supplements his thunderous heater with a long, sweeping low-to-mid-80s slider that has some teeth to it. It is a particularly uncomfortable look for lefthanded hitters given that it will start almost behind their back and end up in the other batter’s box, but Arnold also deploys the pitch against righthanded hitters. He has an advanced feel for the offering and consistently generates ugly swings and misses. While he’s thrown in just 5% of the time, Arnold is still gaining feel for a mid-80s changeup that at times has flashed late tumbling life with natural fade to the arm side.
There is plenty to like when it comes to Arnold. He’s an above-average strike-thrower from the left side with a chance to have two plus or better pitches when all is said and done. I feel reasonably confident in his ability to start…