A bit about Braden Olthoff
Braden Olthoff was the Angels’ 9th round draft pick in the 2021 draft (ranked 189th in the class by Baseball America), sandwiched between a bunch of college pitchers on both sides. While not a big draft prospect, he was made popular around the Internet as a college pitcher at Tulane from this Jomboy video where he played mind games with his opponents (national championship winning Mississippi State)by pretending to use sticky stuff on his glove. A San Diego County native, Olthoff attended Palomar college out of high school before transferring to Tulane in 2020. His college performance was quite impressive, as he posted a 2.87 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and an incredible 138:14 strikeout to walk ratio across 106.2 innings.
Olthoff’s pitch arsenal consists of a sinker that sits 89–92 with a slider and occasional changeup. His stuff isn’t overpowering by any means (more on this soon), but his feel for location is excellent. He commands the ball well and relentlessly attacks the zone with all three pitches. He attacks up and in on righties with his sinker, generating weak contact with the ball riding in on their hands, and pairs it well with a slider located off the zone outside earning plenty of chases. You can see both pitches below.
I really wish we had public pitch data on Olthoff (BTW if someone has a source for minor league and amateur pitch data in general HMU), I’d love to see what kind of movement his sinker gets. It’s nearly impossible for right-handed batters to square up, and it gets enough vertical drop that it doesn’t break straight into the bats of lefties. Another advantage of this movement is that this pitch can also generate whiffs, especially with his above average control.
This pitch starts over the outside part of the plate and breaks all the way inside, making the batter look absolutely silly swinging for the fences. His delivery also contributes to the deceptiveness of his pitches — he throws from a lower 3/4 arm slot and rotates quite quickly after getting his foot down, allowing his underwhelming velocity to play up.
So what’s the catch? While Olthoff is a really solid pitchability guy, his lack of raw athleticism could hinder his development as a professional pitcher. His bottom half is incredibly rigid during his delivery, preventing him from tapping into his full body strength, likely preventing future improvements in fastball velocity as he rises through the minor league ranks. His current approach of throwing almost everything in the strike zone will become less and less effective the higher the level he’s at, and his ludicrous strikeout and walk numbers will fall down to earth.
I think Olthoff’s most realistic path to the major leagues will involve him continuing to put up results at each minor league level, refining his command, and eventually becoming a control freak up-and-down backend starter or low-leverage reliever. If his progression continues, he may start popping up on organizational prospect lists in a couple years’ time.
