MLB 2020 Draft Eligible Jimmy Burnette, Illinois:
Here we are taking a deeper look at one of the most projectable left-handed pitchers coming out of the Big Ten in the 2020 MLB Draft class.

Jimmy Burnette is a junior LHP at Illinois who is 6'2 and 195 1bs. Burnette enters this year's MLB Draft as one of the most projectable left-handed pitchers in the Big Ten conference. Burnette was projected to be the 14th best prospect coming out of the Big Ten in the MLB Draft by Perfect Game and was projected the 20th best prospect coming out of the Big Ten by D1Baseball to be picked in the MLB Draft.

In Burnette's first two years at University of Illinois, he didn't get a ton of innings as he was still working on becoming a pitcher only at the collegiate level after being a two-way standout at St. Laurence high school. In his first two years pitching for the Fighting Illini, Burnette got only 8.1 innings of work in on very talented rosters that made it back to an NCAA Regional in 2019.

However, in Burnette's summer collegiate league team the Rockford Rivets in the Northwoods League he was able to gain some much needed time on the mound to develop his craft. In the summer of 2018, Burnette got 44 innings on the mound collecting 41 strikeouts and having an ERA of 4.70. In the summer of 2019, Burnette had an amazing summer being named a Northwoods League All-Star after throwing 34 innings, striking out 43 and posting an ERA of 3.07.

These summer collegiate league experiences helped Burnette into the starting rotation for a really good Illinois team this year. Burnette was 0-2 in two starts with 8 innings under his belt where he had 10 strikeouts. Unfortunately the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Burnette didn't have a chance to build on his successful summer seasons.

Burnette is liked by many MLB scouts due to the fact he is a very projectable left-handed arm with a live arm that works extremely easy and effortless on the mound. Burnette's only knock was that he needed to pitch more as he is pretty new to pitching regularly. With that being said, Burnette has a fastball that ranges from 91-93 mph topping out at 94 mph with some good run and sink. His curveball range is 78-81 mph, his slider range is 83-85 mph both are swing and miss pitches with sharp bite. His change-up range is 83-84 mph. Being left-handed with good movement on all four of his pitches makes him a very interesting MLB Draft prospect.

Article on Jimmy Burnette after being selected to be All-Star in the Northwoods League