Marysville Pilchuck alum poised for his MLB chance

If one were to look at Matt Cooper’s scouting report, one would be hard-pressed to find anything that makes him stand out against any other Double-A pitcher. At 6-foot and 190 pounds, he has far from the perceived ideal frame for a hurler. His fastball velocity, which sits in the 88-92 mph range, hardly jumps off the page. He doesn’t even have the novelty of being left-handed.

But then take a gander at his numbers. One number pops off the page and demands notice: his strikeout rate.

The Marysville Pilchuck High School product may not look the part, but he is one of the best strikeout pitchers in the minor leagues, and as a result, a shot at the majors is now within his grasp.

“If you look at my baseball card and scouting report you wouldn’t think that would be someone who strikes out a lot of guys,” Cooper said when reached by cell phone. “There’s nothing glamorous about my height and weight. But none of that matters because it’s all about your ability to throw the ball where you want to throw it. That’s pitching.”

Cooper, who graduated from Marysville Pilchuck in 2010, is in his fourth season of professional baseball after being selected in the 16th round of the 2014 draft out of the University of Hawaii by the Chicago White Sox. This season he’s playing for the Birmingham Barons of the Double-A Southern League, and through seven starts he has solid-if-unspectacular standard statistics with a 1-2 record and 3.82 ERA.

But his strikeouts? In 35 1/3 innings he’s fanned 50 batters. That’s 12.7 strikeouts per nine innings. Among pitchers with enough qualifying innings, Cooper’s strikeout rate ranked sixth among all of Minor League Baseball through Monday.

And that’s par for the course for Cooper’s professional career. With 315 strikeouts in 240 1/3 innings he has a career minor-league strikeout rate of 11.8 per nine innings. It doesn’t matter whether he’s starting (20 career starts) or relieving (78 career relief appearances), when Cooper is on the mound the batters are swinging and missing.

Those strikeout numbers are the type generally reserved for hulking power pitchers, fireballers who hit triple digits on the radar gun like Noah Syndergaard, or guys with explosive breaking pitches like Clayton Kershaw. That’s not Cooper, which begs the following question:

How does he do it?

“It’s all about being able to throw four pitches for strikes,” Cooper explained. “I’m always moving the ball up and down, in and out, changing speeds. I’m able to drop a 1-1 curve or a first-pitch curve for a strike. All of that is important for getting people out. I try to keep it simple, get ahead of guys, and when I do that it makes it a lot easier.”

Being able to throw four pitches for strikes wasn’t always the case for Cooper. Indeed, it took a while before Cooper even threw four pitches, period.

During his high school days, Cooper didn’t really have a breaking ball. He was a fastball-changeup pitcher who relied on his command, and he didn’t throw a curveball until he was 16-years-old. But when Cooper went to Bellevue College he learned how to throw his curve for a strike. Then after he transferred to Hawaii he learned how to throw a slider. The evidence of his development came during his two years at Hawaii, as he struck out a modest 69 batters in 86 innings as a junior, but saw his rate jump to an impressive 106 strikeouts in 106 2/3 innings as a senior.

Then in his first season as a pro in 2014 he took his numbers from impressive to eye-popping, fanning 47 in 34 innings for Great Falls of the rookie Pioneer League. His strikeout rates have remained elevated ever since.

“It depends on the day and what’s working for me that day, but my curveball has always been my best put-away pitch,” Cooper said. “If I set it up properly and throw it down in the zone properly, it’s probably my go-to pitch to put someone away.”

Based on his size, velocity and age — at 25 he’s a tad old for Double-A — Cooper doesn’t profile as a major-league prospect. However, his numbers are impossible to ignore. Cooper is now getting some attention as a prospect, as in the preseason he was ranked 19th among White Sox prospects by SBNation.com, and 28th by MLB.com. And by succeeding at the Double-A level he could be on the brink of getting his shot at the show.

“I absolutely think about it,” Cooper said about the possibility of getting the call. “At this level you’re really just a phone call away, there’s a lot of guys who go from Double-A to the big leagues.

“Looking back at my career, I was a good pitcher in high school, but hardly got any attention from colleges, Everett and Bellevue were the only two. I just kept working on my game and kept doing my thing. You just never know what can happen in this game, so you never know how far you are from the big leagues.”

If Cooper continues striking batters out at his current rate, his chance will likely come sooner rather than later.