Meet a Prospect: Connor Van Hoose

Another round and another college right-handed starting pitcher for the New York Yankees. I have to admit that it is an interesting strategy the Yankees have been working with the last two MLB Drafts. Stockpile the system with experienced right-handed arms that can be groomed quickly either to help out at the Major League level or to use as trade bait in potential trades. The latest arm to join the organization was that of Connor Van Hoose who the organization selected with their 8^th round pick, 247^th overall. Let’s meet him. This is Meet a Prospect: The Connor Van Hoose Edition.

Van Hoose stands 6’1” and weighs in at 175 lbs. which projects him to be more like Luis Severino, size wise anyway, than the power forwards and linebackers the team had selected in the previous rounds before him. Van Hoose came from Bucknell University where he took home Patriot League Pitcher of the Year honors here in 2018. Van Hoose posted an 8-4 record with a 2.36 ERA during the regular season only to turn it on for conference play posting a dominating 6-1 record with a miniscule 0.57 ERA.

Van Hoose has a fastball that touches 88-89 MPH and a curveball that sits around 75 MPH or so. The right-hander also uses a low 80-MPH changeup to keep batters off balance and from sitting on his fastball. Here is what the Bucknell University athletics page had to say about Van Hoose since Baseball America did not have him ranked prior to the draft:

“TURNED IN ONE OF THE FINEST SEASONS IN BUCKNELL BASEBALL HISTORY … PATRIOT LEAGUE PITCHER OF THE YEAR AND FIRST TEAM ALL-PATRIOT LEAGUE SELECTON … BECAME THE FIRST BUCKNELL STARTING PITCHER IN THE PATRIOT LEAGUE ERA TO BE A TWO-TIME FIRST TEAM HONOREE … TWO-TIME PATRIOT LEAGUE PITCHER OF THE WEEK … ON APR. 21 VS. LEHIGH PITCHED THE FIFTH NO-HITTER IN BUCKNELL HISTORY … NAMED NCBWA NATIONAL PITCHER OF THE WEEK FOLLOWING THAT PERFORMANCE … MADE 12 STARTS AND WENT 8-4 WITH A 2.36 ERA … IN PATRIOT LEAGUE PLAY WENT 6-1 WITH A MINISCULE 0.57 ERA, WHILE HOLDING OPPOSING HITTERS TO A .151 AVERAGE … IN HIS SEVEN STARTS IN PL PLAY, ALLOWED ONLY 24 HITS, AND 22 WERE SINGLES … FOR THE FULL SEASON, STRUCK OUT 108 BATTERS, THIRD-MOST IN SCHOOL HISTORY AND THE MOST SINCE DON RICHARDS IN THE MID-1950S … OPPONENTS HIT ONLY .201 AGAINST HIM WITH ONLY 12 EXTRA-BASE HITS … LED THE NATION WITH SIX COMPLETE GAMES.”

Connor has already signed with the organization, so welcome to the family and congratulations! Unfortunately, Van Hoose does not have a known Twitter account at this time… or maybe he is smarter than us all (aside from Anthony Seigler who also does not have one).