A profile of Braydon Fisher, the Dodgers’ fourth-round draft pick

A closer look at Dodgers’ fourth-round pick Braydon Fisher out of Cedar Falls High School in Texas.

What he’s good at right now: Fisher has started to grow into his 6’4 frame, with a fastball that can reach the mid 90’s and he will show potential with a hard slider.

What he can be good at in the future: Fisher is young for his class and still has plenty of room to grow, maintaining his peak velocity or even pushing it higher is a possibility.

What does he need to work on: Fisher’s still fairly raw and he will need to refine his slider to keep the pitch tight and control it better. He has a quick arm but his delivery looks a little rough on and after release, with a stiff shoulder and a bit of recoil.

Carry tool: It’s all about projectability at the moment, but the hope is Fisher will develop and maintain a plus fastball that will push his ceiling to upper rotation upside.

Biggest weakness: Fisher still needs work to clean up his mechanics, command, and consistency in his secondary pitches. He has a high ceiling, but he is a ways from the bigs.

ETA: I don’t see Fisher taking the Dustin May route up the ladder and show surprising polish once he starts pitching professionally. Fisher is very young still and may need additional time in the low minors, making a guess at his ETA fairly difficult.

Realistic best case scenario: Fisher has the build, improving fastball, and potential hard slider to pitch near the top of the rotation, but there’s still a wide variance between his ceiling and his floor, so at this point, he’s just projectable arm strength to dream on.

Wrap: Fisher is the Dodgers’ fourth pitcher selected this year, and like Ginn and Grove before him, he teases a plus fastball, downer breaking ball combination. He’s even further away than the other two, but his young for class age suggests even more upside. Like James Marinan selected in last year’s draft, Fisher looks a little more raw than ‘16 arms Dustin May and AJ Alexy, and might be brought along slowly early as the development staff looks to ensure that Fisher is ready for a full season workload without a greater propensity for bad habits. He’s excellent value in round four and as a Lamar commit, should be considered signable. He’s a high risk/high reward arm and we may not have a good idea about his upside or major league ETA for another season or two.