Video On Braves Fourth-Round Pick, David Filak

Shortly after the draft yesterday I was contacted by a recent graduate of SUNY Oneonta, the school where Braves fourth-round draft pick David Filak pitched last season. The person who contacted me had seen Filak pitch on several occasions and even called one of his games that was televised locally. He uploaded some video of Filak and provided a nice writeup of our fourth-round pick.

He is a tall and skinny kid who has raw stuff that can develop into something very nasty in the big leagues. At first he didn't want to play baseball in school and came to Oneonta for graphic design but was convinced to tryout. He was actually a Catcher by trade, but the Head Coach, Rick Ferchen, decided to try him as a pitcher. He has a knuckle-curve which is his main breaking ball and a fastball that can top out in the mid-90's.

The SUNYAC, the conference he plays in, is lightly regarded, but Cortland St., one of the best teams in D-3 faced him twice this year and he dominated them, beating them twice, the only pitcher in the entire league to do it. He could use another pitch to go with the curve and fastball. The change up he has is raw and needs work. He set up the curve with his fastball which he has good command of and can move up and down, in and out of the strike zone with ease.

Scouts came to each of his games and he was impressive which his numbers certainly show. He was a clutch pitcher as well and really took the reigns as the ace of out staff in Oneonta. Don't be fooled by the fact he played in a small conference in the Northeast, this is a guy who Keith Law ranked very high and is someone with the chance to be a mid to front end of the rotation kind of guy. Whenever he pitched, we knew we were gonna win and he proved to be great at doing just that, only losing in the Regionals after his defense had let him down during the game.

I knew when announcing his game against Oswego I was watching a future professional make the hitters look silly. The other thing you will love about him is that he always finished his games or at least went 8 innings in his starts. He has a good personality and is down to earth. I think he was picked by the right organization when it comes to his development as a pitcher, he will take his time in the minors and I don't expect him to fly through the system, but in time he could become a top pitching prospect in the organization.

That writeup was by Matthew Falkenbury. He and Billy Blake are the two calling the game in the following two videos, the second of which is after the jump, as well as an interview of Filak by a local TV station.