Brian Shaffer

Pitching behind ace Mike Shawaryn in his first two years, Shaffer took the mantle this season as Maryland's ace and responded beautifully. A tall drink of water at 6-foot-5, 200 pounds, the righthander gets above-average sinking action on his low-90s fastball, throwing from a loose, low three-quarters slot, occasionally touching as high as 94-95. And he exhibits solid command. Shaffer mixes in a solid upper-70s to low-80s breaking ball with sweeping, slurve-like action that he uses as his main secondary offering. Using that sinker-slider mix, Shaffer has gone 7-3 with a 2.18 ERA this spring as Maryland's Friday starter, striking out 102 to a stingy 18 walks in 103.1 innnings.