Former Tennessee baseball flamethrower Ben Joyce called up by Angels
Former Tennessee baseball flamethrower Ben Joyce and his 105 mile per hour fastball are reportedly headed to the big leagues. The Los Angeles Angels called Joyce up late Saturday night, according to reports. He’s the No. 9-ranked prospect in the Angels system.
In 27 appearances with the Rocket City Trash Pandas, the Double-A affiliate of the Angels, Joyce has a 3.45 ERA with 44 strikeouts against 17 walks over 28.2 innings pitched. He has given up 16 runs — 11 earned — on 18 hits during his Minor League career.
The 6-foot-5, 225-pound right-hander has a grade of 80 on his fastball according to MLB.com. MLB players and prospects are graded on a 20-80 scale, with 80 being considered elite.
Ben Joyce was No. 89 overall pick in 2022 MLB Draft, selected by Angels in Third Round
Joyce was the No. 89 overall pick in last summer’s MLB Draft, one of a record-setting 10 Tennessee players selected.
He appeared in 27 games at Tennessee during the 2022 season, starring with 53 strikeouts and a 2.23 ERA over 32.1 innings pitched. He averaged 14.8 strikeouts per nine innings and gave up 10 runs — eight earned — on 18 hits over the course of the season.
Joyce sat out as a redshirt at Tennessee during the 2021 season, after transferring from Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tenn. He had a 3-1 record with a 4.79 ERA at Walters State during the 2020 season, striking out 35 batters in 20.2 innings pitched.
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He was the No. 81 overall player in the state of Tennessee as a prospect, according to Perfect Game, out of Knoxville’s Farragut High School, throwing 100 miles per hour during his prep career.
MLB.com Scouting Report — Ben Joyce
“When you throw 105 mph, people are going to notice. That’s what Joyce did in his lone season for Tennessee in 2022 after transferring from Walters State CC (Tenn.), but he missed the 2021 season because of Tommy John surgery. Even though his resume was short, the Angels decided they couldn’t pass up his fastball and took him in the third round of the 2022 Draft, and he pitched well in Double-A during his pro debut.
“After averaging 101 mph with his fastball at Tennessee, he hovered around 100 mph with Rocket City. Though the heater can get hit because it straightens out at times, it can feature some armside run, and when he works up in the zone, it’s tough to square up coming from a lower arm slot. He can miss bats regularly with his slider, which averaged around 83 mph, and the Angels are working to get him to throw his breaking ball harder and close the velocity gap between it and his heater. Joyce has mixed in a changeup in the past with some effectiveness, but it’s a distant (and not often used) third offering.
“While he has the stuff to pitch late in games and in high-leverage situations, he doesn’t have a track record of doing so. The injury history — he missed most of 2018-19 with shoulder, elbow and growth-plate issues — and the fact that he had multiple days off between outings in college means he’s going to have to prove he can handle a professional reliever workload while moving away from being so fastball-reliant after throwing the pitch 80 percent of the time in 2022.”
