2024 MLB Draft Profile: Blake Burke
Draft Profile: Blake Burke (Tennessee)
Height: 6'3
Weight: 236
Bats/Throws: Left/Left
Blake Burke, one of the most electrifying power bats in the SEC over the last two seasons, is an intriguing prospect ahead of the 2024 MLB Draft.
Burke’s power is highly appealing and maybe the individual with the highest power grade in the 2024 Draft.
Burke’s hands are exceptionally quick for a college baseball player. He demonstrates that partially thanks to his hand speed and mechanics within his hitting chain. When he makes sound contact, that ball is going to be hit very hard and go a very long way. Curveballs from RHP he had a tendency to kill last season, posting in-zone contact rates of over 90 percent on them from the right-hand side, as well as contact over 95 Miles Per Hour more than 50 percent of the time.
While Burke’s tendencies lean into being a pull hitter, he can certainly do enough to hit to all fields. He possesses the raw power to hit home runs even when he is protecting the plate with an in-and-out swing, which is impressive.
Burke’s splits favor him doing damage off of RHP than LHP, which is understandable, but the discrepancies are not huge based on his quality of contact.
His weaknesses against LHP primarily display with glove-side action. He has struggled against sliders and curveballs from LHP, averaging less than .175 against both pitches, with whiff rates in the high 30s to low 40s.
Pitches that have arm side action, however, such as the fastball and changeup, have been more favorable for Burke against LHP — hitting over .300 against changeups and over .400 against fastballs, with hard-hit rates over 60% of the time on both.
Interestingly enough, Burke has been better on fastballs against LHP than RHP, with exit velocities over 95 MPH and with ideal launch angles more than 30% of the time. He made contact more often against fastballs from RHP, but his quality of contact was marginally lower. His chase rate for fastballs gets into the high 20s and low 30s, which shows pitchers like to expand the zone on him in order to get fastballs by him, and opens up to off-speed in sequencing. In-Zone, however, his contact rate approaches 90% against either LHP or RHP, a redeeming strength.
Burke’s ability to handle increased velocity is also a plus in his favor, hitting over .300 on Fastballs ≥ 96 MPH.
Conclusion
As a whole, I like Burke’s power profile and am curious as to how he builds on this in 2024. His chase and whiff rates are higher, but that is to be expected with someone of his profile. If he can make slight progress on swing decisions, his power makes him a very appealing first base option for a Major League Farm System.
