MLB Draft pitching prospects on display for Arkansas, Tennessee

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas and Tennessee will face off starting Saturday with a spot in the College World Series on the line.

Unlike the Fayetteville Regional, both teams have plenty of MLB Draft prospects.

In total, 13 of the MLB's Top 200 Prospects will be on the field at Baum-Walker Stadium, the most of any super regional. You can view the hitter breakdowns here.

Here are the seven pitchers on the list:

No. 9 LHP Liam Doyle (+1 spot since the previous ranking):

Tennessee's Liam Doyle (12) pitches against Wake Forest at the NCAA college baseball Knoxville Regional final on June 2, 2025, in Knoxville, Tenn. | Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Make no mistake, even though Doyle had his worst outing of his college career the last time he faced Arkansas less than three weeks ago, allowing eight runs on 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings, he's the closest thing to former Arkansas ace Hagen Smith.

The class is loaded with lefties at the top including LSU's Kade Anderson and Florida State's Jamie Arnold.

Complicating matters for Doyle this weekend, he threw 31 pitches and got the final seven outs on Monday.

His fastball routinely sat at 99 miles an hour. Like Smith last year, Doyle set a new program record for single-season strikeouts with 158 in 92 innings.

He was also recently named a Golden Spikes Award finalist and leads the country this year in strikeouts per nine innings.

No. 43 LHP Zach Root (+1):

Arkansas Razorbacks pitcher Zach Root on the mound against the Charlotte 49ers at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. | Nilsen Roman-Hogs on SI Images

Zach Root has been a welcome surprise for the most part this season, in part because of how seamlessly he's moved into the Friday starter role midway through the season.

His stuff is also way up. The fastball sits in the mid-90s, but his fastball routinely touched 97 against Creighton in the regional. His strikeout spike has held true now for the entire SEC slate.

Root had just a 10.0 K/9 his sophomore season at East Carolina and has 113 strikeouts this year in 85 2/3 innings pitched, adding almost an additional two strikeouts per nine, most of them coming on a combination of his curveball and change-up.

No. 50 RHP Gage Wood (NEW):

Razorbacks pitcher Gage Wood reacts after a strikeout against Creighton — Arkansas Razorbacks pitcher Gage Wood reacts after a strikeout against the Creighton Bluejays in a win in the Fayetteville Regional of the NCAA Tournament at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. | Nilsen Roman-Hogs on SI Images

Welcome to the world of volatile draft rankings. From not even being on the list to Top 50, Wood has probably made himself hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past few weeks.

MLB.com gives Wood's fastball a 70 grade on the 20-80 scouting scale.

Wood had a few hiccups in his return back from a shoulder impingement injury, but the 5.33 ERA is an inaccurate representation to how good he's been since returning.

For those unfamiliar with scouting grades, a 70 rating on anything is pretty rare. Baseball America describes a 70 grade as "Plus-Plus. Among the best tools in the game."

To show how rare that is, only two other prospects in MLB's Top 50 received a 70 grade fastball rating, the aforementioned Doyle who is a lock to be a first-round pick and Jack Bauer, a lefty out of high school who touched 102 miles an hour on the radar gun who received an 80.

Wood's fastball featured prominently in his 13 strikeout performance against Creighton in the regional final as it sat 97-98 for most of the outing.

No. 65 RHP Marcus Phillips (+4):

Tennessee pitcher Marcus Phillips (23) yells in celebration after striking out a batter during a NCAA regional baseball game between the Tennessee Volunteers and Cincinnati Bearcats at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on May 31, 2025. | Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Phillips is an incredible luxury to have as the No. 2 starter in a rotation. His fastball can touch 100 and according to MLB.com "few college pitchers can match his velocity and physicality."

That's hardly a surprise for someone listed at 6-foot-4, 246 pounds. The one knock on his game was stopping the running game, allowing 36 out of 40 runners to steal successfully.

Since the Arkansas game in May, Phillips has allowed just one stolen base, including none against the Razorbacks.

Tennessee coach Tony Vitello has been open about Phillips' improvement in varying his look to first base.

"He really varied the way he was holding runners on," Vitello said after Phillips' outing on May 16. "Not just with his pickoff moves. [Assistant] coach [Josh] Elander was teasing and keeping it lighthearted over here in the dugout. He was yelling out, that's a new move. That's a new look."

No. 69 RHP AJ Russell (-14):

Tennessee's AJ Russell (33) points towards home plate after striking out a batter at the NCAA college baseball Knoxville Regional final against Wake Forest on June 2, 2025, in Knoxville, Tenn. | Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Like Wood, Russell's season has been hampered by injury as he slowly returns from internal brace surgery that seems to be all the craze for pitchers attempting to avoid a full Tommy John.

Russell has also slowly rounded into form. In the his last five outings in May, he allowed just two earned runs in 12 innings of work, including two scoreless innings behind Phillips in Tennessee's lone win in Fayetteville.

He, like Wood, has a 70 fastball grade rating that tops out at 98 miles an hour.

No. 119 Tanner Franklin (-13):

Tennessee's Tanner Franklin (50) pitches against Wake Forest at the NCAA college baseball Knoxville Regional final on June 2, 2025, in Knoxville, Tenn. | Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

For all the talk about fastballs on the list, Franklin could have the best. He also threw only 1 2/3 innings against Arkansas when the two teams met in the regular season.

His walk-to-strikeout ratio is probably one of the best things for someone with that kind of stuff. After struggling with walks at Kennesaw State before getting to Tennessee, he has 51 strikeouts in 37 1/3 innings with nine walks.

No. 143 RHP Nate Snead:

Tennessee's Nate Snead (7) celebrates after striking out Wake Forest's Javar Williams (14) end the 8th inning at the NCAA college baseball Knoxville Regional final on June 1, 2025, in Knoxville, Tenn. | Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Snead's numbers have taken a sharp turn since the start of SEC play. At one point, holding a season ERA of 0.47, its since ballooned to over 4.00.

Despite having a triple-digit fastball, his fastball plays more like a sinkerballer, leading to more groundballs than strikeouts as evidenced by his 1.4 groundball to flyball ratio. He also has 42 strikeouts in 49 1/3. Vitello has held firm is Snead's ability to be a late-inning reliever, so don't expect that to change now.

First pitch of the Fayetteville Super Regional series is scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday and will be broadcast on ESPN.