Draft Ready Swiney Made Most of Shortened Season
NC State's baseball season lasted only 17 games before it was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. But that was long enough for Nick Swiney to make a dramatic leap toward the top of the upcoming Major League draft.
Barely a blip on the scouts' radar when the year began after working out of the bullpen in his first two seasons with the Wolfpack, the junior left-hander made the most of his limited opportunity in the starting rotation with a breakout performance.
After going 4-0 with 1.29 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 28 innings, he is now being mentioned as a potential first round pick next week.
"Professional teams wanted to see me as a starter and just how I could excel there," Swiney said Monday in a Zoom conference with local media. "That was something that was not on my resume yet.
"Everybody had seen me out of the bullpen. I hadn’t had a true seven-, eight-inning start. So for me going into this year, talking with our pitching coach, (Clint) Chrysler and our catcher Patrick Bailey, I was just trying to not go out there and be too perfect. I knew I needed to be out there and compete for my team for seven or eight innings on a weekly basis."
Swiney accomplished that goal by going seven or more innings in each of his four starts. He struck out 11 in each of his first two starts, on opening day against James Madison and a week later against Tennessee Tech.
His most dominant performance came on Feb. 29, indoors at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis in the Cambria College Classic. Facing Purdue, he gave up a hit in the first inning then returned the final 22 hitters he faced, striking out 15 on the way to a a 6-0 shutout victory.
Swiney said that the key to his success this season was an increased concentration on control.
"What really worked for me is I wanted to go out there as a starter and I needed better command of my pitches," he said. "I needed to go out there and not have as many walks. Once I realized how my pitches more or less worked and how I really truly needed to pitch, that’s when I saw the walk numbers go down this year from last year.
"That was the biggest thing going into this year. I needed to be that guy that can be a true ace on a Friday, Saturday night for the Wolfpack and just go out there every week and compete every time."
Swiney said he's only thrown off a mound three times since making his final college start back on March 7 at Virginia. But like others in his situation, he's doing what he can to stay in shape and keep his arm from getting stale.
In the meantime, he's helped out around his parents' house in Charlotte by doing yardwork and building a deck. He's also done interviews either by phone or Zoom with all but a few Major League teams.
"They want to know how your brain works out there on the mound," Swiney said. "I kind of go through what my thought process is when I go out for a start. They just see the kid that goes out there on a weekly basis and throws for seven innings. They don’t really get to see what my routine looks like, so I explain that to them.
"They want to know family dynamics, what that looks like. They want to know what sports you played as a younger kid. They want to see well-rounded people They ask about classroom things sometimes and just the stuff you’re interested in. They want to see what kind of person you are, what they’re going to be getting if they draft you. It’s all over the place with the questions."
The most interesting thing he's been asked?
One team asked him to name the five people which whom he'd like to be quarantined.
"I would go with Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Aniston," he said. "I said Michael Jordan. I would want to know the mental side of that. I thought that was pretty cool watching his documentary. Mike Trout ... I think he’s the best hitter in the game right now. I think that’d be kind of cool to pick his brain on what he’s looking for. Then I did a pitcher as well.
"I went with Clayton Kershaw. He’s been in the game for a while. I would like to know what has allowed him to be successful. Those are mine. They were like ‘why Bradley Cooper?’ and I’m just like ‘I liked him in American Sniper and he sings pretty good in his new movie. I think he’d be a cool one to hang out with."
Swiney said he has no idea who or where he'll be drafted when the shortened five-round draft is held on June 10-11.
At least one mock draft has him going to the Los Angeles Dodgers with the 29th overall pick in the first round. That might be a reach, since Baseball America has him rated as the 79th best available prospect. That would put him late in the second round or early in the third.
No matter where he ends up getting picked, Swiney said he's going to be happy.
"I have my own opinion on where I think I should go," he said. "It’s weird times right now. I've see all of it though, all those articles. I get tagged in them. It’s the late first round to anywhere in the second is what I’ve been seeing. No specific team has come up to me on a call or anything and said ‘hey, we’re going to take you here.’
"It’s definitely an interesting time because you get to see all these different opinions. I just try to not get too caught up into it, just because that’s not gonna really be beneficial for me. I’m just taking it a day at a time and enjoying the process as it goes on."