Bats Right Throws Right | ||
 | ||
Chandler shepherd rhp boston red sox pitching mechanics
James Chandler Shepherd (born August 25, 1992) is an American professional relief pitcher who plays in the Boston Red Sox Minor League Baseball system. Listed at 6' 3", 185 lb., he bats and throws right handed.
Contents
A three-year player at the University of Kentucky from 2012 to 2014, Shepherd was selected by the Red Sox in the 13th round of the 2014 MLB Draft out of Kentucky. He uses a high three-quarters arm slot to stay on top of his pitches and drive them down in the strike zone, complementing his 91-93 mph fastball, which tops out at 95 mh, with a sharp 10-to-4 slider that sat mostly 81-84 mph and a mid-80s changeup.
College career
As a junior, Shepherd was sidelined by a forearm laceration that forced him to miss three weeks, but he returned to a relief role in nine games, following with nine starts. He finished with a 3-1 record, a 3.83 earned run average and one save, winning Baseball America honors as the top prospect in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, where also was named pitcher of the year and made the PGCBL first team and the Perfect Game USA first team as a member of the Amsterdam Mohawks
As a sophomore, he was dominant as a reliever, appearing in 26 games with one start, posting a 2.77 ERA and a 5-0 record over 55⅓ innings of work. He finished 3-0 with a 0.44 ERA over his last 11 appearances to being selected to the 2013 Cape Cod League All-Star team, and also named No. 46 prospect in the league.
In his senior year, Shepherd rated among the 2014 Baseball America Preseason NCAA Top-100 Players (No. 70). He then made 16 pitching appearances, ending with a 5-5 record and a 3.66 ERA in 76⅓ innings, including nine starts and one saved game.
Professional career
Shepherd started his professional career in 2014 at short-season A-level Lowell Spinners, where he was 4-3 with a 4.05 ERA in 16 games, working mostly as a long reliever in 33⅓ innings. He was promoted to low-a Greenville Drive in 2015, and he excelled with a 3-0 record, a 1.23 ERA and one save in 14⅔ innings. But Shepherd spent much of the year in high Class A with the Salem Red Sox, posting a 0-2 record with a 3.61 ERA and six saves in 28 games, including a 6.57 strikeout-to-walk ratio (46-to-7) in 52⅓ innings. Later in the year, he also pitched well in the Arizona Fall League with the Scottsdale Scorpions, appearing in 11 games, while going 1-1 with a 3.97 ERA and one save in 11⅓ innings. Overall, he went 4-3 with a 3.22 ERA and eight saves in 78⅓ innings to complete three different levels in his first full professional season.
Shepherd opened 2016 at Double-A Portland Sea Dogs, where he was 1-1 with a 1.80 ERA and seven saves in 14 appearances, including a 0.80 walks plus hits per inning pitched and .140 batting average against, while striking out 39 and walking 10 in 30.0 innings. He then gained a promotion to Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox in the month of June. In addition, from May 2 to June 29 he hurled a 23⅓ scoreless-inning streak between the two stints. Shepherd finished 2016 with a 2-3 record and a 2.81 ERA.
Shepherd is currently rated as the Red Sox's No. 19 prospect, according to MLB.com.