Chase Burns has yet to throw an inning of professional baseball, but still appears on many top prospect lists due to his immense upside as a pitcher. Burns was one of the most electric arms in college baseball in 2024, and was selected second overall to the Reds as the first pitcher off the board in the draft. I personally liked Hagen Smith over Burns, but the two were interchangeable. While he possesses one of the best fastballs in the game, running it up as high as 102 mph, it’s his slider that is his best pitch. He induces a lot of whiffs with the offering both in and out of the zone, and pairs it with a plus changeup and curveball as well. Burns is a max effort pitcher, so there might be questions around his future as a starter, but if his secondaries to his fastball continue to be elite, he can back off of the higher velocities and really find success through his pitch-ability. This is a pitcher that struck out 48.1% of the batters he faced in college last year while walking just 7.6% of hitters. If he can take any bit of that success to Cincinnati, you’re looking at the Reds next Hunter Greene.