Georgia baseball: Jonathan Cannon is a top MLB Draft prospect
Georgia baseball pitcher Jonathan Cannon has had a dominant 2022. Start after start, Cannon has proven to be the ace of the Diamond Dawgs’ pitching staff, and some draft experts have started to take notice of his talent.
Keith Law, the veteran baseball writer for The Athletic (subscription required), ranked Cannon in his first MLB Draft Top 100 Big Board article. Cannon is currently ranked No. 38, though he likely would have been higher had it not been for an injury that kept him out of action for most of April.
MLB.com has Cannon ranked No. 52 in their Top 150 MLB Draft prospects list.
Georgia baseball ace pitcher is a force, and the world is finally taking note of it.
Cannon is currently the only Bulldog player highly ranked, but many lists include several top high school prospects from the state of Georgia.
The No. 1 overall player Druw Jones, son of former Atlanta Braves great Andruw Jones, plays at Wesleyan High School near Norcross. Another highly-ranked player from the Peach State is Termarr Johnson of Mays High School in Atlanta.
Cannon, a junior from Alpharetta, has an 8-1 record, 2.04 ERA, 53 strikeouts, and has only walked four batters in 57.1 innings. One of those walks was intentional.
His pitch arsenal includes a mid-90s fastball, changeup, slider, and cutter.
He isn’t a pitcher who will blow you away with a triple-digit fastball, but his control alone should make MLB teams interested in him.
Cannon has also shown during his time as a Bulldog that he can pitch in big games. Last season, he pitched seven shutout innings against No. 1 Vanderbilt on the road to help Georgia clinch a series victory. He was named SEC Pitcher of the Week for his outing.
In March, Cannon pitched another shutout against the defending College World Series Champions: the Mississippi State Bulldogs. He allowed just three hits and struck out nine in eight innings to help Georgia win that series.
Though his injury in April might hurt his draft stock, Jonathan Cannon has shown he has the stuff to be a major league pitcher. Based on his scouting reports, expect Cannon to get called in the late first round or early to the mid second round.
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The Diamond Dawgs are currently 31-14 overall. They will begin a three-game series with Vanderbilt on Friday, two SEC series against Tennessee and Missouri, and a non-conference game against Presbyterian College to wrap up the regular season.