Puyallup’s Pike throws mid-90s fastball. His skill set has MLB scouts salivating
Marc Wiese has been the baseball coach at Puyallup High School for 29 years. He’s never had a pitcher who throws as hard as junior Mason Pike.
Pike, an Oregon State commit, has a fastball that he consistently throws in the low-to-mid 90 miles per hour range, sitting between 90 and 95 mph this spring.
Catcher Kai Halstead double checks he’s wearing his thumb protector when Pike is on the mound.
“Being able to throw 95 is a God-given gift,” Halstead said. “His velocity, obviously, shines out first.”
Couple that pitching talent with a good switch-hitting bat and plenty of middle infield talent at second base and it’s easy to see why Pike is a highly-touted prospect. He’s considered the No. 2 prospect in the state in the 2025 class by Baseball Northwest and is a top prospect nationally, as well.
Wiese’s big league comparisons for Pike? Mets’ shortstop and four-time Major League Baseball All-Star Francisco Lindor and Yankees pitcher and two-time All-Star Marcus Stroman.
Safe to say, if Pike’s promising career pans out and matches either of those two in the long run, he’ll have a few bucks in the bank.
“He’s a tremendous athlete,” Wiese said. “Obviously, the arm strength has always been there, switch-hitting middle infielder. Has some real raw power. Just a complete baseball player. He loves the game, competes and there’s not a lot of weaknesses there.”
Wiese’s first impressions of Pike were when he was nine years old and came to play for Wiese’s select baseball club (now New Level, previously under a different name). Even then, Puyallup’s coach could tell Pike was playing on a different level than his peers.
“You could see it coming,” Wiese said with a dampened smile. “He was a great athlete as a young man, great competitor and whether he was nine years old, 12 or 16, he was usually the best player on the field.”
THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT
The accolades and attention have started coming. During a recent tournament with New Level in Arizona, there were 20 MLB scouts watching Pike pitch. Pike tries not to let the pressure catch up to him.
“I try to just play my game,” he said. “But it’s always there, everyone’s watching.”
It’ll be interesting to see which direction Pike’s career goes. He’s a good hitter and has the tools to play infield, but the velocity on the mound is hard to argue with.
“He can really swing it, switch-hitter, great actions defensively, but it’s hard to deny — you look at 95 miles per hour — we’ve never had a kid throw 95 at Puyallup in my last 29 years here. We’ll see where it all goes, and that’s what’s really exciting for us and for Mason.”
Pike throws a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, slider, curveball and changeup. Early in his high school career, Pike relied almost exclusively on his arm talent, trying to blow his fastball by everyone.
“I feel like my freshman, middle of my sophomore year, I tried to overpower kids and just throw as hard as I can,” Pike said. “Now I’ve kind of learned how to pitch, use my offspeed and it’s gotten a lot better.”
Pike is batting a team-leading .478 this season with a pair of doubles and eight RBI. On the mound, he’s 4-0 in 26.2 innings pitched with a perfect 0.00 earned run average, 41 strikeouts and six walks.
Learning how to pitch — not just throw — has been the biggest area of growth for Pike. These days, he’s able to throw secondary pitches effectively and locate them for strikes. Halstead likes his curveball early in counts. Wiese thinks his slider is his best offspeed pitch.
“You have to have the secondary stuff,” Wiese said. “You can throw it 100 miles per hour, but if hitters are going to cheat at the big league level or the high school level, if a good hitter is going to cheat a little bit on the fastball, you’re gonna get hit, especially if you’re in the middle of the zone.
“So you need the offspeed pitch and that’s a big difference maker for him that he’s developed this year. He’s able to spot his fastball a lot more this year. Last year we were thinking just fastball in the middle of the plate and let’s see where it goes.”
Halstead has seen Pike’s confidence grow on the mound, too.
“I’ve seen him calm down and relax, start to realize that ‘Maybe I do have a gift on the mound,’” Halstead said. “I’ve seen him be able to calm down when he’s in a dangerous situation, bases loaded or there’s a ground ball hit back to him. He’s locked down now.”
Pike is committed to Oregon State and still has another year of high school, but will have a decision to make if teams are willing to draft him early in the MLB Draft.
“If the fastball’s at 98, 99 miles per hour, it’ll get real interesting in a hurry,” Wiese said.
Pike wants to win a state championship or two at Puyallup before worrying about that, but it’s in the back of his mind.
“If the time is right and the spot is right, I’d love to (turn professional) but if it’s not, I’d love to go play at Oregon State,” he said.
This story was originally published April 8, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Puyallup’s Pike throws mid-90s fastball. His skill set has MLB scouts salivating."
