From the Crow's Nest: Boston College RHP Justin Dunn

Fun news: we are just a few days away from the draft, meaning we'll soon have a surefire draft pick and I won't have to keep making you fall in love with a new prospect each week.

But hey, falling in love with prospects never hurt anyone, as long as we're willing to forget that Dustin Ackley, Justin Smoak, Jesus Montero, Danny Hultzen, Ryan Anderson, and the rest of the gang never happened. Now that that's been established, I'd like to introduce you to Justin Dunn, a righty out of Boston College who makes the ball travel really, really fast using only his body.

At A Glance

The Rundown

Through two seasons at Boston College, Justin Dunn was a reliever with above-average stuff and below-average results. His command was a little wonky and he was allowing baserunners at an absurd pace, but his potential as a pitcher was intriguing, regardless. Dunn had a stellar fastball, decent breaking stuff, and a changeup that was very much a work in progress. If he ever managed to put it together, the ceiling would be right there for the raising.

A year later, Dunn has moved to the rotation and established himself as one of the more dominating arms in the country.

In 17 appearances this season, Dunn has posted a 1.49 ERA while raising his K/9 to a career-best 9.85 and lowering his BB/9 to a career-best 2.39. His biggest performance came just two days ago in Boston College's regional opener against Tulane. Dunn–who received the nod despite limited appearances in the rotation–struck out 11 and allowed just two runs over seven innings, lifting Boston College to a smooth 7-2 victory in the especially tough Oxford Regional.

Dunn's transformation from reliever to starter has not gone unnoticed by scouts. In a span of a couple months, Dunn has elevated himself from 'neat pitcher with good stuff' to a potential top-fifteen pick in the 2016 MLB Draft. Teams will love that he already has a four-pitch arsenal on the mound and starters that can occasionally touch 99 mph aren't incredibly easy to find.

Dunn's bread and butter will always be his hard fastball, which will sit 93-95 mph, but it will be interesting to see if he manages to develop either his curveball or slider into a plus pitch. The slider can look deadly at times with late, sharp movement, but I'm not sold on his ability to consistently command it. The curveball is a big looper that is occasionally left up, but he mixes it amongst his pitches well and frequently catches hitters off guard with it.

There will be concerns over how he'll hold up over the course of an entire season as a starter and it sure would be nice if his changeup was a little more developed, but I mean:

Scout told me @BCBirdBall RHP Justin Dunn was "really f'ing good" yesterday. Good thing @aaronfitt wrote on him: https://t.co/JRndOxw9LX

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersD1) June 4, 2016

Previous From the Crow's Nest Prospects

Nick Senzel - 3B - Tennessee

Braxton Garrett - LHP - Florence

Blake Rutherford - OF - Chaminade

Zach Collins - C - Miami

Jordan Sheffield - RHP - Vanderbilt

Will Benson - 1B/OF - Westminster Schools

Buddy Reed - OF - Florida

Bryan Reynolds - OF - Vanderbilt

Connor Jones - RHP - Virginia