DENVER, Colo.—For the third time in the last 10 years a Villanova starting pitcher is headed to the St. Louis Cardinals in the Major League Baseball Draft. On the second day of the 2021 MLB Draft on Monday afternoon right-handed pitcher
Gordon Graceffo was selected by the Cardinals with the 151
st overall pick in the fifth round. He is the Wildcats highest draft pick since 2011 and was the first player chosen in this year's draft from a BIG EAST school.
Graceffo was ranked among the top 250 draft prospects on MLB.com and was selected more than 50 spots ahead of his pre-draft ranking of No. 204 coming off a terrific collegiate season this spring and a strong start to summer ball pitching in Cape Cod for the Bourne Braves.
"From the day he stepped foot on campus Gordon has embodied what any coach or program could hope for in a pitcher, a teammate, a student-athlete and a person," Villanova head coach
Kevin Mulvey said. "Gordon gave his best effort every time he took the mound and elevated himself and his teammates. It was a joy for me to watch and take part in his growth and development over the past three years. I am proud of him and I know that all of #NovaNation will be watching and rooting for him."
Graceffo is the Wildcats third draft pick in Mulvey's five seasons as head coach, joining 2017 selections Hunter Schryver and Todd Czinege who currently play in the minor league systems of the Chicago White Sox and the Colorado Rockies, respectively. A classic power pitcher who features a fastball, slider and changeup in his repertoire, Graceffo becomes the 70
th all-time draft pick from the storied Villanova baseball program.
A scouting report on Graceffo on MLB.com notes that "after a big winter workout regimen, Graceffo showed up this spring throwing harder than he had previously. He throws [his fastball] with good sink and that, plus a changeup that could be a plus pitch in the future, elicits a lot of weak contact on the ground. With the uptick in velocity, the 6-foot-4 Graceffo has actually become a better strike thrower this spring while missing more bats. He won't get out-worked in the weight room and gets high marks for his competitive nature on the mound, ingredients teams love in a college performer."
Since the end of the collegiate season Graceffo has been pitching in the renowned Cape Cod Baseball League. He has made three appearances for the Bourne Braves and is 1-0 with a 0.69 ERA spanning 13.0 innings pitched in those outings. Graceffo has allowed 12 hits and just one earned run while walking two and striking out 13 for the Braves. His fastball reaches up to 95 and he throws his slider either in the 80 mph range or can take something off and throws it more like a curveball.
The ability to generate soft contact and prevent extra-base hits was one of the calling cards that made Graceffo stand out as a professional prospect. His spring collegiate season was arguably one of the best in the history of the Villanova program and he was named to the 2021 ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division I All-East Region team in addition to being a second team All-BIG EAST selection.
Graceffo went 7-2 overall with a 1.54 ERA in 11 appearances, all starts, during the 2021 season. He logged 82.0 innings pitched with 86 strikeouts and just 13 walks while holding opponents to a .221 batting average and a .262 slugging percentage against him. Graceffo's ERA of 1.54 ranks fifth for a single-season in school history and is the lowest by any pitcher who has thrown as many innings as he has. The durable righty also set a new single-season school record for lowest WHIP (0.963) while ranking ninth in the program record book for strikeouts (86) and tied for ninth in wins (seven). At the end of the regular season Graceffo ranked eighth in the entire nation in ERA (1.54) while ranking 24
th nationally in fewest walks per nine innings (1.43) and 29
th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.62:1).
Seven of Graceffo's 11 starts came against BIG EAST opponents and he went 4-2 with a 1.75 ERA in those appearances. He averaged 7 1/3 innings per start in conference games and had 58 strikeouts compared to just 42 hits allowed over 51 1/3 innings pitched. Graceffo walked just eight batters in his seven league starts and had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 7.25:1 while averaging 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings.
Graceffo put an exclamation point on his stellar year with a sensational run of five consecutive starts to end the season. In outings against Butler, conference runner-up Xavier, conference champion Connecticut, Georgetown and St. John's, Graceffo went 4-0 with six earned runs allowed spanning 34 2/3 innings, during which he walked just four batters and had 45 strikeouts. He pitched into at least the eighth inning in five of his final six starts of the year, including a complete game four-hitter against Xavier and a career-high 12 strikeouts over eight innings in a win over Connecticut.
