Deep in the heart of Texas, just South of Houston is a place called Friendswood, a town in the Lone Star State that offers entertainment and fun that seemingly has no end. Trips to Galveston beach, Amusement parks, the Space Station, or the boardwalk are common, and although all of the area’s attractions are attractive, Lael Lockhart Jr., a left-handed pitching prospect in the Dodgers organization, became most attracted to baseball.
History
Lockhart Jr. graduated from Friendswood High School and had a wildly successful prep career where he earned All-State Honors as a 2-way player, was district MVP, and was elected to the Texas All-Star team. He was also voted as the Galveston County MVP, was part of the Perfect Game Texahoma Region Dream team, and was voted as a Texas Sports Connection Top 50 player after he hit .590 as a Senior and went 6-0 with a 1.26 ERA as a pitcher.
Lockhart led the Mustangs to 4 straight Playoff appearances, a District championship, and won the U.S. Marine distinguished Athlete Award for off the field excellence. Needless to say, he had plenty of options in terms of where he could have went to College, but eventually chose to stay close to home and play for Houston where several of his travel ball friends were going as well.
High School was a blast and it was kind of crazy because when I was a kid there was a group right before me that got really close to winning a championship, and it was really cool to look up to those guys and see them get that close and my family and I always thought it would be really cool if we could win that Championship when I played. I played on a travel ball team down in Houston and a lot of us ended up committing to Houston. In my mind I had several choices but I knew the kind of caliber guys that were going to Houston and so I thought it would be a blast to keep playing with good friends of mine.
As a freshman at Houston, the 6’3 lefty was a position player and had a good year and helped the Cougars win both the regular season and conference titles in the American Conference. As he entered his Sophomore year in 2018 he had a lot of momentum and had a great year both on the mound and as a position player, and that propelled him into the spotlight as he entered his Junior year as the #17 preseason draft prospect in the American Conference.
I came into Houston as a 2 way player and Frank Anderson and I had a talk and we decided to put pitching on the backburner for my Freshman year because we had guys that were throwing harder and were very good, so our pitching staff was just loaded. I didn’t want to Redshirt or take a year off and I had a really good fall and then Opening day I was in the lineup and so that’s just kind of how it went. Then, in my Sophomore year, I came back to pitching and started throwing a little bit more, and, at the same time, we had a new pitching coach come in, Terry Rooney, and he taught me how to be a professional in everything I did and how to develop a routine. He took me from the very bottom of the foundation and built it back up and so I am forever thankful for him for that.
After a good Junior year in which he was a very effective 2-way player, Lockhart Jr.’s Senior year was cut short due to Covid, and after finding out the news that College players would be getting that year back, the Friendswood native entered the Transfer portal and ended up at Arkansas, a national powerhouse in college baseball. As a Senior with the Razorbacks, the left-handed Texas native made a team-high 14 starts and helped the Hogs win the SEC title in a season in which they were ranked #1 for much of the year.
Coming into my Junior year I worked my way into the Friday Night job and then Senior year comes around with Covid and the team started out hot, and while we were out in UNLV our coach called a team meeting in the breakfast room and told us we were canceling the day and we all knew what was going on with all of the Covid stuff. We got back to Houston and got the news about Covid, then on the day they were going to decide whether we got the year back or not I was out playing golf with some buddies. I was thinking that if they counted it as a full year I was done and hoped I had enough on my resume to get drafted, so I was stressed. Me and my buddies were playing the easiest hole on the Golf Course when we got the news that we were getting the year back and we were so excited all 3 of us hit our shots straight in the water. We were like, we’re just going to chalk it up and bring it back to the clubhouse, so it was the best-worst hole I ever played.
Lockhart Jr. had a great experience at Arkansas and is very thankful for all of the opportunities he was given as a Razorback. The fans at Arkansas are great, and so are the facilities, and the Arkansas baseball program has all the modern-day technology that makes analytics available to their players. Lockhart Jr. was introduced to his pitching profile from a metrics standpoint and really started to understand what makes him good as a pitcher and, as a result, learned to maximize his ability.
Arkansas was an absolute blast. I grew up a diehard LSU fan though, so once I went into the portal my family was all for LSU.
With a light-hearted chuckle, Lockhart Jr. added
But I was like, hey, I’ve got all these other schools, and my dad was in my corner on that so I ended up talking to a bunch of schools. I put my name in the Portal, and on Friday night an academic advisor told me I might get some phone calls on Monday, so I thought I had the weekend to decompress. Well, Saturday morning my phone starts blowing up and it was kind of a whirlwind that I wasn’t expecting but it was really cool to see interest from a bunch of schools. I narrowed it down to Arkansas, Louisville and Texas Tech and then had some conversations with some people that I really trusted and they told me that if I wanted to develop as much as I possibly could in 1 year and have an incredible College baseball experience that Arkansas is a great place. So I chose Arkansas and Matt Hobbs sold me on the analytics and getting to work with him one on one was something that I’m always going to be grateful for that he and Dave Van Horn and the rest of the coaches invested in me when they knew I only had 1 year and so I got the most out of it as I could. When I heard my name called in the draft I knew it all payed off so it was an awesome experience all the way around.
Next Step
After a very successful college career in which the left-handed Lockhart Jr. shined in the spotlight, the Dodgers drafted him in the 9th Round of the 2021 draft. The tall lefty spent all but 1 start in High A Great Lakes and posted a 3.95 ERA and had almost 4 times as many strikeouts as he did walks in his 13.2 innings. Lockhart Jr. is not an over powering pitcher but has a great understanding of the type of pitcher he is and knows what makes him good.
I was never an over-powering guy, so I really had to learn how to pitch, and a lot of that goes back to Terry Rooney and the foundation he built with me. When the velo started increasing I started being able to get away with a little more so that helped, and, for me, the curveball is a big strike 1 pitch when I start to pitch guys backwards, or just as a freeze pitch in general. The slider has kind of been my out pitch and I just let that pitch “rip” and aim down the middle and let the action take over and let the grip do its thing, so it’s been really lucky for me to have those 2 pitches.
Since becoming a professional I have started hammering more 4 seams to work up in the zone. and I’ve tried to throw a true “fading” changeup but I could never get the feel for that pitch off of a mound, so I’ve gone back to my splitter that I threw a lot in High School and I still have the slider and curveball.
Feature Cut
Lockhart’s fastball sits 91-95 but has a much higher effective velocity because he sets it up with his off-speed pitches, and hides the ball so well with his delivery.
Through location, changing speeds, and hiding the ball very well with his delivery, Lockhart recorded close to a 4:1 strikeout to walk ratio. Here is a sequence of fastballs that shows how he is able to use location to set up hitters and make it a swing and miss pitch.
Lockhart has gone back to throwing his split finger and the spin, tumble and fade of the pitch provides the profile he is looking for in his changeup. It also gives him another option to induce swing and miss strikeouts.
Lockhart’s curveball is very important to his success because it gives him a strike pitch and allows him to pitch backwards. Lockhart likes to pitch backwards the 2nd time through a lineup, and so, having an off-speed pitch with such high strike efficiency allows him to face the other teams order multiple times without losing effectiveness. His slider has become his “go-to” pitch and he uses it as a “strike” pitch, and also as a “strike-out” pitch.
Moving Forward
Lockhart Jr. was moved to High A Great Lakes after his first start of the season and had 10 starts with the Loons. He is 24 years old and is very developed in his understanding of how to pitch and how to use advanced metrics to maximize his effectiveness. He also has an established profile in terms of his arsenal of pitches, has a lot of experience in big-time environments and atmospheres, and is left-handed. The vast majority of the young pitching talent in the organization is right-handed, so, by being a left-hander combined with all of the other qualities he brings, he has a chance to move up very quickly. Lockhart Jr.’s profile is one of a starter but he was used mainly in relief last year for the Loons and is open to any role the organization chooses to use him in on his path to L.A., a place I think the Friendswood Native will land sooner rather than later.
Thanks, I appreciate this!