Ryan Selmer – RHP

Ht: 6’8″        Wt: 220        Year: R-Jr.        Bats/Throws: R/R

Hometown (HS): Beltsville, Md. (Riverdale Baptist)

2017 Stats: 

G: 26        IP: 41.0          ERA: 2.20         K/9: 5.7            BB/9: 2.4          H/9: 9.0

Arsenal: Fastball with sinking action (90-92), slider; both thrown from a three-quarters arm angle.

Background: Ryan Selmer has been a mainstay in the Maryland bullpen since he equaled a program record for most appearances in a season with 31 in his redshirt freshman campaign of 2015. In his first season, the tall right-hander posted a 2.18 ERA, despite walking nearly as many batters (16) as he struck out (19).

Selmer has improved his strikeout-to-walk ratio in all three seasons he’s been a Terp, increasing it from 1.19 as a freshman to 1.67 as a sophomore and now to 2.36 as a junior. His ERA regressed as a sophomore, rising to 4.34, but he has brought it back down to just 2.20 this season. He’s also taken up the mantle of the Maryland closer, notching seven saves in 2017, including two in which he was asked to get more than three outs.

In the summer of 2016 the Beltsville, Maryland, native pitched for the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod League and posted similar stats to those he compiled at Maryland. Selmer went 2-2 with a 3.38 ERA as a long reliever for the Gatemen and, after the season, D1Baseball ranked him as one of the top 150 prospects in the Cape Cod League.

Nothing for either team in the fifth. 6-0, Wildcats https://t.co/1JJfXDSYJg

— Maryland Baseball (@TerpsBaseball) May 28, 2017

Outlook: In many ways, Selmer’s 2017 has been his best season at Maryland. He has set career-highs in saves and strikeouts, and a career-low in walks per nine innings. His ERA is a touch higher than in 2015, but it would be much lower if not for one outing at the end of April against Indiana, in which he surrendered four runs in 0.2 innings. Since that game, Selmer has appeared seven times, including twice in the Big Ten Tournament and pitched to a 1.88 ERA. He’s also shown a willingness to pitch as many innings in relief as his teams needs, as he did when he fired 5.2 frames against Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, allowing just one run in the process.

Selmer pitches to contact (just 26 strikeouts in 41 innings this season), but the sinking action on his fastball makes him a very effective ground ball pitcher. He can become too reliant on his fastball at times, but he’s capable of making in-game adjustments as he did in the semifinals against Northwestern. The first three Wildcats reached against Selmer, but once he started mixing in his slider, he allowed just two hits over the next four innings.

Selmer’s performances last summer at the Cape and this spring in College Park, combined with the possibility that he could a few more ticks to his fastball in the coming years, make him an intriguing prospect. D1Baseball’s Frankie Piliere thinks the Maryland right-hander could go as high as the sixth or seventh round in the upcoming draft. Piliere mentioned the movement Selmer gets on his fastball as a significant factor in his rising draft stock:

“Low 90s with heavy life, this is what teams look for,” Piliere said in an interview with MBN’s Jake Eisenberg. “I think he’s got still more velocity to come, he works down in the zone, his downhill plane, from his angle, that’s going to be really difficult no matter what type of hitter he’s facing…that’s the type of guy who can sneak up on people.”

While the Terps’ closer may not get the widespread recognition that Brian Shaffer and Kevin Smith do, his ability to pitch in any situation, his lanky frame and the life on his fastball make Selmer one of the better draft prospects on the Maryland roster. He will likely be taken in the first 10 rounds of this year’s MLB draft.