Meet the Draft prospect who hits in welding gloves, throws in a barn and K'd 570 batters

If Kolby Stringer wasn't a real person, the baseball gods would probably have to invent him.

An 18-year-old right-hander who quite literally looked like a man among boys during the 2026 high school season, Stringer has rocketed into Draft prospectdom from Foxworth, Miss., a town with a population of 523, where his team's bullpen is in a barn. He was virtually unscouted until six starts into the year, even though his 6-foot-3, 225-pound frame is not the only thing that makes him tough to miss.

"I like to be super athletic," Stringer said at the MLB Draft Combine at Chase Field. "I think a lot of pitchers get too stagnant, too much like a robot while they're pitching. I think you should still be an athlete in everything you do."

Stringer has been known to do a split ("I could brag a little bit about that," he said) and make trick behind-the-back throws to the infield as he runs toward the outfield fence. He's recognizable in the batter's box because he wears yellow work gloves to hit. And whenever he was on the mound this year, he struck out just about everybody.

With an astounding 202 punchouts in his senior season alone, he tallied 570 over his career at West Marion High. That's 47 more strikeouts than there are people in his town. For further context, only one high school pitcher in this century (Tyler Stovall, a 2008 second-round pick of the Braves) is known to have a higher final tally (651).

"I always thought people who got above 200 [strikeouts in a high school season] were throwing against super bad teams or a glitch in the system or something," Stringer said.

But through grueling workouts in the weight room and making mechanical adjustments, Stringer was able to get his fastball, 94 mph at the start of the season, into the 97-98 range. His rapid progress explains how over the course of a few months, Stringer went from an unknown to an LSU commit attending the Combine in Arizona.

"I didn't have a single scout or anything come watch me for my first five games this season, my first five starts," he said. "By the end of it, there were 20-30 scouts watching."

He enjoyed having the audience -- especially for his teammates, and felt the scouts were "nothing different than a regular human being standing there. I didn't really get nervous."

He did continue to work, adding velocity as he tweaked how he used his lower body and working on his fastball-curveball combination while occasionally flashing a sweeper, slider and a changeup he described as "awful."

"The fastball and the curveball pair super well. That's what my bread and butter is," he said. "My fastball's got some super good ride, apparently, and the curveball is straight over the top, straight down. It comes out of the same arm slot."

In an age of high-tech sensors and cameras, Stringer's pitch development was done largely in the barn that's a part of his school's baseball facilities.

"It's not a bullpen like what you have in a -- the worst stadium you've been to, ours is worse," he explained.

"Ours is definitely the worst that I've ever seen. ... A barn, I guess you would say. It's more like a barn. It was kind of free rein. Anybody could walk back there, including the fans, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I felt like what I called 'the pitching lab' in the barn, it's a more controlled environment. I've got a guy just flipping me balls, and if you ever look at the balls, they're not very good. That's a little bit of West Marion Baseball for you -- it's tough down there."

Rustic though the surroundings were, Stringer's progress caught the attention of LSU head coach Jay Johnson. This past spring, rumors abounded that after the Tigers got swept at Mississippi State, Johnson got in his car and drove three and a half hours down to Foxworth to personally seal a commitment from Stringer.

"That is true. That's Jay Johnson for you," the young righty said. "He is constantly doing stuff like that. He's a maniac -- in a good way. ... We were like, 'Do you need something to eat? Are you good?' 'I'm good. You got any news for me?' That was the day I committed."

Whether he heads to college or signs with a Major League organization after this year's Draft, Stringer is already at work adding a new out-pitch that will help his success translate to a higher level of play.

"I feel like my splitter is the next really good pitch in my arsenal," he said. "I just never really needed it in high school, but I definitely gripped it so a lot of people could see it, and I showed them I was working on it."

As he advances, his career as a hitter is coming to an end, so unless you've already seen his trademark yellow work gloves in action, you've likely missed out for good.

"I call them welding gloves, but they're actually driving gloves," he said. "Batting gloves are so expensive, like 60 or 70 bucks and I'm not some high-class guy sponsored by, like, Franklin or Marucci. I made the decision my freshman year to just wear work gloves. I got super comfortable with them, and I like them more than batting gloves now."