The comparison was inevitable, albeit totally unfair.
There will probably never be another Clayton Kershaw, but MLB Draft prospect Asa Lacy looks the part if you were trying to cast one.
The Texas native stands at 6'4" with a power pitching game and three-quarters delivery just like Kershaw before him.
One crucial difference is the routes they took to professional baseball.
Kershaw was drafted seventh overall in 2006 by the Dodgers, out of a Dallas-area high school. Lacy, who turned 21 on Tuesday, wasn't a top prospect out of high school, falling to the Indians in the 31st round. Instead he played three years of college ball with Texas A&M -- where Kershaw had committed to play before signing with the Dodgers.
It makes for a neat story, one which fans should expect to see the next chapter written early in the June 10 draft.
MLB scouts have responded to Lacy's improvement over his three years in the SEC. Once a late-round afterthought, Lacy appeared to be emerging as the top-ranked pitcher and probable top-3 pick on most draft big boards in the week leading up to the event.
The top five picks in the draft belong to the Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles, Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays, in that order. Many mock draft have either the Tigers, Orioles or Marlins selecting the southpaw.
Lacy says Kershaw was one of the players he admired growing up -- but he doesn't see as much of Kershaw's motion in his own as some.
"I used to love watching Major League Baseball on TV," he recently told FoxSanAntonio. "When I was younger the only time my mom would ever let me stay up was to watch Clayton Kershaw because of the West Coast time, it was so late. But I'd probably say since I was 14, this was my dream.
“I think we have similarities," he told MLB.com. "I don’t have the stop-and-go in my delivery, but in terms of release height and back legs, we’re pretty similar."
As for the detour to College Station, Lacy said he is all the better for it.
"I'm a lot more ready physically and mentally to get my opportunity to play professional baseball, and it's something I've wanted to do for a long time now I think out of high school, if the circumstances would have worked out I probably would have taken the opportunity, but it just wasn't right, and now that I look back on it, I'm so thankful that I ended up deciding to go to A&M and grow as a player and as a man."
The player he's grown into draws rave reviews for an overpowering fastball that he pumps into the top of the zone, complemented by a razorblade slider, good curveball, and adequate changeup.
Lacy's slider is the best for a college lefty since Carlos Rodon in 2014, according to Carlos Collazo of Baseball America. That, combined with his hard fastball, make him a likely bet to be an effective reliever even if it doesn't work out as a starter.
Fangraphs echoed a similar sentiment, saying Lacy arguably boasts the best two-pitch combo in the draft, but his "delivery is atypical for a pro starter."
That would again put him on a different path from Kershaw, but Lacy doesn't seem to care. He cited the lessons he learned from Jim Morris, one of his former pitching coaches. Morris famously reached the Majors as a reliever at age 35 with the Tampa Bay Rays in 1999, a story that became the premise for the Disney movie "The Rookie" starring Dennis Quaid.
Morris' story is a tale about never giving up on your dreams, but Lacy says what Morris really taught him is to pitch with a purpose -- and he intends to carry that mantra regardless of team or role.