Article: Twins Minor League Report (4/14): Kohl Stewart Looks Like An Ace

[Eric R Pleiss]

 

Two very nice starts by Stewart.  Really encouraging. Nice write up.

Thanks!

[twinsfanstreif]

 

I hope Kohl pitches like this all season! \m/

I personally would rather he pitch more like last year......

[jokin]

 

Kohl catching fire makes me so happy. Almost enough to make forget about the major league club. Almost.

 

Hope they promote LaMonte Wade to Fort Myers soon. That guy can really play.

 

He's an OBP machine. A real sleeper particularly considering that he's a 9th rounder.

Edited April 15, 2016 by jokin

[jokin]

 

I personally would rather he pitch more like last year......

 

Huh?

[jokin]

 

 

Looks like Kohl and Steven are having a friendly competition as to who gets promoted to Chattanooga first. I thought the night before Gonsalves was great (6 ip, 2 hits, 0 runs, 4 k's) and the next night Stewart kind of "one ups him". Good for both of them though and a good problem to have in our minor league system.

 

Yup. And really, you can extend that sense friendly competition to all 5 starters*- seems like they all have a chance to one day help out the Twins

 

*(or as I've coined previously- Los Cinco Maginificos)

 

[nytwinsfan]

 

He's an OBP machine. A real sleeper particularly considering that he's a 9th rounder.

Fangraphs actually ranked him pretty high at 12. 

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/evaluating-the-2016-prospects-minnesota-twins/

 

But that is the only place I've seen him anywhere near that high. This is what Fangraphs said about Wade:

 

 

12. LaMonte Wade, OF, VIDEO, Rookie

Wade had an excellent professional debut that exceeded even the most optimistic internal expectations. As a ninth-round pick out the University of Maryland, he may not have the exciting pedigree, but he has a chance to be an excellent big leaguer. He’s a very good center fielder who gets great jumps, and his throws are strong and accurate. He has a highly athletic line-drive stroke, and he has a propensity for walking more than he strikes out. Team sources love his makeup and how hard he plays every day.

We’ll have to see how Wade does against better competition than the Appalachian League, but I found it hard to keep him this low on the list. He has a lot to offer, and he could be a sleeper for jumping into the top 10 next year.

Hit: 45/50/55 Power: 30/35/35+ Run: 50/50/50 Field: 55/60/65 Throw: 55/55/55
Overall: 40/45/55

 

To mean that report just screams sleeper. The makeup, the defense, the BB/K rate.

Edited April 15, 2016 by nytwinsfan

[twinssouth]

 

Thought this was pretty interesting... and good...

 

 

https://twitter.com/SethTweets/status/721039100292108288 

 

 

 

 

Seth,  send them all up to Chattanooga, I can hardly wait.  Oh, and Thorpe is not even with that bunch yet.

 

[twinsfanstreif]

Huh?

I guess my sarcasm is so advanced that people just think I'm stupid.....

[Otto von Ballpark]

Thought this was pretty interesting... and good...

 

 

https://twitter.com/SethTweets/status/721039100292108288

I think that says more about the run environment of Ft Myers and the FSL than it does about this group of pitchers. Although there are some interesting names in the bunch, we may not get a good read on them until they are promoted to Chattanooga.

[jokin]

 

I think that says more about the run environment of Ft Myers and the FSL than it does about this group of pitchers. Although there are some interesting names in the bunch, we may not get a good read on them until they are promoted to Chattanooga.

 

Mostly true, but this Miracle staff is dominating team pitching stats in the FSL as a unit in the early-going thus far. And not only that, their numbers so far show marked improvement over the net results from last year's already terrific league-leading or near-league-leading results.

 

For example:

 

ERA- 1.97 (1st) [2015- 2.70 ]

WHIP- 0.98 (1st) [2015- 1.19]

H/9- 5.68 (1st)  [2015- 7.88]

K/9- 9.00 (2nd) [2015- 7.15]

K/BB- 2.83 (4th) [2015- 2.50]

 

Only 9 games in, to be sure, but this staff has a little more experience and a lot more raw talent. Look for quite a few promotions to AA between now and the ASG.

Edited April 16, 2016 by jokin

[dgwills]

Glad to see Stewart doing well. The only problem is that he's repeating the level. Takes a bit of the shine off the performance. I really don't see why they didn't start him in AA this year. Doesn't really matter much when looking at the bigger picture I guess.

[DocBauer]

Glad to see Stewart doing well. The only problem is that he's repeating the level. Takes a bit of the shine off the performance. I really don't see why they didn't start him in AA this year. Doesn't really matter much when looking at the bigger picture I guess.

It's the big picture that is most important. He had reasonable success at this level last year, but nothing truly dominate.

 

If you follow milb promotions in the Twins system, you will see they've been more aggressive recently. But this is a kid, major arm and potential, that is still young not only for his level, but young for committing himself only to baseball. He needed a repeat, at least initially, for this level. The early results are very encouraging.

[dgwills]

 

It's the big picture that is most important. He had reasonable success at this level last year, but nothing truly dominate.

If you follow milb promotions in the Twins system, you will see they've been more aggressive recently. But this is a kid, major arm and potential, that is still young not only for his level, but young for committing himself only to baseball. He needed a repeat, at least initially, for this level. The early results are very encouraging.

I'd agree with your assessment of Stewart's last year and that the Twins have been aggressive with promotions lately. Starting him in A+ ball is not unreasonable, it's just not where I think he should of started. 

What I was saying is that dominating A+ ball in your second year through it isn't as impressive as doing it the first year. It's still a good thing of course. It just doesn't scream ace to me. The title of this report is "Kohl Stewart looks like an ace".

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

Glad to see Stewart doing well. The only problem is that he's repeating the level. Takes a bit of the shine off the performance. I really don't see why they didn't start him in AA this year. Doesn't really matter much when looking at the bigger picture I guess.

 

He's 21 and pitching in high A.  He turns 22 in October.  The best college prospects will likely start in high A as a 22/23 year old.  I'm not terribly worried about it.  He's still quite a bit young for the league and has been (to date) aggressively moved by the team.  Letting him return to high A, a league where he held his own but didn't dominate, was likely the right decision.  I'll be more concerned if at the end of the season, his final line looks quite similar to last years.

[ShouldaCouldaWoulda]

 

I think that says more about the run environment of Ft Myers and the FSL than it does about this group of pitchers. Although there are some interesting names in the bunch, we may not get a good read on them until they are promoted to Chattanooga.

Exactly! Although it is very encouraging that Stewart seems to have improved quite a bit from his performances of the past two years, his stats are kind of what good prospects "should" be having in the FSL. League stats are not equal. 

 

Stewart ranks 14th amongst qualified pitchers in FIP thus far in the FSL, and almost all those pitchers are his age or within a year or two of him. So again, very encouraging sign so far, but he is kind of just doing what someone with his prospect status should do in that league. 

 

We must compare minor leaguers against their respective leagues only to get a true read on how they are performing. In the FSL Stewart is doing 'pretty' dang good and we should be happy, but it would be unwise to put too much stock into his number by themselves. 

 

Just being a realist, but am totally puling for him to keep this up and stay healthy. I have never been big on him as a prospect, but still think he could be a decent #4 or #5 MLB starter. That might sound like an insult, but many pitching prospects never even approach that, so still rooting for him.

[ShouldaCouldaWoulda]

 

I'd agree with your assessment of Stewart's last year and that the Twins have been aggressive with promotions lately. Starting him in A+ ball is not unreasonable, it's just not where I think he should of started. 

What I was saying is that dominating A+ ball in your second year through it isn't as impressive as doing it the first year. It's still a good thing of course. It just doesn't scream ace to me. The title of this report is "Kohl Stewart looks like an ace".

Yeah, repeating was the right choice. He did not have a good year there compared to his peers in the league. He also needs to build confidence. This seems like one of those cases the Twins are doing the right thing by being conservative with a pitcher.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Glad to see Stewart doing well. The only problem is that he's repeating the level. Takes a bit of the shine off the performance. I really don't see why they didn't start him in AA this year. Doesn't really matter much when looking at the bigger picture I guess.

Well, he didn't do particularly well in some very important peripherals and many people are blaming it on Kohl's mechanics.

 

If a guy is struggling with mechanics, you don't promote that guy... After all, MiLB is a development league. It's used to, well, develop players. And if a guy is putting up mediocre numbers, you keep him down for another year to allow him to work on the things that will help him succeed at a higher level.

 

If a guy is kicking furiously to keep his head above water, it's hard to work on the smaller things that will help him down the road. He's working as hard as he can just to keep breathing... And when that happens, you relax the pressure on the kid and give him an environment where he has the time and capability to work on those things, the things that really matter in the long run and will dictate his success/failure.

 

Most scouting reports on Stewart said he was going to be a work in progress, I'm not sure why this is so surprising to people. This is what a work in progress looks like and we should be happy it appears he has started to turn the corner and have real, legitimate success, level of competition be damned.

[Seth Stohs]

 

Glad to see Stewart doing well. The only problem is that he's repeating the level. Takes a bit of the shine off the performance. I really don't see why they didn't start him in AA this year. Doesn't really matter much when looking at the bigger picture I guess.

 

I don't see that as a negative at all. He's still well under the average age. Best thing for him.

 

We complain about him not striking batters out and then about him not moving up fast enough.  Let's let him repeat for a 1/2 season and see how that K rate is looking. Let's let him adjust at the appropriate pace.