Article: Twins Daily 2019 Top Prospects: #8 Lewis Thorpe

[Thrylos]

 

Does anyone have a good comp for him? Ted Lilly? I have never seen him pitch. Just wanted a comp to help paint a picture. 

 

John Danks

[The Billy Goat]

Something about him reminds me of a lefty Scott Baker. Strikeouts in the minors turn into foul balls in the majors. But I'd take Scott Baker in a second. We need a left hander to step up into a solid starting role.

[Dantes929]

 

Something about him reminds me of a lefty Scott Baker. Strikeouts in the minors turn into foul balls in the majors. But I'd take Scott Baker in a second. We need a left hander to step up into a solid starting role.

I was looking at his game logs and thought " A lot of strikeouts, few walks but a lot of pitches to get through 5 or 6 innings, so there must be a lot of pitches good enough for batters to not be able to put in play but not quite good enough to put them away.   Must be a lot of foul balls.   Sounds like Scott Baker.   Scott Baker was good.   I would take that."

 

That is what I was going to post independently but then saw your post.    I always thought of Baker as a decent #2 or a great #3.   Baker had a nice fastball and a nice curve ball but I don't know if either could be called a signature pitch.  It is worthwhile to point out that the league averages less than 50% quality starts so having a few clunkers is just par for the course.    Also worth noting that Thorpe is only 23 and missed two seasons.   I don't think he is a finished product.

 

[mlhouse]

 

Not a huge fan of Thorpe after seeing him live in the Future's Game last year. Relative to the other top prospects in that game, he was hit hard, struggled to miss bats, and just didn't have the stuff displayed by other pitchers. He topped out at 94, and was mostly 91-93, which for a single inning stint wasn't very impressive - most other pitchers in the game sat 95+. And just seeing him pitch, his physique (shortish and stockish), handedness, mechanics, and relative stuff immediately made me think of Brian Duensing.

 

I watched him pitch one game in Ft Myers and he was terrible.  His velocity wasn't in the 95 range, more in the 91-93 range and he did not have the same command of his fastball as Kohl Stewart in the games I saw him pitch.   

 

Like you said, he did not appear to be athletic at all, and he made a terrible play on a bunt that just made him look bad.  He looked out of shape and really labored on the mound.  Maybe that was connected to the fact that he was injured and missed all of 2015 and 2016, but the Twins have been real conservative with his innings and pitch counts which could make some of his statistical success a mirage.

 

  But, then, he only gave up 27 runs that year (2017) in Ft Myers in 16 starts so maybe the game I watched was an aberration.  

[Doctor Wu]

Very good article, and some interesting responses too. I've always thought Thorpe had lots of potential, but until I read this piece I wasn't aware that he didn't truly have an "out" pitch. Hmm. Hopefully, the pitching coach can help him to work on his slider, as some of you suggested. And yeah, he''s still young and doesn't have a lot of mileage on his arm after the long rehab period, so I'm still optimistic.

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

I'm getting a Taylor Rogers vibe reading about Thorpe. Maybe he's on the short call up list for the bullpen considering it wasn't addressed in FA or trades.

 

Thorpe is considerably better than Rogers ever was. Rogers had some pretty big issues against righties.

[FormerMinnasotan]

I remain optimistic on Thorpe’s future. Now that he has had a second full off season I think he might be underrated if anything. He’s got an above average fastball and change, and two breaking pitches that might show improvement this year. One thing Thorpe has over all other Twins pitching prospects is command/control. From what I heard, especially in the second half of the year is Thorpe’s command really started to take off.