Twins Daily 2023 Top Prospects: #4 Marco Raya, RHP

[Cody Christie]

Marco Raya might be the most exciting pitching prospect to come through the Twins organization since Jose Berrios. His stock is significantly rising after a tremendous professional debut.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter, Fort Myers Miracle

Age: 20 (DOB: 8/7/02)
2022 Stats (Low-A): 65 IP, 3.05 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 76 K, 23 BB
ETA: 2025
2021 Ranking: Honorable Mention

National Top 100 Rankings
BA: NR | MLB: NR | ATH: NR | BP: 53

 

What’s To Like
The Twins have been high on Marco Raya since they drafted the teenager in the fourth round of the 2020 draft out of high school. Raya was one of the club’s biggest risers in 2022 after not being among Twins Daily’s top-20 prospects entering last season. It was easy to see why he was left off the list since he didn’t pitch at all in 2021 and was looking to make his professional debut in 2022. Since joining the organization, his projection has improved from a mid-rotation starter to a potential ace. 

Minnesota had Raya spend the 2022 season in Fort Myers where he was three years younger than the average age of the competition. He only faced younger batters in 46 plate appearances, and he held older batters to a .571 OPS. Raya posted a 10.5 K/9 and a 3.2 BB/9 while batters hit less than .200 against him. His fastball has increased by multiple miles per hour since being drafted. He compliments his fastball with three offspeed offerings that MLB.com already grades as being 50s on the 20-80 scouting scale. 

What’s Left to Work On
Shoulder soreness caused Raya to miss the 2021 campaign and his innings were limited in 2022. His frame is built similarly to former Twin Jose Berrios, so there can be questions about long-term durability with pitchers that size. Raya is listed at 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds so there is room to add more muscle to his frame as he enters his 20s. Marcus Stroman is another similar sized pitcher that has found success at the big-league level, but Raya has a better fastball that is paired with very projectable secondary pitches. He is already considered extremely athletic so it will be interesting to see how his off-season regime added to his frame. 

Raya has been limited to 19 appearances in his professional career, so the 2023 season is critical for building innings. He pitched fewer than five innings in all but four starts last season and he never threw more than 80 pitches. Minnesota will continue to monitor his innings during his young career, and it seems like 100 innings would be a good goal in 2023. His appearances will continue to come against younger hitters and he can continue to refine his secondary pitch offerings. 

What’s Next
During the season’s early weeks, Raya should stay in Fort Myers where the weather will be warmer. His previous shoulder injury is no longer a concern, but there’s no reason to rush him into pitching in colder weather if the team can avoid it. As temperatures improve, Raya can move to Cedar Rapids to accumulate the bulk of his innings. He is already on the national prospect radar after a tremendous debut. By this time next season, he has a chance to be Minnesota’s top prospect and a global top-100 prospect. 

What are your expectations for Raya in 2023? Can he be the team’s top prospect for 2024? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

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[roger]

Loved this pick when he was drafted.  Now at #4…WOW!

 Could the Twins be so fortunate to have two top starters in a couple years, Raya and Prielipp?

[Nashvilletwin]

Raya - love his stuff and development since being drafted.  Let’s just hope he stays healthy and on or above his projected trajectory.

Think about it - by this time next year, the Twins could have three (Rodriguez, Raya, and Prielipp) consensus top 100, if not top 50, prospects looking to join the big club full-time in ‘25. Remarkably for the Twins, two of the three are pitchers.

Btw, the list excludes anyone we draft this season (@#5) and three additional top 100 prospects who should “graduate” to the Show late this season - Lewis, Lee and Julien (possibly four if Martin is included after a solid early ‘23 campaign).

That ain’t too shabby.  Hope it all works out that way.

[Dman]

I wasn't able to really watch him much so just have box scores to go on. He was young for the A ball level and pitched like a guy drafted out of the college ranks there.  Stat line looks good all across with an excellent K\9 and WHIP solid ERA and not quite so kind FIP.  Would have liked to see that ERA a bit lower as pitchers are protected somewhat in A ball but this being his first full year it makes sense to have more variation. The HR ball bit him a little, not horribly bad, but that is what brought his ERA and FIP up.  If he cleans that up the stat line looks elite.

He has solid command of all of his pitches and just needs more experience pitching at higher levels to sharpen his skills.  If he is who the Twins seem to think he is he could be a mid to top of rotation starter.  Hoping that arm stays healthy and can go the distance.  This system needs all the potential high end starters they can find.

[miracleb]

What Nashville said!
:)

[chpettit19]

Certainly looks like a nice piece. I think the goal should be 100 IP, and a taste of AA ball by the end of the year to keep him on a track for a front end starter. Would be very exciting to have him and Prielipp both ending the season at AA to give us a couple guys with a chance to be front end starters soonish.

[HrbieFan]

Comparing to Stroman is way off, that dude is 5'7".  Saw Raya pitch last year and he definitely needs to add some muscle to his legs and upper body.  If he can do that and stay healthy, he could be a great find at that draft spot. 

[Don't Feed the Greed Guy]

Keith Law is not a Marco Raya fan. He ranks Raya 13th in the Twins system. In the comments section of his Athletic piece, "Twins top 20 prospects 2023: Keith Law ranks Minnesota's farm league system" a commenter took him to task for the poor ranking. Law replied: "I feel very confident I have Raya in the right spot. He missed 2021 with arm problems. He’s smaller, needs a better third pitch, and didn’t blow low A hitters away like you’d expect someone with a +++ slider to do."

The good news? Law is much higher on Jordan Balazovic than most others. To paraphrase, Jordy Blaze was hurt during the lockout, which meant he was also locked out of access to Twins doctors and trainers. "I’m writing the year off as a matter of injury and hoping he gets back to the top-100 form he’d shown in 2019 and 2021, where he looked like a potential No. 2 starter."

Balazovic is the highest rated pitcher in his analysis of the Twins farm system, at #7. Connor Prielipp (#8), and Simeon Woods Richardson (#10) are the only other two in the top ten. Lots of shortstops!

This also led to the general opinion that local writers seem to rank the Twins pitching prospects WAY higher than the national writers do.

Boy howdy, I sure hope our local writers write right!

[Craig Arko]

This must be the pipeline. :)

[mikelink45]

It seems to early to have him this high, although the Twins prospects are not at the level of previous years.  I love the enthusiasm, but I want to see him at a higher level before I start dreaming of an Ace.  

[Tibs]

If he's healthy, then there's no reason to keep him in Ft Myers because of the weather.

I'm excited to see what he can do this year. Going from almost off the radar to #4 prospect in the organization is quite the jump. An offseason of development make his starts a much watch this year.

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

Certainly looks like a nice piece. I think the goal should be 100 IP, and a taste of AA ball by the end of the year to keep him on a track for a front end starter. Would be very exciting to have him and Prielipp both ending the season at AA to give us a couple guys with a chance to be front end starters soonish.

Exactly!………… Get some innings in and keep the trajectory positive. Get 1/2 season minimum at AA. Maybe starts ‘24 in AA if there’s stuff to work on but 50% of the year at AAA would be great. Hopefully, they both continue to advance!

[MN_ExPat]

1 hour ago, Don't Feed the Greed Guy said:

Keith Law is not a Marco Raya fan. He ranks Raya 13th in the Twins system. In the comments section of his Athletic piece, "Twins top 20 prospects 2023: Keith Law ranks Minnesota's farm league system" a commenter took him to task for the poor ranking. Law replied: "I feel very confident I have Raya in the right spot. He missed 2021 with arm problems. He’s smaller, needs a better third pitch, and didn’t blow low A hitters away like you’d expect someone with a +++ slider to do."

The good news? Law is much higher on Jordan Balazovic than most others. To paraphrase, Jordy Blaze was hurt during the lockout, which meant he was also locked out of access to Twins doctors and trainers. "I’m writing the year off as a matter of injury and hoping he gets back to the top-100 form he’d shown in 2019 and 2021, where he looked like a potential No. 2 starter."

Balazovic is the highest rated pitcher in his analysis of the Twins farm system, at #7. Connor Prielipp (#8), and Simeon Woods Richardson (#10) are the only other two in the top ten. Lots of shortstops!

This also led to the general opinion that local writers seem to rank the Twins pitching prospects WAY higher than the national writers do.

Boy howdy, I sure hope our local writers write right!

I think that's a fair assessment by Law.  Not that I necessarily agree with it, but it's fair.  I've always felt that Law is baseball's version of Fraud McShay (although not quite as slimy as I don't want to throat punch him every time he speaks). 

Law does have a good eye for assessment, but like every talent evaluator in baseball... everyone has their own take and perception, and thus we really have to take an approximate amalgamation of what we read.   To wit, Raya probably sits on the professional pecking order a shade lower than many of us gleefully predict, but also probably higher than Law is currently basing his estimate off of.

[TwinsDr2021]

I like that he going to pitch the season at age 20. Hopefully he stays healthy works on a third pitch and dominants. And he is on the radar for a MLB promotion in 24 or 25 at the latest, To me he is a real prospect, young with I assume great stuff that has a chance to be real good (I also admit that failure is the most likely outcome for this type of prospect)

[Doctor Gast]

2 hours ago, Don't Feed the Greed Guy said:

Keith Law is not a Marco Raya fan. He ranks Raya 13th in the Twins system. In the comments section of his Athletic piece, "Twins top 20 prospects 2023: Keith Law ranks Minnesota's farm league system" a commenter took him to task for the poor ranking. Law replied: "I feel very confident I have Raya in the right spot. He missed 2021 with arm problems. He’s smaller, needs a better third pitch, and didn’t blow low A hitters away like you’d expect someone with a +++ slider to do."

The good news? Law is much higher on Jordan Balazovic than most others. To paraphrase, Jordy Blaze was hurt during the lockout, which meant he was also locked out of access to Twins doctors and trainers. "I’m writing the year off as a matter of injury and hoping he gets back to the top-100 form he’d shown in 2019 and 2021, where he looked like a potential No. 2 starter."

Balazovic is the highest rated pitcher in his analysis of the Twins farm system, at #7. Connor Prielipp (#8), and Simeon Woods Richardson (#10) are the only other two in the top ten. Lots of shortstops!

This also led to the general opinion that local writers seem to rank the Twins pitching prospects WAY higher than the national writers do.

Boy howdy, I sure hope our local writers write right!

Not a big fan of Law, IMO his Balazovik ranking is way too high & Raya way too low. I like Raya composure but I wouldn't have ranked him as high as TD. This year I could be a big believer.

[Minny505]

2 hours ago, Don't Feed the Greed Guy said:

This also led to the general opinion that local writers seem to rank the Twins pitching prospects WAY higher than the national writers do.

On a national level, pitchers tend to fall off due to injury far more often than hitters do. This means that a potential average 3B is ranked higher than a potential average #3 SP. 

However, as Twins writers are more in the weeds on just the Twins system, which has kind of experienced the opposite of this with hitting prospect after hitting prospect fall due to injury (Kubel, Buxton, Sano, Kirilloff, Lewis...which are just some top 100 guys), while other than Liriano, no pitching prospect has really fallen in the same way.

On the national level, talent evaluators love to say "There is no such thing as a pitching prospect."

Here in Twins Territory, we experience it more like "There's no such thing as a hitting prospect." 

[jmlease1]

53 minutes ago, MN_ExPat said:

I think that's a fair assessment by Law.  Not that I necessarily agree with it, but it's fair.  I've always felt that Law is baseball's version of Fraud McShay (although not quite as slimy as I don't want to throat punch him every time he speaks). 

Law does have a good eye for assessment, but like every talent evaluator in baseball... everyone has their own take and perception, and thus we really have to take an approximate amalgamation of what we read.   To wit, Raya probably sits on the professional pecking order a shade lower than many of us gleefully predict, but also probably higher than Law is currently basing his estimate off of.

law was also the first national guy in on Balazovic, so there may be a little bias there. I think he's being a bit unfair to Raya in the assessment of his actual performance: 10.5 k/9 and a WHIP of 1.077 is pretty impressive for a 19 year-old kid who skipped rookie ball and went straight to A-ball. he's penalizing him for arm problems in 2021...that didn't come up in 2022?

The size could end up being the bigger issue, but if Raya keeps getting guys out, then just call him Yoda and put him on the mound.

It's a reasonable upside pick here. I know Twins staff is very very high on him. I'd like for him to get a taste of AA by season's end, but more importantly I want him to crack 100 innings.

[2wins87]

2 hours ago, Don't Feed the Greed Guy said:

Keith Law is not a Marco Raya fan. He ranks Raya 13th in the Twins system. In the comments section of his Athletic piece, "Twins top 20 prospects 2023: Keith Law ranks Minnesota's farm league system" a commenter took him to task for the poor ranking. Law replied: "I feel very confident I have Raya in the right spot. He missed 2021 with arm problems. He’s smaller, needs a better third pitch, and didn’t blow low A hitters away like you’d expect someone with a +++ slider to do."

I think Law is often a little too dismissive of undersized pitchers, but in this case I think we do need to pump the brakes a little bit on the Raya bus.  His stats weren't amazing, the ERA was very good but not backed up by his FIP which was 37th out of 70 pitchers in the Florida State league that pitched at least 50 innings.  The current stuff--a mid 90s fastball, potentially plus breaking stuff, with work needed on a changeup--is promising but not particularly unique for a guy at his stage of development.

I think it's fine to look at a young guy and see lots of projection, but I do think that ranking him this high is counting on a lot of improvement that is not exactly guaranteed.  I know I'm in the minority on this, but I'm not even sure I want to rank him ahead of Festa at least until we see more in A+, hopefully with an improved changeup and command.

Anyway, I generally don't like focussing on negatives of prospects.  I definitely see some of the Berrios comparisons with Raya given his size, sweeping slider, and even the slide step which is different but slightly reminiscent of Berrios.  I'm looking forward to following Raya this year in a league with more broadcasts.

[Hoze]

3 hours ago, Don't Feed the Greed Guy said:

Keith Law is not a Marco Raya fan. He ranks Raya 13th in the Twins system. In the comments section of his Athletic piece, "Twins top 20 prospects 2023: Keith Law ranks Minnesota's farm league system" a commenter took him to task for the poor ranking. Law replied: "I feel very confident I have Raya in the right spot. He missed 2021 with arm problems. He’s smaller, needs a better third pitch, and didn’t blow low A hitters away like you’d expect someone with a +++ slider to do."

The good news? Law is much higher on Jordan Balazovic than most others. To paraphrase, Jordy Blaze was hurt during the lockout, which meant he was also locked out of access to Twins doctors and trainers. "I’m writing the year off as a matter of injury and hoping he gets back to the top-100 form he’d shown in 2019 and 2021, where he looked like a potential No. 2 starter."

Balazovic is the highest rated pitcher in his analysis of the Twins farm system, at #7. Connor Prielipp (#8), and Simeon Woods Richardson (#10) are the only other two in the top ten. Lots of shortstops!

This also led to the general opinion that local writers seem to rank the Twins pitching prospects WAY higher than the national writers do.

Boy howdy, I sure hope our local writers write right!

I wonder about Law's confidence level on Raya not having a plus 3rd pitch.. 

Fwiw @Data_prospects (Twitter) had a 8/23 report on Raya and posted the following on his secondaries:

Slider:
"His slider is filthy also. The pitch is thrown with a very workable velocity in the mid 80s (average velocity of 83.7 mph). The movement here is lights out, getting 3.5” of lift on the pitch along with 13” of sweep. Despite throwing the pitch in the zone 56.3%, he is still getting strikes almost 80% of the time he throws the slider. He is also able to limit hard contact significantly better with the slider than with the fastball. I would give the pitch a 60 grade"

Cutter:
"He has also thrown a Cutter in the high 80s/low 90s, which has been outstanding for him so far. The pitch gets 8.5” of lift and 8.3” of glove side movement on average and has drawn a Whiff% of 48% and has held hitters to a xwOBA of .127 on the offering. Going to go out on a limb and calling it a 70. If you don’t like it, sue me."

Curve:
"While the slider might be filthy, I don’t think it’s his best breaking ball. Though he has only thrown it 80 times, his curveball is one of the best in the minors. Velocity is a non-issue again, sitting at 80mph and running up to 84mph. The movement profile is gaudy, posting an astounding 56.9” of depth on average and 10” of sweep. According to statcast, there are just 3 qualified major league pitchers who throw curveballs with >55” of depth and >80mph on average. The list is: Carlos Rodon, Dylan Cease, Joe Musgrove. Raya has held hitters to an impressive .221 xwOBA on the pitch and has posted a Whiff% of 34%, I’ll play it cool and 60 it for now but I’d bump it to a 70 if he throws it more."

[wsnydes]

5 minutes ago, Hoze said:

I wonder about Law's confidence level on Raya not having a plus 3rd pitch.. 

Fwiw @Data_prospects (Twitter) had a 8/23 report on Raya and posted the following on his secondaries:

Slider:
"His slider is filthy also. The pitch is thrown with a very workable velocity in the mid 80s (average velocity of 83.7 mph). The movement here is lights out, getting 3.5” of lift on the pitch along with 13” of sweep. Despite throwing the pitch in the zone 56.3%, he is still getting strikes almost 80% of the time he throws the slider. He is also able to limit hard contact significantly better with the slider than with the fastball. I would give the pitch a 60 grade"

Cutter:
"He has also thrown a Cutter in the high 80s/low 90s, which has been outstanding for him so far. The pitch gets 8.5” of lift and 8.3” of glove side movement on average and has drawn a Whiff% of 48% and has held hitters to a xwOBA of .127 on the offering. Going to go out on a limb and calling it a 70. If you don’t like it, sue me."

Curve:
"While the slider might be filthy, I don’t think it’s his best breaking ball. Though he has only thrown it 80 times, his curveball is one of the best in the minors. Velocity is a non-issue again, sitting at 80mph and running up to 84mph. The movement profile is gaudy, posting an astounding 56.9” of depth on average and 10” of sweep. According to statcast, there are just 3 qualified major league pitchers who throw curveballs with >55” of depth and >80mph on average. The list is: Carlos Rodon, Dylan Cease, Joe Musgrove. Raya has held hitters to an impressive .221 xwOBA on the pitch and has posted a Whiff% of 34%, I’ll play it cool and 60 it for now but I’d bump it to a 70 if he throws it more."

Heckuva first post!  Welcome to TD!

[Cody Christie]

4 hours ago, HrbieFan said:

Comparing to Stroman is way off, that dude is 5'7".  Saw Raya pitch last year and he definitely needs to add some muscle to his legs and upper body.  If he can do that and stay healthy, he could be a great find at that draft spot. 

A comparison to Stroman has been made other national outlets in the prospect ranking process, so that's why I included him in the write-up.

[Cody Christie]

42 minutes ago, Hoze said:

I wonder about Law's confidence level on Raya not having a plus 3rd pitch.. 

Fwiw @Data_prospects (Twitter) had a 8/23 report on Raya and posted the following on his secondaries:

Slider:
"His slider is filthy also. The pitch is thrown with a very workable velocity in the mid 80s (average velocity of 83.7 mph). The movement here is lights out, getting 3.5” of lift on the pitch along with 13” of sweep. Despite throwing the pitch in the zone 56.3%, he is still getting strikes almost 80% of the time he throws the slider. He is also able to limit hard contact significantly better with the slider than with the fastball. I would give the pitch a 60 grade"

Cutter:
"He has also thrown a Cutter in the high 80s/low 90s, which has been outstanding for him so far. The pitch gets 8.5” of lift and 8.3” of glove side movement on average and has drawn a Whiff% of 48% and has held hitters to a xwOBA of .127 on the offering. Going to go out on a limb and calling it a 70. If you don’t like it, sue me."

Curve:
"While the slider might be filthy, I don’t think it’s his best breaking ball. Though he has only thrown it 80 times, his curveball is one of the best in the minors. Velocity is a non-issue again, sitting at 80mph and running up to 84mph. The movement profile is gaudy, posting an astounding 56.9” of depth on average and 10” of sweep. According to statcast, there are just 3 qualified major league pitchers who throw curveballs with >55” of depth and >80mph on average. The list is: Carlos Rodon, Dylan Cease, Joe Musgrove. Raya has held hitters to an impressive .221 xwOBA on the pitch and has posted a Whiff% of 34%, I’ll play it cool and 60 it for now but I’d bump it to a 70 if he throws it more."

Law also tends not to prefer pitchers with a smaller stature. I believe he wasn't very high on Berrios when he was in the system.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Kudos to Twins Daily for shaking up the rankings!

Raya looks like a guy to watch. Hits per 9 is a number I like to check to get a basic idea on guys I'm not familiar with, and that checks out really well with Raya. Then yeah the good analysis by @Hoze 🙂 and yeah the physical profile and even the windup comparison to Berrios is hard to miss.

[2wins87]

1 hour ago, Hoze said:

I wonder about Law's confidence level on Raya not having a plus 3rd pitch.. 

Fwiw @Data_prospects (Twitter) had a 8/23 report on Raya and posted the following on his secondaries:

Slider:
"His slider is filthy also. The pitch is thrown with a very workable velocity in the mid 80s (average velocity of 83.7 mph). The movement here is lights out, getting 3.5” of lift on the pitch along with 13” of sweep. Despite throwing the pitch in the zone 56.3%, he is still getting strikes almost 80% of the time he throws the slider. He is also able to limit hard contact significantly better with the slider than with the fastball. I would give the pitch a 60 grade"

Cutter:
"He has also thrown a Cutter in the high 80s/low 90s, which has been outstanding for him so far. The pitch gets 8.5” of lift and 8.3” of glove side movement on average and has drawn a Whiff% of 48% and has held hitters to a xwOBA of .127 on the offering. Going to go out on a limb and calling it a 70. If you don’t like it, sue me."

Curve:
"While the slider might be filthy, I don’t think it’s his best breaking ball. Though he has only thrown it 80 times, his curveball is one of the best in the minors. Velocity is a non-issue again, sitting at 80mph and running up to 84mph. The movement profile is gaudy, posting an astounding 56.9” of depth on average and 10” of sweep. According to statcast, there are just 3 qualified major league pitchers who throw curveballs with >55” of depth and >80mph on average. The list is: Carlos Rodon, Dylan Cease, Joe Musgrove. Raya has held hitters to an impressive .221 xwOBA on the pitch and has posted a Whiff% of 34%, I’ll play it cool and 60 it for now but I’d bump it to a 70 if he throws it more."

I read "3rd pitch" to be referring more to his changeup in that context, though I guess Law doesn't seem to love is slider like most publications do.

I didn't realize Raya threw a cutter too.  Having 3 distinct breaking balls could be interesting if he can learn to command them all, though most likely he'll have to focus on the two moving up.  It might be enough to keep lefties off any one breaking ball, but if he's going to be a starter, the changeup will probably still be key.

[bird]

2 hours ago, Hoze said:

I wonder about Law's confidence level on Raya not having a plus 3rd pitch.. 

Fwiw @Data_prospects (Twitter) had a 8/23 report on Raya and posted the following on his secondaries:

Slider:
"His slider is filthy also. The pitch is thrown with a very workable velocity in the mid 80s (average velocity of 83.7 mph). The movement here is lights out, getting 3.5” of lift on the pitch along with 13” of sweep. Despite throwing the pitch in the zone 56.3%, he is still getting strikes almost 80% of the time he throws the slider. He is also able to limit hard contact significantly better with the slider than with the fastball. I would give the pitch a 60 grade"

Cutter:
"He has also thrown a Cutter in the high 80s/low 90s, which has been outstanding for him so far. The pitch gets 8.5” of lift and 8.3” of glove side movement on average and has drawn a Whiff% of 48% and has held hitters to a xwOBA of .127 on the offering. Going to go out on a limb and calling it a 70. If you don’t like it, sue me."

Curve:
"While the slider might be filthy, I don’t think it’s his best breaking ball. Though he has only thrown it 80 times, his curveball is one of the best in the minors. Velocity is a non-issue again, sitting at 80mph and running up to 84mph. The movement profile is gaudy, posting an astounding 56.9” of depth on average and 10” of sweep. According to statcast, there are just 3 qualified major league pitchers who throw curveballs with >55” of depth and >80mph on average. The list is: Carlos Rodon, Dylan Cease, Joe Musgrove. Raya has held hitters to an impressive .221 xwOBA on the pitch and has posted a Whiff% of 34%, I’ll play it cool and 60 it for now but I’d bump it to a 70 if he throws it more."

Great stuff! Thanks, Hoze.

Although I wonder if the report was written by his dad or something. It's high praise.

[IndyTwinsFan]

5 hours ago, Craig Arko said:

This must be the pipeline. :)

Sure gives that appearance.

May be that some of the COVID-19 related "complications" that were beyond our ability to control, plus some unfortunate injuries, may have blurred our view on the potential incoming pitching pipeline. 

[Mike Sixel]

3 hours ago, Cody Christie said:

Law also tends not to prefer pitchers with a smaller stature. I believe he wasn't very high on Berrios when he was in the system.

Correct. It's not that smaller pitchers never succeed, it's that the odds are they won't. These rankings don't come with ranges..... Mostly

[BsuNemo]

Probably not the comment you want to read but a pitcher in the twins organization that already has shoulder issues and can't be allowed to throw over 4 innings is not what I want to hear when talking about our "top" pitching prospect. It feels like he'll end up going the Duran route. I hope I'm wrong. 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

1 hour ago, BsuNemo said:

Probably not the comment you want to read but a pitcher in the twins organization that already has shoulder issues and can't be allowed to throw over 4 innings is not what I want to hear when talking about our "top" pitching prospect. It feels like he'll end up going the Duran route. I hope I'm wrong. 

Point taken, but age is on his side here.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

Correct. It's not that smaller pitchers never succeed, it's that the odds are they won't. These rankings don't come with ranges..... Mostly

One of the old scouting rules of thumb was, never draft a short right-handed pitcher directly out of high school (i think i read that in money ball)