Twins Daily 2019 Top Prospects: #9 Blayne Enlow

That is an impressive season for a 19 year old in A ball.  So far looks to be as good as advertised from the draft.  A good season at high A and he'll be moving up a head of schedule.

 

Speaking of A+ it looks like that will be the team to watch this year.  With Graterol, Enlow, Duran, and possibly Balazovic you have four young pitchers that appear to have mid to front-line starter stuff. Nice to see some strong pitching candidates coming up through the system.

 

Here's hoping that Enlow is a big part of wave two for the Twins.

Hoefully, Graterol will be there a very short time, if at all.

If he posted a 1.33 ERA in 20 GCL innings, and end the season with 53 innings of 2.36ERA in Low A, he must have had a really rough first 21 innings in Cedar Rapids to wind up with a 3.26 ERA overall.

In any event, I certainly hope he pans out. For some reason I feel like he’s on the same path as Gonsalves.

An exciting young pitching prospect? Let's be patient and hang on to him! From everything I've read so far, he could turn into a solid MLB pitcher in the coming years. Please, please, please let this happen ... and happen with the Twins. .

I'm not a pitching guru or anything, but I did happen to catch a couple Enlow starts in CR last year.  I'd say he needs to just keep working on command and control.  Of course, that is probably true for 99.9% of the pitchers out there (I'll leave .1% open for Maddux & Co.).  It especially applies to all 19 yo pitchers though.  

Anyway, the first time I watched him, he threw quite a few pitches in just a couple of innings and then they went to the pen. Maybe this was due to one of those muscle pull injuries.

The second time I saw him, he was much better and went deeper into the game. He still walked a couple, plunked a couple and had some backstop balls in there. But, he also was hitting 94 at times, didn't give up many hits and got some Ks.

I agree with the poster above that the possible FSL rotation full of 20-21 yo pitchers is nice to see.

I like Enlow. I think this will be an interesting season for him, not on a make or break sort way but more on a developmental path. If the changeup starts coming together, if his command and control continues to develop and he's able to get deeper into games, if he continues to physically develop and avoid the minor injuries...he could be a fast-track guy. If not on some of these questions, he'll probably take a slower development path.

He's got the plus curve that could be an elite pitch, and a good fastball to support it, so the future looks bright on him. Without a 3rd pitch he probably ends up in the bullpen at the MLB level, but mid-90's heat (more if he doesn't have to pace himself?) and a wipeout curve can make for a nasty backend reliever too.

Future looks bright, upside is there, good start so far. but long way to go on this guy.

I don't get the lack of k's with his velocity and breaking ball. control must be pretty inconsistent. His velo and curve are major league level. but control is part of "stuff". a big part.

By the time Enlow makes it to the big leagues, starting pitchers might only be asked to make it through the line-up a couple of times.

Well, yeah...for the ones that aren't actually good.

If the projection for Enlow (or any 'starter') is that he can be a good 4-5 inning 'follower'...then he shouldn't be ranked this high. The bar will continue to be...and needs to be...set higher for arms that are drafted as high as Enlow was.

So far, IMO, he's not done anything to discourage the higher ceiling. Maybe the mediocre K/9 numbers (so far) and distance from the show have me ranking him a little lower.

I like Enlow, a lot, but this type of pitcher does not seem to make a major player for me until he succeeds at AA.  The third pitch will be key as will consistency in finding the strike zone.  The FSL still has a lot of filler in it and while we all would like his numbers to be great, they are going to have to be very good to convince me he is the real deal.

Maybe I need to see him, but am not going to be in Florida long enough this year to see an FSL game.