Twins Daily 2020 Top Prospects: #10 RHP Blayne Enlow

There is a message here when he passes Lewis Thorpe and Thorpe was one of the projected arms to fill a hole in the MLB rotation that has suddenly filled without him. 

Aren't these rankings of players as prospects rather than on their ability to contribute immediately? Seems like Enlow has a fairly high ceiling and is thus deserving of the #10 spot. 

Thorpe is like 4 years older, and even with his late development, more of a known quantity.

When we drafted Duffey he was a college closer, and not rated anywhere near as highly as Enlow coming out of high school. Granted they both have breaking pitches. Excellent move by the FO to go well over slot on him.

If memory serves, I recall hearing comments when drafted as the best curveball in the draft.  So like many, I got all excited about this young phenom who would be wreaking havoc on hitters at Target Field in a few years.

In reality, becoming a good pitcher takes time.  And that seems like what this kid is doing, putting in the work, getting better and moving up.  Hopefully, that path will continue and we can see him dominate AL hitters a few years from now.

And Seth, I absolutely hate that new name for our Fort Myers franchise.

Everybody has him listed at 6'3" 170. Might have nice frame but needs to bulk up a bit.

Hi Seth - a bookkeeping nit

Age - way back in early SABR days in one of his mass market books Bill James said he set prospect and player assessment age as of July 1st of that season as the player’s age for the year.

Unless there has been a strong argument against that, or Twins Daily feels it is helpful to give age as of the moment and birthdate, I request resetting the “Age” field for prospects to the player’s age as of 7/1. Maybe rename it to Season Age or whatever.

In Enlow’s case, this would be his 21 year old season. Thanks.

A lot of downward movement on last years top 10 list so far. Balazovic has moved from honorable mention to top 9 but otherwise,...

From the video I like Enlow's compact delivery, tho he should cut down further on his full windup footwork, so there is less difference between that and his set delivery. That will help him shift from windup to set without changing his balance point, which should help his control from the set. 

The late movement on Enlow's hard curve is a beautiful thing, but of course it's just one of many elements that make up an MLB starter. The good command and aggressive mound presence will help, but he also needs a third good pitch, hopefully something like a change up. All I saw was heater, sharp breaker, and one big bender. Not really that much like Duffey, whose bread and butter coming up was his giant benders. 

Promising, but lots of development to go.

AGE?

I'd use the same age that I'd tell the police if they asked me. Not what I will be or what I used to be.

Below looks good in the video clip. My first look at him.

Whatever criteria is used for age...Enlow comes out much younger than the last three pitchers who appear on these rankings...almost 4 years younger than Thorpe... and between 1 1/2 to 2 years younger than Canterino and Colina. Very much a work in progress with high upside, which is exactly what you would expect Enlow to be at this point and given his draft status.

I like knowing both the age of the player and the age relative to his competition; knowing one without the other is the opposite of valuable - it's un-valuable.