Dance with Disco Dan

Start No. 9 (06/11/15) Kohl made his ninth start against the Lakeland Flying Tigers. This start was pushed back a day because of bad weather earlier in the week and shorted to a 7-inning game to accommodate a double header. Kohl picked up his second win of the season in a 7-3 victory as the Miracle offense had its best game in four weeks. While this game represented an improvement over his last two starts, it was not an unqualified success despite the result. Over six innings, Kohl faced 25 batters and surrendered 7 hits (including 1 2B) and 3 walks. He was charged with 3 runs but only one of those runs was earned as Alex Swim turned one fly ball into 2 errors (one fielding, one throwing) which allowed 2 runners to score. Kohl was able to limit the damage from allowing 10 base runners by inducing 3 groundball double plays. Once again, he struggled to strike batters out although his lone strikeout came against the last batter he faced in the 6th inning which squelched a Lakeland rally. Although Kohl allowed too many walks and posted too few strikeouts, the biggest concern arising in this game was his GB% vs. FB%. His GB% was below 50% for only the second time this season but his rate was a career-worst 34.8%. For perspective, Kohl’s GB% entering the game was 60.8% which at the MLB level is elite. Thus far in his career, Kohl has established himself as an extreme groundball pitcher that also limits hard contact—his LD% is 14.6% this season which is also elite at the MLB level. Unfortunately, the benefit of those qualities is muted because Kohl does not strike out many batters meaning more balls are put in play against him than the average pitcher. Unless and until he develops a strikeout repertoire, he will need to maintain elite GB% and LD% rates to have much success. Hopefully, the rash of fly balls/line drives in this game was an aberration. Box Score: Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Kohl Stewart 6.0 7 3 1 3 1 0 3.62 Season Stats: IP: 49.2 ERA: 3.62 FIP: 3.37 WHIP: 1.49 AVG: .297 GO/AO: 2.08 K/9: 4.17 W/9: 2.90 Check these webpages for more granular stats and Kohl game logs: MiLB.com: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t509&player_id=640464#/career/R/pitching/2015/ALL Baseball Reference: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=stewar000koh Fangraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa737436&position=P

He's the latest player to possess Punto's file of incriminating photos? Butera must have left them behind in his locker after the trade.

Start No. 8 (06/04/15) In his eighth start, Kohl faced the FSL’s top hitting team and it did not go well. The Bradenton Marauders’ line-up featured six of the Pirates’ top-20 prospects including CF Austin Meadows—selected 5 spots after Kohl—who has climbed to No. 13 overall on ESPN.com. For the second straight game, Kohl was not very effective and he was chased before recording an out in the 6th inning trailing 5-1 in a 7-3 Miracle loss. Over five innings, Kohl faced 26 batters and surrendered 10 hits (including 2 2B) and 2 walks and gave up 5 runs (4 earned runs). His ground-ball percentage remained good but his line-drive percentage was over 20% for the second time this season. Kohl also uncorked two wild pitches moving runners into scoring position (who both scored) and made two errors (one fielding and one throwing). In short, this game was one to forget. Kohl has seen his ERA rise 1.32 runs over the last two starts—from 2.60 to 3.92. When his ERA was at 2.60, I felt pretty good about it but I was unsure what that number actually represented. In the context of what we understand about MLB stats, a 2.60 ERA is excellent. But, we all know that the FSL is a pitchers league so I gathered a few FSL league-average pitching stats to give context to Kohl’s stats (and to the stats of the other Miracle pitchers). Here they are through June 4, 2015: FSL League-Average: ERA: 3.23 WHIP: 1.27 AVG: .249 K/9: 7.30 W/9: 3.00 Box Score: Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Kohl Stewart 5.0 10 5 4 2 3 0 3.92 Season Stats: IP: 43.2 ERA: 3.92 FIP: 3.24 WHIP: 1.47 AVG: .295 GO/AO: 2.33 K/9: 4.53 W/9: 2.68 Check these webpages for more granular stats and Kohl game logs: MiLB.com: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t509&player_id=640464#/career/R/pitching/2015/ALL Baseball Reference: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=stewar000koh Fangraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa737436&position=P

Start No. 7 (05/29/15) This write-up is a bit dated as Kohl made his seventh start last Friday. In this game, Kohl was matched up against the Clearwater Threshers—a Phillies affiliate—featuring their uber-prospect SS J.P. Crawford (No. 4 overall ESPN.com) who has since been promoted to AA after slashing .392/.489/.443 in the FSL. The Threshers lineup also included prospects C Andrew Knapp (No. 13 MLB.com), RF Dylan Cozens (No. 19 MLB.com) and CF Aaron Brown (No. 22 MLB.com). LHP Brandon Liebrandt (No. 27 MLB.com) started for the Threshers. And yes, he is the son of Charlie “We Will See You Tomorrow Night” Liebrandt. Unfortunately, this game was Kohl’s first true clunker of the season and the worst outing of his career so far. He faced 22 batters over only 4 innings and surrendered a career-high 10 hits (including 1 2B and 1 3B) and a career-high 5 earned runs. The Miracle was trailing 6-0 when Kohl was replaced at the start of the 5th inning and went on to lose the game 7-6. Although he did not walk any batters he only managed to strike out one. If one is looking for a silver lining, Kohl continued to generate a high ground-ball rate (69% GB%) and a low line-drive percentage (8.6% LD%). An unusually high number of the 16 groundballs hit by the Threshers’ went for hits—six. I didn’t see or listen to the game but it’s possible, looking at those figures, that this was just an unlucky game where the balls put in play had eyes. The game recap on MiLB.com indicates that one of the hits in the 4-run 1st inning was a tailor-made double-play ball to Engelb Vielma until it hit something and took a weird hop over his shoulder. With a little luck, the story of this game may have been entirely different. Box Score: Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Kohl Stewart 4.0 10 6 5 0 1 0 3.49 Season Stats: IP: 38.2 ERA: 3.49 FIP: 3.23 WHIP: 1.34 AVG: .275 GO/AO: 2.42 K/9: 4.42 W/9: 2.56 Check these webpages for more granular stats for Kohl: MiLB.com: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t509&player_id=640464#/gamelogs/R/pitching/2015/MINORS Baseball Reference: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=stewar000koh Fangraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa737436&position=P

Start No. 6 (05/23/15) In his third appearance back from the disabled list, Kohl pitched his best game of the season and picked up his first win (I don’t care about the win stat but maybe some of the voters that handed Johan’s 2005 Cy Young to Bartolo Colon will read this post and appreciate the data point). Kohl pitched seven strong innings against the Brevard County Manatees—a Milwaukee Brewers affiliate—in a 3-1 Miracle victory. Kohl faced off against RHP Jorge Ortega, an unranked prospect having a very solid season as a 21 year old in High A (2.21 ERA; .91 WHIP). Ortega is a bit of a mystery man as a 2011 signing out of Venezuela who spent his first four years in various levels of Rookie ball. Then this year, he was jumped up to High A and has been very effective. I expect he'll be rising up the Brewers' prospect list. Ortega pitched well in this game but his defense let him down by committing three errors that contributed to all three Miracle runs. The Manatees’ lineup featured three ranked prospects: RF Clint Coulter (MLB.com no. 4, ESPN.com no. 4); LF Victor Roache (MLB.com no. 14); and CF Omar Garcia (MLB.com no. 28). It’s interesting to note that Coulter is now a full-time outfielder. Kernels fans may remember that Coulter led the MWL with 22 homers last year (and was 4th with a .930 OPS) as 20 year old splitting time between catcher and DH. His bat at catcher portended an All-Star but will still play well in the outfield assuming he continues on his development trajectory. Over his seven innings, Kohl faced 24 batters and surrendered just 1 run on 4 hits (including 1 2B) and issued zero walks. Coulter, Roache and Garcia were a combined 0-9 against Kohl. Except for the second inning when the Manatees strung together a double and a broken-bat single, he was in complete control. His line-drive rate on balls in play was 10% which is exceptional. If one was looking to pick nits, Kohl “only” struck out 4 batters and his ground-ball/fly-ball ratio (1.00) was merely very good instead of his typical outstanding. This was a VERY good performance and it’s nice to see him come back strong from his DL stint. Box Score: Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Kohl Stewart 7.0 4 1 1 0 4 0 2.60 Season Stats: IP: 34.2 ERA: 2.60 FIP: 3.28 WHIP: 1.21 AVG: .246 GO/AO: 2.39 K/9: 4.67 W/9: 2.86 Check these webpages for more granular stats and Kohl game logs: MiLB.com: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t509&player_id=640464#/career/R/pitching/2015/ALL Baseball Reference: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=stewar000koh Fangraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa737436&position=P

Both players are hitting well (particularly Varva) but both are old for their level of competition. Both are roughly a. year and a half older than average. If the Twins see Vavra as anything more than an org guy, I don't understand why they haven't moved him up to High A so they can see what he can do against age-appropriate competition (he won't be young in the FSL either). Goodness knows the Miracle lineup could use more bats. Swim has hit for average at every level but doesn't walk and has shown no power. Mostly while being old for his competition level. I look at his stats and see Revere without the speed element - i.e. no triples or steals. All that said, neither player can do anything but go out and perform at the level the Twins assign them. To their credit, they are doing that.

Start No. 5 (05/17/15) Kohl took the mound for his scheduled start against the Jupiter Hammerheads—a Miami Marlins affiliate—answering any injury-related concerns stemming from his early hook last start. We can almost surely chalk that removal up to a pitch limit for his first start back from the disabled list. This game, Kohl pitched 5 full innings and exited with the score tied 2-2 in a 5-3 Miracle win. The Hammerheads’ lineup featured four of the Marlins’ top prospects: 2B Avery Romero (MLB.com no. 4, ESPN.com no. 5); 3B Brian Anderson (MLB.com no. 9); LF Austin Dean (MLB.com no. 10); and SS J.T. Riddle (MLB.com no. 19). Riddle and Dean connected for first-inning doubles which gave the Hammerheads a 1-0 lead. They didn’t score again off Kohl until the 5th inning. A leadoff bunt single put a runner on third-base after a two-base throwing error by Niko Goodrum. Riddle (4 for 5 this game) singled home the runner closing the scoring book on Kohl. Over the 5 innings, Kohl surrendered 6 hits (including 2 2Bs) and two walks, and was charged with 2 runs (only one earned). Kohl continued to induce a lot of groundballs and he also struck out 4 batters. All in all, this was a productive and encouraging start. Seeking some perspective on Kohl’s early-season success at inducing groundballs, I calculated his groundball rate and line drive rate using the raw data for each provided by Baseball-Reference.com. After five appearances: (i) 89 batted balls have been put in play, (ii) 53 of those were ground balls; and (iii) and 16 were line drives. This gives Kohl a GB% of 59.6% and a LD% of 17.8%. If Kohl had achieved this groundball rate in MLB, he’d currently be ranked fourth behind Tyson Ross, Dallas Keuchel and Felix Hernandez (Mike Pelfrey is currently 9th at 56.9%; Kyle Gibson has a 53.1% rate). His line drive rate would place him 17th overall. Obviously, he’s been working against High A hitters not MLB hitters and I don’t intend to imply that these rates will continue as he rises in competition level. I just wanted to bring out the point that, although his strikeout rate is disappointing so far, there are other aspects of his game that are shining. NOTE: We know groundballs=good thing. This is because only 23% result in base hits and a very small percentage of those hits go for extra bases. We also know that line drives=bad thing. This is because almost 70% of them result in base hits, many for extra bases (I was surprised the number was so high). Box Score: Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Kohl Stewart 5.0 6 2 1 1 4 0 2.93 Season Stats: IP: 27.2 ERA: 2.93 FIP: 3.61 WHIP: 1.37 AVG: .265 GO/AO: 2.88 K/9: 4.55 W/9: 3.58 Check these webpages for more granular stats and Kohl game logs: MiLB.com: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t509&player_id=640464#/career/R/pitching/2015/ALL Baseball Reference: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=stewar000koh Fangraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa737436&position=P

Buxton over Harrison on this night. I have to discount whatever Vavra does at Cedar Rapids because he is 1.6 years older than average for that league. He is certainly hitting well and the guy can only perform where the Twins assign him. Which raises the question of whether it's time to move Vavra up to Fort Myers. The Miracle are languishing near the bottom of the league in most hitting categories with an older lineup. Promoting Vavra may give the Miracle lineup a boost--like Granite has done so far--and get Vavra playing against more age-appropriate competition.

Start No. 4 (05/12/15) Kohl returned to the mound for the first time in 20 days after spending time on the disabled list dealing with elbow inflammation. He was inserted directly into the starting rotation to face the Dunedin Jays. Kohl’s appearance was a little bit wild (2 BBs and a HBP), a little bit encouraging (he had the Jays beating ground-balls at his fielders), and worryingly short (he was replaced in the 3rd inning after facing only 13 batters). He exited the game trailing 2-1 in a Miracle 5-2 loss. Kohl surrendered only two singles in this game but his wildness, a two-run throwing error by Niko Goodrum, and Alex Muren’s own wildness in relief resulted in 4 runs (1 earned) being charged to Kohl. The looming question from this outing is why Kohl was removed from the game? The game situation did not seem to call for it—he had just induced a potential inning-ending groundball that Goodrum threw into right field trying to turn a double play. Had Goodrum turned two, Kohl was out of the inning leading 1-0. Had Goodrum only gotten the lead runner, the score was tied with runners on the corners. This is not a situation that called for a reliever unless: (i) Kohl was on a strict pitch limit; (ii) Kohl was experiencing some discomfort; or (iii) Kohl was feeling fine but his velocity was down significantly. Obviously, I am hopeful that he was removed for scenario (i) or some other benign reason that I am not thinking of. I looked at the reports for the game and there is no mention about the reason for Kohl’s short stint or his health. I suppose we’ll know something more when his next start comes around. If he is healthy and simply building back up, we can return to fretting about Kohl’s strikeout rate—he did not strike out any of the 13 batters he faced. Box Score: Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Kohl Stewart 2.1 2 4 1 2 0 0 3.18 Season Stats: IP: 22.2 ERA: 3.18 FIP: 3.93 WHIP: 1.37 AVG: .253 GO/AO: 3.00 K/9: 3.97 W/9: 3.97 Check these webpages for more granular stats and Kohl game logs: MiLB.com: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t509&player_id=640464#/career/R/pitching/2015/ALL Baseball Reference: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=stewar000koh Fangraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa737436&position=P

Very good news! Mike Berardino is reporting that Kohl is returning to the Miracle's active roster and will start the game Monday night. It is encouraging that he is re-entering the rotation rather than starting out in the bullpen. Let's all hope that the elbow issue is behind him and he has a productive season.

Phil Miller, in today's Star Tribune, says that the recent MRI "found no structural damage" and that Kohl's workload will be "slowly" ramped up in Cedar Rapids. So it looks like Kohl is heading back to low A until he is back to full health.

Yesterday, Mike Berardino tweeted out a few quotes from Twins farm director Brad Steil about Kohl's condition. According to Steil, Kohl is "doing better" and a recent MRI "looked good." The current plan is to "ramp him back up." This is good news and hopefully he can return to the rotation and have a productive season.

On April 23rd, Kohl was placed on the 7-day Disabled List with reported right elbow inflammation. This is not welcome news and we'll hope that it is a minor discomfort that works itself out quickly.

Start No. 3 (04/21/15) Kohl took the mound for his third start against the Palm Beach Cardinals who countered with one of their own top prospects RHP Alex Reyes (No. 3/No. 77 overall ESPN.com; No. 3/No. 100 overall MLB.com). Unfortunately, the day went to Reyes and the Cardinals’ bullpen as the Miracle fell 4-0. The Miracle have scored a total of 1 run in Kohl’s three starts and, not surprisingly, Kohl’s record now stands at 0-2. When the assignments were made at the beginning of the season, it was hard not to look at the Miracle lineup and wonder where the runs would come from. That question is becoming increasing valid with roughly 10 percent of the games played. Despite fielding the second oldest lineup in the league—a lineup significantly older than all but one other lineup—the Miracle are at or near the bottom of most hitting statistics including dead-last with a .586 OPS. Admittedly, too few games have been played to draw any conclusions. Nevertheless, based on what we know (and/or believe) about the individual potential and past performance of the Miracle hitters there is ample reason to be concerned that the strong pitching staff will receive very little support this season. Despite pitching into the 7th inning, this was Kohl’s first poor outing (judged by his standards). Kohl faced 27 batters over 6.1 innings and surrendered 4 earned runs (matching a career high) on 6 hits (including 1 2B) and 2 walks. Despite the result, however, he controlled the Cardinals’ offense for most of the game. Unfortunately, Kohl started out a bit wild issuing both walks in the 1st inning which allowed a subsequent ground-ball single to plate a run. In the 3rd inning, a lead-off double came around on back-to-back ground outs. In the 7th inning, the Cardinals strung together 3 straight singles to plate a third run and chase Kohl. Reliever Brian Gilbert gave up another single scoring the fourth run charged to Kohl. Among the positives from this start, Kohl cleaned up the wildness he displayed last game hitting no batters and throwing no wild pitches. He also pitched into the 7th inning for the second straight game. Truth be told, the Cardinals did well to maximize their run creation given what they were able to hit off Kohl. On the negative side, he struck out only 2 batters leaving front-and-center the question of whether he can generate the strike-out rate necessary to be the top-line starter that we all hope he’ll become. Box Score: Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Kohl Stewart 6.1 6 4 4 2 2 0 3.10 Season Stats: IP: 20.1 ERA: 3.10 FIP: 3.60 WHIP: 1.33 AVG: .260 GO/AO: 2.67 K/9: 4.4 W/9: 3.5 Check these webpages for more granular stats and Kohl game logs: MiLB.com: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t509&player_id=640464#/career/R/pitching/2015/ALL Baseball Reference: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=stewar000koh Fangraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa737436&position=P

Lewis' season in one photo: He posted this photo to his Twitter account today. The cast is off and rehab can begin. Best of luck to this young man. I know I look forward to seeing him resume his career and I hope he can pick up where he left off.

For anyone interested, the Miracle posted a feature article about Kohl on their website. The first half of the article covers familiar ground about Kohl's football background and his diabetes. The second half of the article, however, has quotes from both Kohl and catcher Alex Swim regarding the pitches he throws. He is now using five pitches including the curveball and two-seam fastball he added last season with the two-seamer apparently developing quite quickly: http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20150418&content_id=119047132&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_t509&sid=t509

Start No. 2 (04/15/15) Kohl’s second start of the season came against the Tampa Yankees, a New York Yankees affiliate (according to Captain Obvious). The Yankees’ lineup featured prospects 3B Miguel Andujar ((No. 9 minorleagueball.com, No. 11 MLB.com) and SS Tyler Wade (No. 20 MLB.com) but it was starting pitcher Rookie Davis (No. 23 MLB.com) that caused the Kernels the most difficulty. Davis and the Yankees’ bullpen kept the Kernels’ bats mostly silent allowing the Yankees to win 3-1 in 11 innings. Kohl pitched his second straight Quality Start and the game was a career-milestone of sorts because he went 8 full innings. Prior to this game he had never pitched into the 7th inning as a professional so this effort represents a big step forward. Kohl not only pitched deep into the game, he also limited the Yankees to only one run. When he was relieved to start the 9th inning the score was tied 1-1. Since the name of the pitching game is run prevention, this start will be filed under “Big Success.” That’s not to say it was a completely dominant effort. Over the 8 innings, Kohl faced 30 batters and allowed 8 hits (including one 2B) and 2 walks. He was able to induce 2 ground-ball double plays and two other Yankees were cut down on the base-paths (Stewart and Garver are controlling the running game so far this season). Once again, Kohl did a very good job inducing ground-ball outs although the GO/AO metric is slightly misleading for this game because more of the total balls-in-play were categorized as line-drives than is typical for Kohl. Also, despite his good walk total, Kohl was uncharacteristically “wild” in that he hit a batter and was charged with 3 wild pitches. And finally, the question of Kohl’s strikeout rate continues to loom as he only recorded 3 in this outing. Box Score: Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Kohl Stewart 8.0 8 1 1 2 3 0 1.93 Season Stats: IP: 14.0 ERA: 1.93 FIP: 3.43 WHIP: 1.36 AVG: .271 GO/AO: 3.50 K/9: 5.1 W/9: 3.9 Check these webpages for more granular stats for Kohl: MiLB.com: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t509&player_id=640464#/career/R/pitching/2015/ALL Baseball Reference: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=stewar000koh Fangraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa737436&position=P

Start No. 1 (04/09/15) Kohl was tapped to be the Miracle’s opening day starter as they faced the Charlotte Stone Crabs, a Tampa Bay Rays affiliate. The Stone Crabs’ lineup featured four players ranked among the Rays’ top prospects: Willy Adames (No. 3 MLB.com & ESPN.com); Andrew Velazquez (No. 10 minorleagueball.com, No. 17 MLB.com); Jake Bauers (No. 13 minorleagueball.com, No. 24 MLB.com); and Kean Wong (No. 30 MLB.com and Kolton’s younger brother). The player of the game, however, was Stone Crab pitcher Blake Snell (No. 12 MLB.com) who dominated the Miracle batters after relieving rehabbing major-leaguer Drew Smyly. Although Kohl delivered a Quality Start and kept his team in the game, he took the loss as the Miracle fell 2-0. Kohl faced 25 batters over 6 innings surrendering 2 runs on 5 hits (including 2 2Bs) and 4 walks. One batter reached on an error but the defense supported Kohl by cutting down three Stone Crabs on the base-paths including two caught-stealing (well done Mitch Garver!). Kohl struck out five and did a nice job keeping the ball out of air posting a 4.50 GO/AO ratio. Clearly, Kohl was uncharacteristically wild matching a career-high in walks but he otherwise pitched well. All-in-all, it was a promising start to the season and we’ll look for him to improve his walk-rate and pitch deeper into games as the season progresses (he has not yet pitched more than six innings in his career): IP 6.0 H 5 R 2 ER 2 BB 4 SO 5 HR 0 ERA 3.00 Check these webpages for more granular stats for Kohl: MiLB.com: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=t509&player_id=640464#/gamelogs/R/pitching/2015/MINORS Baseball Reference: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=stewar000koh Fangraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa737436&position=P

KOHL STEWART http://www.milb.com/images/640464/t509/180x270/640464.jpg Position: Right-Handed Pitcher. Height/ Weight: 6’3’’ 205 lbs. Age: 20 years old all season long (10/07/94 d.o.b.). Drafted: By the Twins in the 1st Round of 2013 (4th overall). Signing Bonus: $4,544,000 (This amount was the MLB-assigned slot-value for the 4th overall selection). 2015 Twins Prospect Rankings: Kohl is generally considered a top-5 Twins prospect and a top-100 overall prospect in baseball: MLB.com (No. 6/No. 37 overall); ESPN (No. 5/ No. 53 overall); Fangraphs (No. 5/No. 73 overall); Baseball America (No.4/No.101-115 overall); Baseball Prospectus (No. 3/No. 28 overall). Expert Sentiment: As the rankings suggest, the experts find a lot to like about Kohl’s abilities. The following are a select quotes from a few pre-season prospect rankings: MLB.com: Scouting grades: Fastball: 65 | Curveball: 50 | Slider: 60 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 55 | Overall: 55 Stewart has the makings of a future frontline starter. He'll throw his fastball up to 96 mph with good movement. His slider is his best secondary pitch, a power breaking ball thrown in the 84-86 mph range that can be an effective out pitch. Stewart also throws a curve and a changeup, both of which show signs of being Major League average. Stewart has a clean delivery he repeats well, is always around the strike zone, and brings a football-like competitiveness to the mound. Keith Law, ESPN.com: He'll show four pitches, any or all of which could end up as plus, with a fastball already up to 97 mph and a slider that is probably closest to being a true swing-and-miss offering. He's a great athlete, as you'd expect, and the Twins have already started to refine his delivery to the point he can at least throw more strikes, although it is control over command. . . . Stewart has the potential to front a rotation given a few more years of development; he might have to learn to pitch at 92-94 first so he can develop some command, and he needs to work in particular on his changeup before Double-A hitters force him to do so. Kiley McDaniel, Fangraphs.com: Fastball: 50/60, Curveball: 50/60, Slider: 45/50+, Changeup: 50/55, Command: 40/50 He worked on his fastball command this season and it’s expected to improve, as he’s a multi-sport kid with limited innings/experience . . . He sits 91-94 and hits 95 mph often with a fluid, simple delivery and a short stride, though some scouts think he’ll settle with a 55 fastball at maturity (which is 91-93 mph). . . . The curveball and changeup both made strides this year after Stewart threw a slider as his primary out-pitch in high school. On the pessimistic side, some scouts don’t give Stewart a future 60 pitch . . . The upside here is a #2/3 starter, but it’s still early to assume that will be what happens. 2014 Minor League Season and Stats: Kohl pitched last season for the Cedar Rapids Kernels and was one of the youngest players in the Midwest League (2.9 years younger than league-average). Despite his youth, Stewart more than held his own delivering a very solid, if not dominant, season. Unfortunately, his season was cut short by shoulder soreness which convinced the Twins to shut him down and begin rest and rehab. Other than the injury, the biggest concern raised by Kohl’s performance was his relative lack of strikeouts. The expectations were that a pitcher with his raw stuff would overmatch low-A batters and rack up a high strikeout rate. There was some anecdotal speculation that the Twins—in the interest of developing his command and other pitches—did not allow Kohl to use his plus slider as much as he would’ve otherwise. If true, this may help explain why he recorded fewer strikeouts than expected. IP: 87 W-L: 3-5 ERA: 2.59 FIP: 3.73 WHIP: 1.14 AVG: .233 K/9: 6.41 W/9: 2.48 GO/AO: 1.74 2015 Assignment: Kohl will begin 2015 as part of the Fort Myers Miracle’s starting rotation. Tidbits: Native of Tomball, Texas . . . a top QB recruit coming out of high school committed to play for Texas A&M before signing his baseball contract . . . a Type-1 diabetic . . . an avid hunter and fisherman . . . one of seven children . . . sister Kelly plays volleyball for Auburn Twitter: @kohlstewart1

Kohl Stewart

I know you aren't defending the Eduardo Nunez experience, but the real surprise is that he is not disliked more on this forum. Or, better for the Twins, disliked more by the front office. I hope he has a great season but he should not be on a major league team. He is not a "glove man" at any position and his career OPS is .684 with an OPS+ of 86 so he is not a "bat man" either. Last season he had a .271 OBP which is not surprising given that his walk rate was the lowest in the American League. Our good friend Delmon "I'm Swinging" Young had a walk rate 70% better than Nunez' and (lest you think Delmon has turned over a new leaf) Delmon had the 13th worst walk rate. Not good. Yesterday's Grantland piece taught us that the combination of Eduardo's swing mechanics and pitch selection has made him a EXCEPTIONAL outlier in the very damaging art of popping up. Like a "Go deep .... no keep going .... keep going, I'll tell you when to stop" outlier. Start with the fact that the slash-line for infield fly balls (less than 160 feet from home) in MLB last year was .021/.021/.026. Bottom-line, pop-ups are caught. Then consider the fact that the average batter hits 27 infield flyballs for every 100 regular flyballs (infield and regular flyballs being separate, non-overlapping categories). Our guy Eduardo hits 70 infield flyballs for every 100 regular flyballs. This is bad. Eduardo hits flyballs (of any kind) 34% of the time which is league-average BUT more than twice as many of those flyballs are infield flyballs than league average. And since the expected outcome of an infield flyball is .021/.021/.026, you can see the problem. Just for perspective, the next worst pop-up artist hits 53 infield flyballs for every 100 regular flyballs. In other words, in this regard, Eduardo is 33% worse than the next worst who himself is 98% worse than league average. It's amazing he produces what he does (which should earn him no roster points).

Yeesh. Old Zips doesn't give us much to dream on. The most surprising projection to me was Vargas with a sub-.400 slugging percentage. I'd like to bet the over on that one.

Fair point. But, to make it even fairer, it should be noted that some of those 26 teams passed in favor of guys like Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Matt Harvey, Chris Sale, and Christian Yelich. Although it's technically true that 26 teams passed on nicksaviking's entire group of HS arms, Washington's decision to pass on each of them with Harper et al. on the board can not be equated with the Twins' decision later in the draft when all but Yelich was off the board.

Start No. 25 (09/01/14) Ryan ended the regular season with one of his best efforts. Pitching against the Clinton LumberKings in the season finale, Ryan went seven strong innings leading the Kernels to a 3-1 victory. He faced only 24 batters and limited the LumberKings to 3 hits (including a 3B) and 1 walk. Although he continued his late-season trend of low strike out totals--striking out only 2 batters--he had 2.0 GO/AO ratio. This is the second game in a row he was very successful at inducing ground balls. Perhaps this represents a change in approach, perhaps it is just small-sample variance. Let's hope it is the former and Ryan's late season uptick has a basis for sustainability. I am not a big believer in chopping up a season and looking only at the portion that fits a given narrative but it cannot be denied that Ryan was a different pitcher down the stretch. While not dominant, he will return to the category of prospect if he can carry over the performance into next season. Over his last nine appearances, Ryan booked a 2.87 ERA and 1.09 WHIP. With the playoffs starting with a three-game series against the Burlington Bees, it is uncertain whether Ryan will have another chance to pitch this season. Presumably, if the Kernels advance he'll have at least one more appearance. Some key season stats: 5.14 ERA 1.48 WHIP 0.79 GO/AO .285 AVG 4.44 FIP Links are to Ryan’s MiLB.com, Fangraphs, and Baseball-Reference pages for more granular stats: http://www.milb.com/..._pbp&pid=592280 http://www.fangraphs...9448&position=P http://www.baseball-...id=eades-001rya

Yes. Let's not risk the wrath of the baseball gods by calling the Buxton v. Correa race over. If they'd drafted Buxton and we had Correa, I don't know that there would be much regret on this board. There is a lot to love about Correa, too. Anyway, I hope both players get healthy and back on track to being star players.