An inside look at the Phillies top prospects.
(MLBPipeline lists the top 30 prospects on each team’s website. While biding time waiting for baseball to resume, Steve Potter will provide his views of these young players. A Clearwater resident, his passion is seeing and following these prospects in person. Normally, Spectrum Field and Carpenter Complex are his second homes. His 4th Annual Phillies Minor League Digest is on sale at www.amazon.com.)
LHP Kyle Young.
Phillies #30 prospect according to MLB.com … 22 years old … 2016 22nd round selection out of Long Island, NY … Kyle had TJ surgery last May ... is working toward a July/August return … Currently in rehab program with Ray Burris at the Complex.
The team lists him at 6’10” but he’s over 7’0” tall. We’ve seen him pitch multiple times ... what stands out to me is he delivers from a higher arm slot with very fluid mechanics ... many tall pitchers end up dropping down to throw. Kyle gets tremendous extension and the ball jumps on the hitter quickly ... when we’ve been able to stand behind the plate and watch he’s consistently releasing the ball at the front part of the dirt.
He’s always had excellent command of all of his pitches and has worked hard on adding strength. That should equate to higher velocity in the future but I don’t think he needs to be a “blazer” ... the ball has really good movement out of his hand, with an imposing frame he’s intimidating ... hitters don’t look comfortable or seem to get good swings against him.
Kyle’s one of our favorite young men ... very cordial and easy going ... always says hello ... a fella you just root for.
Projection: from what we’ve seen he’s got big league skills ... when coupled with an imposing frame and ability to consistently command the strike zone there’s no reason to doubt that he can pitch in the show ... for now the focus will be on getting healthy and once he’s able to do that it’s likely he resumes his career initially with Clearwater as part of the rotation.