A pitching prospect that I want to evaluate is the 2013 first round draft choice of the St. Louis Cardinals, Rob Kaminsky. This former St. Joseph’s High School Senior was the 28th overall pick in last year’s draft. The young pitcher turned down a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina to sign with the Cardinals at a signing bonus of $1,785,300. This past season, the eighteen-year old Kaminsky pitched in the Gulf Coast League and posted the following numbers:
8 GS, 0-3, 3.68 ERA, 22 IP, 23 H, 9 ER, 28 K, 9 BB
This small sampling shows that Kaminsky seems to have swing-and-miss stuff. If you take a look at his scouting reports, you will notice the following physical description: long arms, broad shoulders, thick build, athletic and durable. His abilities are described as such: good command of Fastball (91-92) and secondary pitches. Solid curve (76-79) with ++ potential, 11-5 action, plenty of rotation, thrown for strikes. Clean and simple mechanics. Hides the ball well. Good arm action that’s maintained with secondary pitches.
The six foot, 190-pound lefty has been compared to Mark Mulder and projects to be a serviceable 2nd or 3rd starter at the major league level if he can develop his change-up. Some scouts that followed up on him this past summer have stated that he is aggressive on the mound and controls the tempo of the game. In his short career, he has already started to mature in professional baseball and has adjusted well to the Cardinals player development philosophy.
Kaminsky is considered to be extremely valuable to the St. Louis Cardinals franchise because while solid pitching is rare, rarer still is left-handed pitching. If you follow the Cardinal blueprint, you know that they pride themselves on developing a strong stable of pitching prospects. On the surface, this seems like a perfect match, but only time will tell if if this prospect can continue along the path to the big leagues.
Do you think he gets that much money or any for that matter if he was a righthander....especially a right handed high schooler?
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteIt definitely helped in Kaminsky's draft selection that he throws left-handed. Regardless, he would have been drafted. What seemed to help the most was the great summer Kaminsky had pitching at Perfect Game tournaments last summer. He pitched very well against the best competition in the country.