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Topic subjectStewart/Eades... Twins load up on pitching early
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=8&topic_id=2155715&mesg_id=2192943
2192943, Stewart/Eades... Twins load up on pitching early
Posted by Walleye, Fri Jun-07-13 08:43 AM
We talked about Stewart above. High school pitchers have been traditionally associated with greater upside and greater risk, but the second half of that equation is changing with more specialized attention given to players at a younger age. Somebody, somewhere linked a study that the bust rate for HS arms is actually pretty much the same as NCAA arms. So there you go.

Stewart has two plus pitches right now, a fastball and a slider. He's a great athlete who hasn't yet really focused on baseball. Apparently, some people think his nascent curveball can rival his slider pretty soon. Finding a changeup will be key, though that's not particularly common in high school righties.

Eades is a more traditional Twins pick in the sense that he's an NCAA seasoned pitcher from a big program, LSU. It sounds like he's got a bit more stuff than a typical clone army member, though it comes freighted with high school labrum surgery - which is scary. So, some more upside with him, but possibly real injury worry. LEN3 said the Twins were fine with his medical reports but... 2011 happened, so whatever on that.

Here's BA:

Eades doesn't pitch Fridays like most potential college first-round picks, but that's more a testament to sophomore righthander Aaron Nola, a potential top 10 pick in 2014. Scouts are watching to see if Eades loses steam down the stretch as he did last season, and they've been watching Eades for a while. He was hitting 94 mph as a 16-year-old, then injured his shoulder when he was a prep junior. He had labrum surgery and missed his senior season but has been healthy all three years at Louisiana State. He has an athletic 6-foot-3, 198-pound frame and looks the part of a frontline starter, running his four-seamer up to 90-95 mph and adding a two-seamer this year to get more early-count contact. He's honed his breaking ball into a power curveball that scrapes the low 80s, and has improved his changeup under the tutelage of pitching coach Alan Dunn, a longtime pro pitching coach. Eades grades out better than he's performed, though he has improved his strikeout rate from 6.0 strikeouts per nine innings to 8 K/9 IP as a junior. Eades tends to miss armside and high when he leaks out on his front side or gets fatigued, but his strong work ethic has reduced that in 2013. He slots into the 20-40 range on most teams' draft boards but could go higher with a strong finish.