Control issues for some of the Seattle Mariners pitching prospects

I was scanning through the Seattle Mariners minor league affiliate stats and noticed a lot of big numbers in the walk column for many of the Mariners pitching prospects. Although this is to be somewhat expected, I think it’s worth taking a look at who is having control issues and who is not.

Seattle Mariners pitching prospects – Modesto Nuts

Let’s start with the Low-A affiliate Modesto Nuts first. There aren’t as many top pitching prospects in Modesto compared to Everett, but there are a few names worth keeping an eye on:

• Connor Phillips (11th)
• Adam Macko (15th)
• Sam Carlson (25th)
• Taylor Dollard (Non-Top 30)

Connor Phillips, the 64th pick in last year’s MLB draft is getting his first taste of professional baseball and he hasn’t been bad, but hasn’t been fantastic. He currently owns a 4.67 ERA in 17.1 innings.

The young 20-year-old has struck out an amazing 31 batters but has walked 10 batters. That should give you a sense of the quality Phillips has and his walks should go down as he develops, but if he cannot adjust it would be a problem.

Adam Macko is another big name in the organization and is currently the 15th ranked prospect in the Seattle Mariners farm system. The left-hander pitched in 2019 but only 23.1 innings and he walked 12 batters in during that stretch.

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This year, he has already matched his walk total in 2019 through 18.1 innings. Macko currently owns a 4.42 ERA which isn’t great either, and both Macko and Phillips have a WHIP larger than 1.40. At the same time, Adam Macko also owns a high strikeout rate and has fanned 37 batters.

Sam Carlson has also struggled a bit with allowing free passes. In 12.2 innings, he has walked seven batters but has struck out 20. Similar story here, all three of the prospects I have mentioned are able to fan batters with ease but control is something that they need to focus on moving forward.

Taylor Dollard on the other hand has been able to minimize walks and strike out batters. The 2020 fifth-round pick has struck out 39 batters while allowing just four bases on balls. Now that is what I am looking for!

Seattle Mariners pitching prospects – Everett AquaSox

There are a lot of big names in Everett so I will try to keep these recaps rather brief. Emerson Hancock (3rd) and George Kirby (5th) don’t have too large of a sample size right now, and I am honestly not worried about them even if they allowed an abundance of walks. Hancock has allowed four walks through 9.1 innings, while Kirby has allowed just one in 8.2 innings.

Juan Then (9th) also hasn’t pitched too often and has walked four batters in eight innings. Brandon Williamson (10th) has sort of been an under-the-radar pitching prospect and he has walked six batters in 12.2 innings. Not a terrible walk rate, but not great.

Isaiah Campbell is the next highest ranked at 12th and was known as a strike-thrower and he has done that. Through 13.2 innings, he has allowed just three walks. This is a good example of why college pitchers tend to be a little more seasoned especially with control.

Levi Stoudt, the 14th ranked prospect has thrown the most for the Everett AquaSox but he has also allowed the most walks on the team. Stoudt has walked 13 batters in 18 innings.

A little further down the prospect list, we have Tim Elliott and Matt Brash. Both of these Seattle Mariners prospects are struggling badly with free passes. Elliott has walked 11 batters in 13.1 innings while Matt Brash has walked 11 in 15.2 innings.

Again, these aren’t glaring numbers but it’s good to know who needs to work on their control and who doesn’t as they develop. Pitchers like George Kirby and Isaiah Campbell are clearly not having issues with throwing strikes so that could get them to the big leagues sooner compared to others.

Although there are some decent pitchers with the Arkansas Travelers and Tacoma Rainiers, it isn’t really worth looking into those pitchers. If you couldn’t tell, I named off a lot of prospects so that should get you excited about the future of the Seattle Mariners.

There still is a lot of work to do with the development of many of these pitching prospects, but it is good to see many of them succeed.