#23 2020 Prospect: Kyle Stowers - OF

[Tony-OH]

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2020/10/27/23-2020-prospect-kyle-stowers-of/

[LookinUp]

Not young. Hopefully he can figure out that swing relatively quickly. 

[Can_of_corn]

14 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

Not young. Hopefully he can figure out that swing relatively quickly. 

Yea, I'd say his most likely future role isn't with the big league club.

[LookinUp]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Yea, I'd say his most likely future role isn't with the big league club.

I'm not saying that either way really. It's just that these college guys who got a cup of coffee in the minors and then lost a season to Covid are in a weird spot. He was already playing in a league where most of the real prospects are younger. Now he lost a season through no fault of his own. So he'll be another year older, likely still at a lower level, or promoted because of age but without minor league ABs working on his swing. You just never know how that'll affect a guy who needs to change his approach to fit against better competition. 

[Chuck A]

His scouting report is exactly why i figured him much lower than this.

[LookinUp]

16 minutes ago, Chuck A said:

His scouting report is exactly why i figured him much lower than this.

Good athlete. Power potential. If he can make consistent contact, he could end up a good ML player. It's all about whether they can change his college swing into a pro swing. Who knows, but there's talent in there. That's why he was drafted in the 2nd round and why he's on this list.

That's a lot of what you get in the draft. The difference is age, but the other side is Stowers has done more against better competition than real young guys like Mayo have ever had the chance to do.

[Tony-OH]

19 minutes ago, Chuck A said:

His scouting report is exactly why i figured him much lower than this.

Here's the thing, he was using his college swing so I'm not going to bury him after some bad initial results. He has some tools to work from so there is some upside with him still. The lost season sucked for everyone, but particularly for a guy that needed some reworking on his swing and was already going to play at 22 this past year.

I really don't have a great read on him so honestly, he could be higher, lower or just right. Basically at this point on the list if he can use his tools and end up a left-handed hitting power hitting leftfielder I'll take that because of the upside.

[LookinUp]

As always, I'm learning a lot from this list. We really get a sense of the player's profile. From there, it's all about whether there's projection and actual development. Stowers seems to project. It's anyone's guess whether he can develop. 

 

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, LookinUp said:

As always, I'm learning a lot from this list. We really get a sense of the player's profile. From there, it's all about whether there's projection and actual development. Stowers seems to project. It's anyone's guess whether he can develop. 

 

That's a good way to look at it honestly. Stowers is certainly a projection guy with a decent ceiling, but he has a high risk profile on whether he can get there or not.

[hoosiers]

I saw Stowers multiple games with Aberdeen in Brooklyn in 2019.  He just glides across the OF in large strides (which makes it all the more impressive that Janvrin pushed Stowers to RF - which gave the Aberdeen pitchers two OFers who could track down everything that possibly could be tracked down).  As I posted at the time, we sat with Mark Dashbach's father and had to cheer for our three Stanford guys with him.  

I hope what the Os saw with Stower's swing is fixable because there's a big hit risk here for a second rounder IMO.  This pick has the downside of the OF equivalent of a Cadyn Grenier.  It would be an enormous boost to our OFers at the bottom of the system if Stowers turns into the player the Os envisioned when drafted.

[Just Regular]

2 hours ago, LookinUp said:

It's just that these college guys who got a cup of coffee in the minors and then lost a season to Covid are in a weird spot

2021 midseason moves will probably be crazy.   The whiffing in the NYP suggests a conservative initial assignment, but also one where hopefully he's Barry Bonds grown man to the children he'll be playing with.  A good Stowers '21 I think pushes through three levels; two is making par, maybe.