Quote:
Originally Posted by KC_Connection
Kloffenstein is having a good year but this is his 2nd year in AA and 6th year a minor leaguer. Not sure how seriously he should be taken as a prospect at this point. Maybe he found something though.
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He's 22.
His first year doesn't count ('18); that's his draft year. It's never fair to include a pitcher's draft year because they're almost always shut down after their HS/College season and you can't really ramp them back up.
'19 was him as an 18 yr old in short season ball where he dominated. By any reasonable analysis that's a successful season.
'20 was wiped out due to COVID.
'21 was ugly but lots of young kids came back and struggled in '21. '22 was undermined by injury.
He's had 3 'true' seasons in the minors. 1 of which was everything you could want from an 18 yr old. 1 of which was the odd post-covid season and 1 of which was broken up by injury.
I absolutely think this was a make or break year - sure. But by most anything I can figure, he 'made' it and has re-established himself as a prospect.
Again, the Cardinals have 3 similarly situated (non-Hence) pitchers in their top 5 prospects right now; all 3 of whom have been in/out of various top 100 lists. Graceffo and McGreevy are both a level higher than Kloffenstein but both are a year older as well. Hjerpe is the same age but only in A+.
If any of those guys are prospects (and undoubtedly all of them are) there's no good faith basis to conclude that Kloffenstein isn't. Again, this isn't some former 20th rounder. This is a guy taken in the 3rd who smashed the signing bonus record for his slot. The pedigree is there, the age is on his side, he's young for his level (still) and he's demonstrated progression and success this season to go with plenty of 'projectability' given his size and arsenal.
That's a legit prospect under any reasonable analysis. Prospect Twitter be damned.