**Keep an eye on Miami Marlins prospect Charlie Lowell.
The southpaw starter for Low-A Greensboro in the South Atlantic League racked up 14 strikeouts on Monday night against Kannapolis, allowing one hit and one run (a homer) in seven innings, walking nobody. On the season, he has a 3.96 ERA with a 97/45 K/BB ratio in 84 innings with 65 hits allowed. His K/IP and H/IP are excellent and reflect the quality of his 90-95 MPH fastball, slider, and change.
A sixth-round pick in 2011 from Wichita State, he has been held back by problems with fastball command, but some mechanical tweaks a couple of weeks ago have reportedly solved this issue, and he has a 20/3 K/BB in his last 13 innings. We'll see if it lasts, but there's upside here.
The big 6-4 ,235 pound lefty was a young junior at age 20 in the 2011 draft, and his college performance was quite good: 2.95 ERA with 63/33 K/BB in 64 innings as a freshman, 3.25 ERA with 36/17 K/BB in 36 injury-shortened 2010 innings, and a 2.79 ERA with a 124/40 K/BB in 103 innings as a junior in '11, allowing just 84 hits and only one homer all year. He gave up just four homers in his entire college career. I thought he was a bargain in the sixth round despite some control issues.
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