KC Royals: Pitching and hitting prospect notes from Spring Training

Jackson Kowar, Starting Pitcher

Something is a little off with Kowar’s mechanics, as he was getting on-top of the ball in his release. Kowar appeared to be rushing his arm through his mechanics to get to the point of release, resulting in a lot of his pitches landing up in the zone.

The fastball has good velocity, ranging between 92-96 mph and consistently hitting 95 mph. There’s not much movement to the pitch, but with the velocity and the proper set-up to his off-speed the fastball will be effective.

Curveball looked better than in his first outing this spring. It being thrown as a chase pitch in this outing, landing outside the zone with 11 to 5 o’clock movement. Kowar didn’t generate any swings on the offering, but it had good movement and he didn’t leave it over the plate.

Change-up looks simply awesome with late down/away movement at 85 mph; Borderline plus-plus pitch when he has his command. He left the pitch up in the middle of the plate a couple of times, really needs to get on-top of it and throw low in the zone so it dips down and gets chases. Kowar’s change-up is his out pitch.

Performance

• Got the first batter to ground out to the shortstop.
• Walked the next batter.
• Got a line-out to left field for second out.
• Gave up a ground ball single to left field, then struck out the final batter to end the inning.

Kowar didn’t have his command and missed up in zone with the fastball and in the dirt with a couple of curveballs. Mechanics are still a work in progress and need to be worked on to have command. Fastball velocity pairs nicely with the movement on curveball and change-up.

There’s a lot to like with Jackson Kowar, he just needs to refine mechanics from the wind-up and more fastball command out of stretch.