Name: Mike Stutes
Position: RHP
Height: 6 feet, 1 inch
Weight: 185 pounds
Birthday: Sept. 4, 1986 (21 years old)
Drafted: 11th Round, 2008 First-Year Player Draft
Class: A Lakewood
Stutes has quickly become one of the Phils’ most pleasant stories on the farm. Drafted in June from Oregon State, Stutes had a huge 12-strikeout game for class-A Lakewood last night. With the 4-0 shutout, he has improved to 3-0 in the South Atlantic League. He has given up just one run on seven hits in his 19 innings, striking out 24. To be short, he has dominated the young leagues.
Before Lakewood he pitched for short-season Williamsport. There he went 2-1 with a 1.33 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 27 innings (six starts). He says he’s been locating his fastball well on both sides of the plate, while also featuring a curveball, a slider and changeup.
Prospects: It’s way too early to jump onto the Stutes-to-Majors bandwagon. Obviously the kid needs to go through Clearwater and Reading — where hitting is much better and the players are practically all his age, so we won’t get any bit of a real read on him until May or so. Since he was a college senior from the draft, he could be tracked quickly up the ladder, long as he continues his fantastic K rates. Optimistically, we’ll peg him as a July 2009 call-up, a la Kyle Kendrick. More realistically, he could get his first sniff of the Majors in September 2009, if he’s good enough.
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