Prospect Rankings No. 17: Yohan Flande

Yohan Flande, LHP

Born: 1/27/1986 in El Seibo, Dominican Republic

Height: 6’2”

Weight: 170

Six months ago Flande was buried in the Phillies farm system, an afterthought in the minds of most who placed more pedigreed pitchers ahead of him in the organizational rankings. But with a breakout performance at Clearwater to start the year, an invitation to the Futures Game and a good stretch at Reading since his promotion, the left-handed Dominican has quickly become one of the Phillies most exciting prospects.

The Phillies signed Flande as an amateur free agent out of the D.R. in 2004, where he stayed and eventually played two seasons with the Dominican Summer League team. He pitched very well in 2006 and 2007 in his homeland before joining the Gulf Coast Phillies last season for 10 impressive appearances with an ERA of 2.19 in 53.1 innings. The big test came this season, as Flande advanced to high-A ball to play with Clearwater, where he dominated opponents for the first half of the season, earning himself a spot on the World Team at the Futures Game where he struck out two batters in a scoreless inning of work. Flande’s dream season took a hit after his call-up to Reading, as he struggled in his first four starts. He has since adjusted, posting a 2.06 ERA over his last six starts.

Flande does not have an overpowering fastball like many top prospects, but instead gets by with good command of all his pitches. He has a very effective changeup that functions as an out pitch, and has learned to pitch inside with his fastball to set up his off-speed pitches for success. He has the type of consistent motion that allows him to easily repeat his success one start after the next.

The only reason to doubt Flande’s ability to continue pitching well is that his track record is fairly short. But all of his underlying numbers indicate that he is doing all the right things on the mound. His groundout-to-airout ratio of 1.66 this season is better than average, as is his .250 batting average against. And for a pitcher without a dominant fastball, a career strikeout rate of 7.4 per 9 innings is also excellent. At 23 Flande may be able to quickly rise through the organization over the next year and make his way to the top of the Phillies prospect rankings. For now, though, we can continue to watch him emerge.

Statistics

Year   Level   W   L   ERA    IP   H    ER   BB   K   K/9

2006   ROOK   6   1   2.08   65   55   15   12   60  8.3

2007   ROOK   3   2   2.36   72.1 61  19   27   62  7.7

2008   ROOK   4   1   2.19   53.1 41  13   11   39  6.6

2009   A+       7   1   2.52   82   72   23   24   67  7.4

2009   AA       3   3   4.00  54   55   24   17   42  7.0

Rankings – All previous prospect profiles can be found here, which is also on the left sidebar for easy viewing

17.  Yohan Flande, LHP
18.  Julian Sampson, RHP
19.  John Mayberry, Jr., OF
20.  Mike Cisco, RHP
21.  Freddy Galvis, SS
22.  Jonathan Pettibone, RHP
23.  Domingo Santana, OF
24.  Jonathan Singleton, 1B
25.  Drew Naylor, RHP