Mack - 2015 Prospect List - #25 – RHP Matthew Bowman

My rankings is solely subjective and based on nothing more than what is in my head at time I’m writing this. I’ve followed the Mets minor league players for many years and I feel I can recognize talent at various levels of their development. What I have failed at is how to determine when this talent seems to diminish. It’s amazing how many first round picks never make it in this game.

I’m old school, so you won’t seem much SABR-discussion here, I do research and, when I find a good quote or two, I’ll add them to my analysis, but, like I said in the beginning of this post, most of this us subjective.

Let’s get started.

#25 – RHP Matthew Bowman – 23-years old – 6-0, 165 – R/R

            Drafted in 13^th round of 2012 draft – Princeton

                        2012 –  12-G, 1-start, 2.45, 0.95, 29.1-IP, 30-K

                        2013 –  2-teams: 21-starts, 3.05, 1.15, 127-IP, 116-K

                        2014 -  2-teams:  24-G, 23-starts, 3.21, 1.31, 134.2-IP, 124-K

Bowman probably gets pretty sick of being asked all those questions about his alma mater. It’s not like he went to the Fort Walton Beach Junior College in the Florida panhandle.

You’re also not going to find his name in the Baseball America’s Top 500 list that comes out prior to each draft.

And his last college stat line was 56-IP, 4.66, 58-K, 17-BB, 63-H.

From ‘3^rd & Longenhagen’,[i] a small baseball blog –

Bowman's stuff doesn't blow you away but it's nothing to scoff at. His fastball sits 88-89mph touching as high as 91mph. That's average velocity but the pitch plays down a bit due to how straight it is both vertically and horizontally. Bowman is already at a disadvantage due to his height. He's not going to get natural downhill plane on his fastball. At the next level he's going to have to find a way to make the heater wiggle or sink.

Bowman features three secondary offerings; a changeup, curveball and slider. Of the three, he worked most often with a low-70s curve which suited him just fine against Ivy League hitters but likely won't garner swings and misses from professionals. It has decent depth but its break isn't sharp. The slider shows much more potential. It was inconsistent but flashed nasty, two-plane movement here and there. Scouts nearby mentioned their desire for him to use it more often. Bowman's most consistent off-speed pitch was his changeup which sat in the upper 70s. It showed promising fade and run but Bowman noticeably decelerates his arm.

So, when we all get done with this, all this short ex-shortstop (is every Mets pitcher and ex-shortstop?) can do is just flat out pitch.

Outlook –

            This is another of those mid-ranged pitching prospects that would be a shoe-in for a back end starter in any other rotation; however, it looks like the Mets back enders will by next year be guys that would qualify as front ended anywhere else.

Also, just how many of these pitchers can be put in the Mets bullpen?

Watch for him to start in Las Vegas in 2015 and then keep looking for his name in trade rumors for a multi-amount of players coming out of the Mets caulders.

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[i] http://longenhagen.blogspot.com/2012/04/mlb-draft-prospect-scouting-report-matt.html