Atlanta Braves Top 100 Prospects – #10 Touki Toussaint Scouting Report
Atlanta Braves Right Hander Touki Toussaint
Who Is He?
Touki was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 1st round with the 16th selection in the 2014 draft out of high school in Florida. The Diamondbacks started Toussaint with their Arizona Rookie League team and bumped him up to their Pioneer League team in Missoula before the end of the year. While the time in the Arizona league went well, his time with Missoula was rough, leading to a combined line of an 8.58 ERA and 1.98 WHIP over 12 appearances, 10 starts, and 28 1/3 innings. He posted an 18/32 BB/K ratio over that time and received very high marks from scouts. His high marks led to him being rated as the #71 prospect by Baseball America after the season and #98 prospect by MLB.com.
Next: Toussaint's scouting report
The Diamondbacks sent Toussaint to Kane County in the Midwest League of full season low-A ball to start 2015. In June, the Diamondbacks included Toussaint in a trade to the Braves to help them shed the salary of Bronson Arroyo. The Braves sent Touki to Rome in the South Atlantic League, where he finished the season. His control problems continued for the 19 year-old, finishing with combined numbers of a 4.83 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, and 48/67 BB/K over 17 starts and 87 2/3 innings thrown.
Touki Toussaint Scouting Report
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To get a good view of Toussaint, I chose six of his starts on the season, spanning a two month span from June to August. In the six starts, Toussaint went 2-2 with a 2.87 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, and a 15/22 BB/K ratio over 31 1/3 innings.
Toussaint is listed at 6’3 and 185 pounds, and he looks fairly slight, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s still within 10-15 pounds of that original weight. Toussaint has a minimal kick back to his wind up, with the main difference between the wind up and his stretch being the height of his leg kick. In the wind up, Toussaint brings his knee to letter high before launching himself toward the plate with a flurry of arm and leg movement. From the stretch, his knee gets to about waist-high.
One of the things you notice right away with Toussaint is that he is blessed with long arms and long legs. He uses this length to his advantage, and many have seen the ridiculous GIFs of his curve ball, which requires that incredible arm length to generate that huge break. The problem with that is that frequently, Toussaint can let his legs and arms fly seemingly haphazard through his delivery, which leaves his delivery frequently inconsistent. When he’s on, his landing leg is pointed to home plate and lands straight on with the plate, generating a great downward plane for his high-velocity fastball and good plane on his huge curve. When he’s not, however, his landing point can be anywhere from his arm side shoulder all the way to opening toward first base. That’s when his control gets very rough.
Toussaint has a fastball that runs into the mid-90s (I’ve heard reports as high as 98, but only saw 96 in the games I watched) with a ton of life to the arm side, much like a cutter. He compliments that with a change up that sits 79-84 and shows a lot of promise with some late sinking movement to it. The headliner, of course, is the curve. It’s a pitch that sits in the mid-70s with break that crosses up to three planes. The pitch is legendary already.
Next: 2016 outlook
Toussaint’s major issue at this point is all about his delivery. When he gets off in his legs, his release point moves from his very effective over-the-top delivery to a 3/4 and even lower delivery, rendering the excellent movement on his fastball nearly moot. The Braves working with him to be more easy and consistent with his delivery would be a huge under taking, but it could be incredibly worth it as Toussaint may have more raw stuff than any other pitcher in the system currently.
Touki Toussaint 2016 Outlook
The Braves and Diamondbacks both limited Toussaint in his use of his incredible curve ball last season. The thought process was to force Toussaint to really gain confidence in his change up and work through his location of his fastball and change up. Those are excellent ideas, but frankly, any pitcher throwing only fastballs and change ups, no matter how good either is, will struggle, even at the low-A level with hitters being able to sit on those two pitches.
Toussaint’s struggles with control in his delivery seemingly improved when he was able to mix in his third pitch on a more frequent basis. The thing I’d love to see the Braves do is work a two-seam fastball into Toussaint’s repertoire. With his long legs and arms, he could produce tremendous downward plane on a sinker, and with the combination of the two fastballs, a change, and the curve, he could be untouchable.
Next: Braves Top 100 Prospects Updated
I had a thought in watching Toussaint more fully that I wanted to vet more, so I watched Gio Gonzalez of the Nationals. Their offerings seemed very similar to me, and when I watched more, it was even more understandable. Gonzalez has been known for his control issues, and his are mostly due to a lanky build that leads to inconsistent delivery. Gonzalez is only 6′, but he has arms and legs that are more akin to a guy who’s 3-4 inches taller, and controlling those long limbs has always been his bugaboo in the majors. If Toussaint can get his motion more settled, he could be a dominating force. I look forward to seeing how the Braves work with that motion and seeing him have more opportunity with his curve in 2016.