Atlanta Braves Top 100 Prospects – #39 Max Povse Scouting Report

Max Povse Scouting Report

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I went through 5 of Povse’s starts to get a good blend of his starts. I actually found some of his longest starts as well. Over the course of those 5 starts, he threw 34 innings, tallying a 3.78 ERA and 0.85 WHIP with a 3/22 BB/K ratio.

Povse is a towering sight on the mound, listed at 6’8 and 185 pounds, though he’s certainly at least 20 pounds more than that, but he’s definitely quite lean on the mound. He has a very minimal wind up, lining up as if in the stretch, taking a slight step straight back, and then delivering. When he’s doing well, he does well coming over the top, getting a great downward plane with his tall frame. He takes a big stride toward the plate as well, and when he struggled, that seemed to be the starting point of his struggles. He would open up too far with his landing leg and then he’d have an inconsistent release point as he attempted to correct his body back from that poor leg position.

Povse utilizes a 3 pitch mix of a fastball that sits in the 90-94 range, a curve that sits 75-79, and a change that sits 81-84. The fastball has excellent late movement when he’s going well. He got good sink to both sides of the plate in the games I saw, and frequently, when he went up the ladder, he’d have some intriguing late inside or outside break. When he has his landing leg issues, the pitch loses nearly all movement, and most hitters can really do well with a straight low-90s fastball. The curve is the pitch that will determine Povse’s true future. It has 11-to-5 movement and in his best game of the five I watched, it broke hard and late from about the letters to just under the knees, and hitters from both sides struggled to get any wood on it. When he was having landing issues, the break was shorter and more loopy, which allowed hitters to get a number of bloop hits off of the pitch. His change has a touch of arm side run, and of the three, it’s the pitch he has the least control of currently. He does have good arm motion with his fastball that hides the change, but then he misses his spots with it fairly frequently.

In spite of what seems like a concerning profile so far, Povse had tremendous results in the games I viewed. The biggest reason is that no matter what pitch he was offering, he had good command. He kept the ball near the strike zone and wasn’t putting extra runners on, but when he did have his landing issues his control within the zone would suffer, and he wasn’t hitting his catcher’s targets consistently. He also rarely ever allows home runs, in spite of allowing plenty of fly balls, mainly due to the fact that things are moving so much for him that batters frequently aren’t able to get “best” wood on the pitch.

Next: 2016 outlook

Povse’s hands were shown during one start as they reviewed his large size. I can see why he gets unique movement on his fastball due to the length of his fingers, but I don’t understand why the organization hasn’t worked with those long fingers to teach Povse something like a split-finger or a cutter (which his long fingers could give a unique tilt to) that would have an additional difficulty to pick up from his tall frame.