Atlanta Braves Top 100 Prospects: #66 Kyle Kinman
Atlanta Braves Left Hander Kyle Kinman
Who Is He?
Kinman was drafted in the 25th round of the 2014 draft out of Bellevue University in Nebraska. The Braves sent the lefty to advanced rookie Danville. He pitched in 19 games, throwing 29 2/3 innings with a 2.43 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, and 6/43 BB/K. Needless to say, those numbers caught a lot of eyes in the Braves front office.
Next: Kinman's scouting report
Kinman advanced quickly in 2015, starting in A-ball with Rome, but moving to high-A Carolina to start July before finishing in AA Mississippi from the end of July going forward. Overall, he pitched in 44 games, recording 18 saves over 51 2/3 innings. He put up combined numbers of a 2.09 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, and 26/65 BB/K ratio.
Scouting Report
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I reviewed two appearances of Kinman’s at each level this season. Overall in those six appearances, Kinman hurled 9 1/3 innings with a 2.97 ERA and 0.86 WHIP and 6/17 BB/K ratio.
Kinman is listed at 5’11 and 185 pounds. That looks about right, as he’s really not a very large guy on the mound. He works both in wind up and out of the stretch, using a high straight leg movement with his lead leg before moving toward the plate. Kinman uses a release point just above shoulder height, which gives the appearance of slinging the ball to hitters, and it makes him especially effective on lefties.
Kinman has struggled with location at times, and in watching some games where he struggled, it appeared to me that he struggled with that high leg kick moving so fast through his motion and losing his balance somewhat, which led to him having a double tap on his lead foot a couple of times and have an inconsistent landing spot with his lead leg quite a few times due to seemingly rushing through his motion even faster as he struggled with location, basically digging the hole even further.
Kinman relies on primarily a two-pitch mix with a four-seam fastball that sits 91-94, topping out at 96 in the games I viewed. He also throws a slider that has good movement with his unique arm angle. In the games I watched, he got movement in a slurve movement down and glove side, and across the zone horizontally while maintaining the same vertical plane, simply wicked movement to deal with as a lefty hitter.
The fastball has minimal vertical movement, but when he’s steady in his pacing through his motion, Kinman has excellent location of the pitch, which allows him to get some great strikeouts looking due to Kinman painting the corner just perfectly. He does get good movement across the zone with the pitch. The slider also seemed to have two “styles” to it. He threw the pitch hard, running it as high as the mid-80s with hard break, but there were also numerous sliders I tracked with significant break that were low- to mid-70s in velocity, and that really gives Kinman the look of a three-pitch mix instead of a two-pitch mix, though both pitches are sliders.
Next: 2016 outlook
Kinman’s unique motion and arm location makes him incredibly effective against lefties, but what does seem to happen is that his side-arming motion exposes the ball for a long time to right handed hitters, and that led to Kinman having a very high BABIP overall with righties having a very high level of luck against him, but also being able to drive the ball well when they did get ahold of it.
2016 Outlook
Kinman is not a young buck, already 25 years old. He does have a younger “baseball” age, having grown up and spent his college time in cold-weather environments, so his arm doesn’t have the same wear that a typical 25 year-old arm you’d run into. Kinman pitched one game in spring training for the Braves, going 1 2/3 innings, allowing no hits, walks, or runs, and striking out 2.
Next: Braves Top 100 Prospects Updated
I’d wager Kinman returns to Mississippi to start 2016, but he may be the lefty that could move fastest up to Atlanta, not guys like Matt Marksberry, who are already on the 40-man roster. I’ll be interested to see how the Braves move him forward with his pitch mix able to throw off righties enough to possibly succeed as he moves forward with further instruction in the system. Remember that he’s still only been in the system for a year and a half!