A consensus Top 100 prospect, Daniel Lynch is now on the Royals 60-man roster.
- Born: November 17, 1996
- B/T: Left/Left
- 6’6″, 190-lbs
- Drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 1st round of the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)
The Numbers
His raw numbers are listed above courtesy of baseball-reference.com. Let’s aggregate by year then focus on the important numbers for minor leaguers:
Interesting to see almost exactly double the batters faced from one year to the next. Makes it easy to see that because the Ks did not double, and the walks almost tripled, 2019 was not as sharp as 2018.
But he had a minor arm issue and he lost seven weeks. When he came back, things were better.
Looking at just the Class-A numbers, we see it in a nutshell: against righties (who he faced 2 1/2 times as much as lefties), he gave up almost 2/12 times the number of hits and triple the number of Runs and walks, but only double the strikeouts.
Fairly balanced chart. A bit skewed toward left field. Righties pulling the ball.
There’s what seven-week break in the blue line in 2019. He was fading before his injury, then came back and improved.
Lynch has four pitches in his arsenal, though his curve is a recent add and is behind the others.
The Royals wanted him to throw his FB more, and we can understand why as it’s a plus pitch that is showing more velocity in the mid-90s now. His slider, in the mid-80s with good depth and sharp bite, is also plus. His changeup also flashes plus at times, and is enough to keep him as a starter.
But if he keeps his plus command, and he holds two plus pitches, Lynch has the potential to be a #1 starter.
The Scouts
- Rotowire: #81 on their Top 400.
- BaseballHQ: #57 on their Top 100.
- Fangraphs: #72 on their Top 120.
- Fantasy Six Pack: #378 on their dynasty list.
- Prospects365: #95 on Ray Butler’s Top 200.
- Imaginary Brick Wall: #82 on the Top 487.
- Fantrax: #88 on the Top 250.
Warnings
He’s on the 60-man before he got to AA, so we may not see much of him. We need to see him tackle upper level pitching before we completely buy in.
Conclusion
The scouts love him and we see why. All the tools are there for him to dominate.