It’s not every day I quote Dean Wormer in a writeup. Meet David Festa.
- Born: March 8, 2000
- B/T: Right/Right
- 6’6″, 185-lbs
- Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 2021 MLB June Amateur Draft out of Seton Hall University
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:
The 21-year-old Festa was drafted out of college and put in a token 8 innings at the end of that season. Ignore 2021, small sample, new environment, tired pitcher.
In 2022 Festa started at A-ball, and he totally dominated. See the difference between his A lines in 2021 and 2022? Yeah, he wasn’t as bad as 2021, and he isn’t as good as 2022. So he goes to High-A, and settles in as a good, not great, pitcher. Decent numbers, nothing dominating, but good first full professional season.
In 2023 he started at a new level, and he grew from the previous year. Now he’s at the upper minors, and doing quite well. His walk rate isn’t ideal, but he strikes guys out.
Monthly Splits
See that mostly blue 2023 line above? As we learned in kindergarten, green and red make blue! Seriously, when you split out his monthlies, it’s not average start after after start. He had a dominating April. Dance with joy! Then he had a struggling May. Sell him! Then he had a good June. Uh, can I have him back, please? And so far in July he got off to a nice start.
That’s life as a good pitcher, not a dominating pitcher: you will have some very good games, and then you will have a few struggling ones.
Handedness K% and BB%
AA (vs RH): 33%K and 9%BB. (vs LH): 25%K and 10%BB.
Interesting how he faced almost an equal number of lefties and righties. His control is about the same, but he strikes out a few more righties, but he strikes out enough against lefties if he can just whittle down those walks.
The Scouts
- Rotowire: Not on their Top 400
- Fantrax: Not on their Top 400
- RotoProspects: #278 on Top 500
- Toolshed Fantasy ($): #398 on Top 500
- PARSlist ($): 85.9 (#11 overall pitcher)
- PLIVE+: 86 (#202 overall pitcher)
Warnings
I’ve talked about his walks, but it’s really not that bad. He typically has a 3-to-1 or better K-to-BB ratio, so it works.
The scouts are mostly not in on him. PARS loves him, however!
Conclusion
He has a plus fastball and he throws strikes to both sides. His slider is potentially plus, and his changeup is developing. It’s enough to view him as a back-of-the-rotation starter.
When? Well, he’s done well enough at AA to see him in AAA soon. Assuming he starts 2024 at AAA, he should be in the majors in some capacity later that year. So by this time next year he could be a Twin, and won’t that surprise some of those scouts listed above who have ignored him!
As Dean Wormer reminded us in National Lampoon’s Animal House, fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. In baseball terms, fat, drunk, and ignorant of mid-level prospects is no way to go through fantasy life, son. Sometimes the back-of-the-rotation guys surprise you when they come up…