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TopProspectAlert.com Minor League News & Autograph Blog HomeTop Prospect Alert - Josh Stewart By Schuyler DombroskeDOB: 12/5/78, Age: 24, Height: 6’3’’, Weight:
205, Bats: L, Throws: L. Acquired: White Sox - Drafted in the 5th Round of
the 1999 Draft (Memphis University). 2001 Stats: (High-A - Winston-Salem)
4-6, 3.82 ERA, 64 IP, 64 H, 28 BB, 38 K; (AA - Birmingham) 3-4, 6.67 ERA,
82 IP, 110 H, 42 BB, 47 K. 2002 Stats: (AA - Birmingham) 11-7, 3.53 ERA,
150 IP, 145 H, 11 HR, 56 BB, 92 K.
Josh Stewart is a left handed
pitcher that is crawling his way up the prospect charts, mostly thanks to
an outstanding Arizona Fall League campaign this year. A fifth round pick
out of Memphis in 1999, Stewart is not overpowering from the mound,
relying on hitting his spots and changing speeds. In his last 380 IP
(going back to the beginning of 2000), he has allowed 416 hits, which if
you put any stock in Voros McCracken’s work over at Baseball Prospectus
makes perfect sense, because Stewart does not keep the ball out of play.
His strikeouts hover around 5 to 5.5 men per nine innings, which are
certainly at the bottom fringe of where one can expect to be successful,
and at that level, fantastic control is necessary. Unfortunately, Josh
Stewart does not have fantastic control, although he did improve
dramatically this year, dropping from 4.5 BB/9 to less than 3.5. If he
could make another leap to below 3.0 while keeping his strikeouts at the
current level, I would feel better about his chances (something to watch
in ’03). As it stands, as a 24 year old in AA experiencing these concerns,
he is a fringe prospect, especially in an organization with the pitching
depth that the White Sox currently possess.
With Garland, Diaz, Rauch,
Ginter, Buehrle, Wright, Adkins, Malone, Biddle, and Honel hanging around
the system, players like Josh Stewart have a difficult task ahead of them
in trying to break into the rotation. The White Sox, sometimes (it seems)
despite the efforts of their management team, have assembled a wealth of
young talent, and are poised to compete with the Twins and Indians for the
next several years for the AL Central crown. Regrettably, I do not think
that Josh Stewart will be part of that battle. His peripheral statistics
point to a career on the fringe of the majors, which gives him virtually
no chance in a deep White Sox farm system. His AFL campaign was very
strong, and that will cause people to pay more attention to him than his
regular season statistics would, so if he starts out hot in 2003 he may
jump ahead in line, so to speak, but the odds are against him. In a
perfect world, a comparison to Tom Glavine could (and should) be made, but
for every Tom Glavine there are at least nine Jeff Johnson’s. Soft-tossing
lefties are the exception rather than the rule in today’s version of MLB,
so although Josh Stewart may very well open 2003 at AAA, it is very
possible that that will be as high as he goes.
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