Friday, December 29, 2017

Fantasy Focus: Impact Rookies- Luis Gohara

Luis Gohara is a 21 yo LHP prospect for the Braves who broke out last year to become possibly the top pitching prospect in baseball.  He blew through 3 minor league levels and made his MLB debut on Sept 6 running up impressive strikeout numbers and raves from scouts about his stuff.  His combined minor league line was 7-4, 2.62, 123.2 IP, 44 BB, 147 K.  He made 5 MLB Starts in September producing a 4.91 ERA but a rough first MLB game inflated is by over 1 full run.  In his remaining 4 Starts he pitched to a 3.59 ERA.  His overall K/9 of 9.51 and BB/9 of 2.45 were excellent.

Gohara is a portly 6'3" listed at 210 lbs, but he is obviously at least 25 lbs heavier than that.  His weight and conditioning have been issues for him in the lower minors but he slimmed down and gained strength over the past 2 years and his results improved accordingly.  His FB sits a 94 and has touched triple digits with strong command to both sides of the plate.  He has a hard slurvy breaking ball that hitters seem to have trouble picking up that breaks to the back foot of RH batters.  His changeup is reportedly MLB average.

Gohara should be in the Braves rotation early in 2018 if not out of spring training and is rosterable as a SP in most fantasy leagues.  His Steamer projection for 2018 is 8-8, 3.72, 130 IP, 9.81 K/9, 3.97 BB/9.  I believe the high BB/9 on the projection comes from control issues earlier in his minor league career.   I believe a projection in the low 3's would still be conservative.

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