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https://www.mlb.com/prospects/top100/Top 100 prospect in all of baseball
Potential frontline starter. Praying for good health.
Clemmey is not that far behind.
Susana isn't either if the control gains are sustainable. Very happy to have multiple high upside arms in the organization (I still include Cavalli in this group fwiw). They won't all hit in all likelihood, but it never hurts to give yourself multiple chances to have a success story.
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Travis Sykora leans against the concrete slabbing outside low Class A Fredericksburg’s clubhouse and lowers his voice a bit. It’s well past dark, and the best start of Sykora’s life is now an hour old. A few players on the wrong end of his six perfect innings angle around the corner. They keep their distance. His tone remains hushed. The 20-year-old’s polite demeanor is in full form, but that’s not quite why he is quiet.No. He is about to explain the “monster.”The beast, he explains, was born when he was 13. It is a sprawling creature, with limbs sprouting and warts that have required polishing each week since its inception. This is how Sykora describes his routine — as a changing, evolving beast. Something he tinkers with, is devoted to, logs daily.The details of Sykora’s routine can be found in boxes and on flash drives around his family home in Round Rock, Tex. He has scribbled down the mundane, like what was in his morning smoothie, or the details of long toss at Virginia Credit Union Stadium, which can stretch from one foul pole to the other. He has filled one journal after another, after another, after another.Sykora is a 6-foot-6 right-hander with a big leg kick, a nod to his idol, Nolan Ryan. He sucks his teeth after any pitch that’s less than perfect. He has Texas roots, and hopes for a future with the Washington Nationals.That routine? That monster? It could help him get there.It is the reason why the conditions don’t have to be perfect for Travis Sykora to be. On this August day in Virginia, the air is humid and his start isn’t on schedule, moved back after inclement weather. More than once, sound effects blare from the ballpark speakers in the middle of his windup, an apparent attempt at encouragement that could have easily been a distraction instead. He faces 18 batters from the Milwaukee Brewers’ low A affiliate. Ten strike out. Seven make weak contact. None reach base.The routine, and Sykora’s devotion to it, helped make him a third-round pick for the Nationals in 2023. No starter in the minor leagues, who has logged a minimum of 15 starts, has struck out batters at a higher clip (39.3 percent) or missed as many bats (43.6 percent). Opponents are hitting .162, and he has a 2.31 ERA. MLB Pipeline lists Sykora as the game’s 98th-ranked prospect.“It’s like trial and error,” he said. “One week if something doesn’t work, then don’t do it again. One week, if something works, then do that again. Then write it down. So it’s just a huge combination. It’s like a monster that’s just evolving. I’m still learning about it every day.”
I know it's only low a and it's only his first year, but 98 feels far too low given the frame, the stuff, the pedigree, and the results. If he does well next year at high a and aa, he'll vault into top 50 easily
No reason he should be in Fburg
Travis Sykora has been named the Carolina League's Pitcher of the Month for August, Minor League Baseball announced today. Sykora is the second straight @FXBGNats starter to win Pitcher of the Month after Marc Davis won the honor for July.Sykora was the #Nats third round draft pick in 2023 out of Round Rock HS (TX), obliterated the Carolina League in August. The 20-year-old righty went 4-0 with a 0.88 ERA in six starts as he allowed three earned runs on 12 hits and four walks over 30.2 innings. He led the league in strikeouts (48, 11 more than the next pitcher), WHIP (0.52), average against (.118) and strikeouts per nine innings (14.09). He didn’t allow a hit for 12.2 innings to start the month (over three starts) and didn’t allow an earned run in four of his six starts. He was also named Carolina League Pitcher of the Week in back-to-back weeks to open the month.Sykora's dominance has also extended past August. Among Minor League pitchers at any level with at least 80 innings pitched this season, he leads all of MiLB in strikeouts per nine (13.66), strikeout percentage (39.9%), WHIP (0.83) and is second in strikeout-to-walk percentage (32.3%), and FIP (1.78).
