Indians Top 100 Prospects: #63 Jonathan Holt

63. Jonathan Holt - Right-handed Pitcher
Born: 03/10/1986 - Height: 6'2" - Weight: 210 - Bats: Left - Throws: Right

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2007	21	Mahoning Vy	A-	2	3	4.32	16	4	4	33.1	36	16	5	4	27	1.1	7.3	1.20
2008	22	Lake County	A	4	6	3.20	41	6	1	76.0	80	27	7	7	68	0.8	8.1	1.14
		Career		6	9	3.54	57	10	5	109.1	116	43	12	11	95	0.9	7.8	1.16

History: Holt was a 5th round pick in the 2007 Draft out of the University of Tampa.

Strengths & Opportunities: Holt primarily throws a three pitch mix of a fastball, slider, and changeup, and his fastball consistently sits around 88-91 MPH and has good arm side run and sink. His breaking ball is more of a modified slider - commonly called a slurve - because it lacks the velocity to be a true slider and has more break to it. His changeup has come a long way in the short time he has been with the Indians. He lacked a feel for it coming out of college, but throughout last season started to become more confident in it and has developed a feel for it and it has improved enough to where it now has the potential to be a good pitch against left-handers.

He came into the 2007 Draft as a reputed strike thrower after he put up an incredible 20:1 strikeout to walk ratio over 66 innings his junior season at Tampa (79 K, 4 BB), and has lived up to that billing so far during his time with the Indians the last two years with just 11 walks in 109.1 career innings while striking out 95 batters. He does a great job disrupting timing, he throws all three pitches in any count, and he uses his fastball well. At times when he needs to he goes out of the zone with his fastball to keep guys off the plate. His innate ability to pound the strike zone with quality strikes at such a high rate is certainly a strength, but now he needs to learn how to attack and finish hitters off. He needs to refine his fastball and learn to keep it down in the lower half of the zone, and he needs to continue to learn how to back off and sort of deprogram himself some and throw purpose balls to keep hitters more honest. He needs to keep up with his mechanics and continue working on developing his changeup.

Outlook: The bottom line with Holt is he does not have the best pure stuff, but it plays up because of his ability to throw strikes and throw any pitch in any count. His durability and ability to keep hitters off balance is certainly an asset to the Indians organization. He has a chance to move fast through the system from here on out, and projects as a good major league middle reliever. He should open the 2009 season in the advanced Single-A Kinston bullpen.

Photo courtesy of Ken Carr

Jonathan Holt MinorLeagueBaseball.com stats page

Jonathan Holt Baseball-Reference page

Jonathan Holt MinorLeagueSplits.com page

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