2010 Indians Top 50 Prospects: #45 Marty Popham

Marty Popham - Right-handed PitcherBorn: 08/04/1987 - Height: 6'6" - Weight: 235 - Bats: Right - Throws: Right

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	Avg	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2008	21	GCL Indians	R	1	1	0.78	14	0	1	23.0	15	2	0	5	25	.179	2.0	9.78	0.87
2009	22	Mahoning Vy	A-	6	1	2.76	14	14	0	75.0	75	23	7	10	83	.253	1.2	9.96	1.13
		Totals		7	2	2.30	28	14	1	98.0	90	25	7	15	108	.237	1.4	9.92	1.07

History: Popham was selected by the Indians in the 20th round of the 2008 Draft out of Union College (KY).  His 17 wins in 2008 led the NAIA.  Last year at short-season Single-A Mahoning Valley he finished 11th in the league in ERA (2.76), tied for 8th in wins (6), 2nd in strikeouts (83), and 13th in WHIP (1.13).

Strengths & Opportunities: Popham is a big, physical pitcher with excellent size and a nice loose arm.  His fastball sits around 90-92 MPH and has touched 93 MPH, and he still has arm strength so his velocity is could see an uptick or two as he gets older and his delivery mechanics are refined.  He also throws a solid-average slider and an average changeup, with the slider having the potential to be a good major league pitch.  He showed much improvement with his secondary stuff last year, namely his changeup which he was able to use and keep hitters off balance.  The improvement of his slider and changeup is important as it helps keep him as a starting pitching option at least for next year.

Popham started the year last season in extended spring training mostly because he was still somewhat raw and the Indians needed to fine tune him and prepare him for regular work with an affiliate later in the year.  During his time in extended spring training it allowed him to get over a dead arm issue he was battling through in spring training because of all the throwing they did that he was not used to.  He also had trouble adjusting to the use of a cup in the spring which is something he had never worn before, and as a result he had some trouble as he was missing up with his fastball early on in camp because he was not able to get his leg high enough which caused him to stride out and his arm to lag.  He eventually got rid of the cup, and the Indians did some tweaking to his mechanics to improve the consistency of his arm slot as he was having problems with that all spring.  He was also stretched out from a reliever to a starter, so he worked a lot on developing a routine and understanding how to handle different pitching situations and what to do when they come up.  In the end, his successful stint in Mahoning Valley last year was helped immensely by all the work on his mechanics he did in spring training and out in extended spring training.

Popham tends to wrap his slider, so he needs to tighten it up and also continue working on adding some additional velocity to it so that it gets that necessary bite at the end and drops straight down.  He did not have a good changeup coming out of college, but worked hard with Lower Level Minor League Pitching Coordinator Steve Lyons on improving the pitch to repeat the same motion and arm speed as his fastball, so continuing to refine his changeup is a must for him to remain a starter.

Outlook:  Popham has established himself as an interesting starting pitching prospect in the Indians organization.  It is possible due to the success he had last year at Mahoning Valley and his age that he could skip Low-A Lake County completely and go right to High-A Kinston, but in any case it looks like he has shown more than enough to remain in the starting rotation at one of the two levels next year.

Photo courtesy of Tony Lastoria

Marty Popham MinorLeagueBaseball.com page

Marty Popham Baseball-Reference page

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