Alex Meyer Needs to Regain Control

Minnesota Twins top pitching prospect, Alex Meyer is off to a rocky start for the Rochester Red Wings. The 6-foot-9 starting pitcher has struggled with his command through two starts.

Meyer’s command and consistency issues is a big reason why Meyer didn’t make the big league club coming out of spring training. Through his first two starts in Triple-A, Meyer has issued 11 walks in 8.2 innings pitched. Even more troubling is the fact that he has more walks (11) than strikeouts (9). When you issue a bunch of walks you are going to give up a bunch of runs. Meyer has an ugly 8.31 earned run average and teams are hitting .344 off him.

Meyer is scheduled to make his third start of the season tonight against the Syracuse Chiefs. He needs to get ahead in the count early and often. Doing so will help him regain his confidence. Confidence is something that Twins general manager, Terry Ryan thinks Meyer is lacking.

Terry Ryan on top pitching prospect Alex Meyer's early struggles: "I think it's a confidence issue. I don't think it's mechanical."
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) April 18, 2015

Meyer has all the tools in the shed to be a frontline starter in the Twins rotation. He just needs to regain control of his pitches. That starts tonight against the Chiefs. Once Meyer proves he has control of his stuff, it won’t be long before he’s pitching in a Twins uniform.

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