Louie Varland has been one of the best pitchers in the Minnesota Twins system this season. In 20 appearances — 10 with Low-A Fort Myers and 10 with High-A Cedar Rapids — the 23-year-old right-hander is 10-4 with a 2.10 ERA and a 2.81 FIP. Moreover, he has 142 strikeouts to go with just 30 walks in 103 innings.
In some respects, Varland has come out of nowhere. A 15th-round pick in 2019 who took the mound at a Division II school, he entered the current campaign well under the radar. His name was nowhere to be found on top-prospect rankings.
The relative obscurity doesn’t include the Twin Cities’ baseball community. The St. Paul native played close to home at Concordia University, as did his older brother, Gus Varland, who was drafted by the Oakland A’s in 2018.
The emerging Twins prospect has upped both his velocity and his pitching acumen since he toed the slab with the Golden Bears. Low-90s as a collegian, he’s now sitting 94 and topping out at 98. Varland shared that his four-seam fastball spins between 2,300 and 2,500 RPM and gets 17 inches of rise. Calling the pitch his “greatest gift right now,” he added that its effectiveness is due in part to “vertical approach angle, the riding illusion that hitters see.”
Varland credits his coaches at Concordia for helping him grow and mature, but he’s clearly stepped up his skill set since turning pro. Asked about those strides, he pointed to multiple members of the Twins player development staff, including a PhD who earned degrees both at the Utrecht (Netherlands) University and the University of Georgia.
“I would put it to our pitching coordinators and the pitching coaches with my teams,” said Varland. “But also Martijn [Verhoeven], our [motion performance] coach. He really cleaned up my mechanics so that I could pitch with an efficient arm path. That was really the root of it all; everything has stemmed from that.”
Asked to elaborate, Varland explained that he’d had “a severe case of elbow climb.” By lowering his slot he’s both lessened the stress on his elbow and created a more efficient arm path. That has allowed him to “throw cleaner and easier, and also harder.”
Again, that’s 94 mph, occasionally topping out at 98. According to Varland, his brother — a 24-year-old right-hander now in the Los Angeles Dodgers system — is almost identical, sitting 95 and topping out at 98. That’s quality velocity, but it takes more than firm fastballs to reach the big leagues. The St. Paul siblings need to further fine-tune their repertoires and continue to prove themselves as they climb the minor-league ladder. Based on this year’s performance, Louie Varland looks more than capable of doing both.
View original story here: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/sunday-notes-twins-prospect-louie-varland-is-a-st-paul-sibling-on-the-rise/