Luis Severino is GOOD

Last night, Luis Severino pitched another 6 shut out innings for the Tampa Yankees.   People talk about the Yanks lack of impact prospects, but with Severino you have a 20 year old in high A, who hasn't given up a run since his first start.  Since then, he's thrown 18 shutout innings across three starts, including starts of 1 hit, 0 hits and 2 hits.  The only reason there were two hits last night was because on the first one the defense was in a shift and the hitter hit it off the handle.  Would have floated to the 2B in a normal D.

What makes Luis so tough, isn't that he's got a fastball that tops out at an easy 97 or 98, it's not that he's got a swing and miss slider, and it's not that he gets swings and misses on his change.   If he just had all of that, he'd be a top prospect.   But what's making him a little better than all of that is his pitch-ability and his ability to changes speeds on all of those pitches, change locations, and with the slider, he even changes shapes.     He's like El Duque with a much better #1.

Needless to say, guys like this don't come along to often, and you just don't trade them.   When you are lucky to find a special guy like this, you thank your lucky stars and ride to glory with him.

Btw, there are a lot of pundits calling him a future reliever because he may be a tick under 6 feet tall.   Here's the deal.  You either can get major leaguers out, or you can't.   You either have the pitches to got through a line up once, or three times.   He has the pitches.   That makes him a rotation anchor, not a reliever.