Prospect Watch: Logan Stoelke Makes Csreer Out of Living in the Bullpen
The bullpen can be an unforgiving place for a pitcher at any level of baseball, with one bad start affecting you for the rest of the season. For right-handed pitching prospect Logan Stoelke, that has been where he has lived since moving to college ball. He was drafted in the ninth round of the 2018 MLB Draft and, despite being a senior, he was a very inexperienced arm. Injuries followed him throughout his college career and limited him to just 49.2 innings of work in his collegiate career. He has middle of the road velocity for a relief pitcher, and his 6'3 frame still gives him some room to amp up that velocity.
Last season, he pitched between two levels of the Pirates Minor League system appearing for both Low-A Greensboro and Advanced-A Bradenton. He ended up getting hit around going 0-4 with an 8.31 ERA in 30.1 innings of work while allowing an opponent batting average of .271, up more than 150 points from the season before. While his fastball is his go-to pitch, he has been trying to develop his breaking ball last season, but it wasn't coming through the way he had hoped. Another issue he death with was a high walk rate as he ended up walking just over 12% of the batters he faced. For Stoelke, the two big things for him are to gain control of his off-speed stuff and work on his control as he moves to the higher levels of the Minor League system.
Stoelke is a product of Fayetteville High School in Fayetteville, Texas where he was a top two-way player on a championship team. He was one of the team's starting pitchers while also serving as the starting shortstop throughout his four years on the team. He was named an All-State player in three of those four seasons, but his best work came during his sophomore year in 2012. He helped lead the Lions to the Texas State championship that season and was the starting pitcher for the championship game. He threw a complete-game one-hit shutout in the championship game and earned the win on the biggest high school stage.
When Stoelke was looking for a place to begin his collegiate baseball career, sports were important to him but he also wanted to focus on his schooling. He planned on majoring in Industrial Technology and ended up at Louisiana-LaFayette to play Division I baseball. The transition was a new experience for Stoelke as he started his career coming out of the bullpen for the Ragin Cajuns. Stoelke turned out to be one of the top relievers for Louisiana-Lafayette posting a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings of work. He showed some struggles with control walking three batters but struck out just over 18% of the batters he faced.
After coming off the strong first season of play, you would expect Stoelke to come back just as strong for his sophomore season. However, it wasn't meant to be as he would appear in just four games that season and posted a 10.38 ERA in just 4.1 innings of work. The injury bug ran rampant through the Ragin Cajuns clubhouse as four other pitchers, along with Stoelke, went down with season ending injuries. With injury taking a toll on him the year before, Stoelke would go through a position change and came out as an outfielder during his Junior season. That wouldn't go too well for Stoelke either as he was used mostly as a defensive replacement and hit just .176 with an RBI. He made one appearance on the mound that season and walked just one batter in his scoreless inning of work.
He would make his return back to the mound during his senior season and things got back on track for the right-hander. He would become one of the most used relievers for the Ragin Cajuns, appearing in 21 games, 33.1 innings of work, while posting a 2.97 ERA. His strikeout rate saw a significant jump with 36 set down in 33.1 innings of work and his opponents were not picking up many hits against him. His control was still a little shaky, as he allowed 15 walks, but the rest of his game was strong. For his hard work, he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the ninth round of the 2018 MLB Draft and was sent to Class-A Short Season West Virginia to start his professional career.
He jumped right into the Black Bears bullpen and was nearly unhittable in 20.1 innings of work posting a 1.77 ERA. His strikeout rate shot up as he struck out just over 40% of the batters he faced that season. Opponents hit just .116 against him, but his walks were a little higher than you would like to see as he allowed eight free passes. After starting the year as a regular reliever, Stoelke would end up taking over the closer's role and recorded six saves for the Black Bears. He was efficient for the most part with an average of 14.6 pitches per inning so he didn't tire out too easily throughout the season.
All four earned runs that Stoelke allowed during the season came in one outing on July 1st, 2018 when he gave up four earned runs in 0.1 innings of work. Other than that, he pitched in 19 scoreless outings during his professional debut. He was used as a one to two-inning relieved throughout the year, but routinely struck out multiple batters in an inning. By the end of the season, Stoelke earned a promotion to Class Low-A West Virginia where he appeared in three games. He appeared in three games for the Power and threw 2.1 scoreless innings of work. He only had one baserunner reach against him during his stint as he walked one batter and struck out four over his short stint.
He would be sent back to Class Low-A Greensboro last season, but something changed as he started to get hit around. The home run ball got him in a lot of trouble as he gave up three in 12 innings of work and as a result, his ERA ballooned to 5.25 ERA. His ERA was so high because of a dismal month of April where in eight appearances he posted a 7.00 ERA. He would calm down over his final three appearances at Greensboro where he did not allow a run and struck out four batters while walking just one. Because of his success last season, combined with his success in May, Stoelke earned a promotion to Advanced-A Bradenton.
His run in Bradenton was less than impressive as he allowed a .315 opponent batting average and put up a 10.38 ERA in 18.1 innings of work. The home run ball was a problem for him again as he gave up six home runs and he struggled with control throughout his stint with the Marauders walking 13 batters. His strikeout rate dropped tremendously as he set down just 12 batters in those 18.1 innings of work. He had his share of ups and downs throughout the season and never looked comfortable on the mound. It turned out that injury problems had been affecting him throughout the season and he was shut down after July with an undisclosed injury.
Stoelke has shown in his professional career that he can be a dominant reliever out of the bullpen. His fastball plays well in the late innings of games, and his off-speed stuff is becoming better the more he uses them. Hopefully, injuries were Stoelke's problem last season and he gets back to his 2018 season numbers when Minor League baseball resumes. He should get another shot in the Bradenton Marauders bullpen working in the late-inning of games. He should be fully healthy when he returns and that will allow him to get back to baseball and focus on getting outs any way he can.
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