Nationals Prospects: Travis Sykora is comically dominant

Travis Sykora is putting up numbers you can’t even put up in a video game right now

Travis Sykora is easily the Washington Nationals best prospect and one of the best pitching prospects in baseball. The only reason I cannot say he is the best is just because he hasn’t been tested at the higher levels yet. Of course that is not his fault, and should change soon.

Insane Dominance:

After missing the start of the season due to an offseason hip surgery, Sykora has come back with a vengeance. In 10 starts, Sykora has a cartoonish 1.11 ERA across 40.2 innings. He also has 70 strikeouts to just 11 walks.

The numbers just keep getting crazier as you dive deeper. Opponents are hitting a paltry .107 against him. They are performing like pitchers used to back when they hit in the NL. He is striking out an astounding 48% of hitters this season as well. The more you look at the numbers, the crazier they get.

It is just a hysterical level of dominance. Sykora has yet to find a level that is challenging for him yet. Maybe that comes in Double-A, but I am not sure those hitters will be any match for him either.

Fast Track Option:

By now, it is pretty clear that High-A is too easy for Travis Sykora. He should be getting promoted to Double-A very shortly. There is not much of a point in having Sykora torture these poor High-A hitters any longer. He is ready for a new challenge.

Early in the season with Sykora coming off of surgery, the Nats took it slow with him. His starts were only a few innings and he wasn’t throwing much more than 50 pitches. However, Sykora is being unleashed now. He threw 99 pitches over 6 innings yesterday.

With Sykora stretched out, it is time for Double-A. If he does well there, it could be time for spicy conversations at the end of the season. Assuming Sykora continues to dominate, who is to say he can’t make a couple MLB starts at the end of the season.

With hitters, it is a little bit harder to tell how they will do when they come to the MLB. You can dominate at AAA, but that step up in pitching at the MLB level is serious. However, we have a better idea of what works for pitchers. If the stuff is there, the stuff is there. Obviously we don’t know for sure, but there is less mystery.

Take Chase Burns for the Reds. He was in college this time last year, but made his MLB debut already. That is because his stuff is unbelievable and nobody can hit it. You don’t need as large of a sample to be able to tell if a pitcher has the stuff.

Unreal Stuff:

The stuff is there with Travis Sykora. After cleaning up his hip this offseason, his fastball is in the upper 90’s on a more regular basis. His slider/splitter combination absolutely devastates hitters. He gets so much chase on those pitches as well. A lot of that is due to his nasty stuff, but his delivery is also highly deceptive.

With pitchers, unique is good and Sykora has a unique delivery which creates a ton of deception. Maybe better hitters will learn to lay off some of those pitches, but Sykora is so good that he will be fine even if they do somewhat adjust. With an ERA close to 1, the big right hander has some margin for error.

With that in mind, Sykora could be in the big leagues faster than anticipated. He will be in Double-A soon, and once you are in the upper minors, a promotion is within shouting distance.

The jump to Double-A is known as one of the biggest in the Minor Leagues. You start to see more experienced hitters with better approaches. It is a road block for a lot of prospects. Even guys who go on and have successful big league careers can often struggle early on in AA.

However, Sykora is ready for the challenge. He is way too good for High-A and needs a challenge to keep developing. Travis Sykora is the Nationals ace of the future and that future might be closer than what we anticipated.