Nick Kingham Could Help Set Pirates Rotation of the Future

While not in the top tier of pitchers in the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league system, pitcher Nick Kingham could be a key element to the Pirates success and will b a key piece to the future starting rotation.

When you think of Pittsburgh Pirates pitching prospects you think of names like Jameson Taillon and Tyler Glasnow. However, a look deeper into the Pirates minor league system reveals a name that has sort of fallen off the Pirates future prospect list. That name is Nick Kingham who is currently pitching at Triple A Indianapolis, and is getting a shot in big league camp in 2016.

Kingham was drafted in the fourth round with the 117th overall pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates back in 2010. He has had an up and down minor league career with the Pirates showing at times that he is capable of dominating a league and at other times it looks like he couldn't pitch to a little league team and have success.

Last season was a rough one for Kingham as he went 1-2 with a 4.31 ERA in 6 starts for the Indianapolis Indians. He struck out 32 and walked seven in 31.0 innings pitched. Kingham did not pitch very deep into games last season only averaging 5.1 innings pitched per start. Kingham has to be able to last longer in games if he wants to be a successful part of the Pirates rotation in the future.

Putting last years numbers aside, we do see that Kingham has had some success during his time in the Pirates minor league system. He was named a Florida State League mid-season all star back in 2013 when he had a 9-6 record with a 2.89 ERA. In that season he showed that he can dominate batters striking out 144 men in 143.1 innings of work while only walking 44 batters. So, we have seen some success from Kingham that we can look to to measure his future with Pittsburgh.

A positive note for Kingham is that he was striking out batters at a good clip last year with 32 in 31 innings pitched. He had a strikeout to walk ratio of 4.57 which is about where you want it to be. Kingham has been pretty consistent at keeping his strikeouts high and his walks low throughout his career. For his career, his strikeout to walk ratio sits at 2.99. If Kingham can continue striking out batters at a rate of about one per inning, it will go a long way to helping out his major league stock.

One thing that hurt Kingham last year was the number of pitches he had to throw per inning which averaged to 16.3. This helped contribute to the 5.1 innings per start stat. For Kingham, he has to work on the number of pitches he throws per inning. The number has been above 10 throughout his career and makes him work harder to get through innings. His pitches per plate appearance are good at 3.76 but he is having to throw a lot of pitches during the inning as a whole.

One contributing factor to this is the number of hits he gives up. Last season he gave up 34 hits in 31 innings of work and his hits per nine inning sat at a staggering 9.77. For a guy who pounds the strike zone as much as Kingham does, he has to be sure to use the corners more often and stay out of the hitting zone.

In the past he has shown that he can handle batters as in that 2013 all-star season, he had a .279 BABIP and was allowing only 7.85 hits per nine innings. Kingham just had a down season last year with Indianapolis and will look to build on it and become a better pitcher in 2016. The major things that Kingham needs to work on are the number of pitches he throws and limiting the number of hits he gives up during the season.

As far as this season, I do not see Kingham making it to the big league club this season unless it be via a September call-up. He can use this season in Triple A Indianapolis to grow and become more mature as a pitcher. This extra season of work will have him ready for a possible call-up to the big leagues to start the 2017 season.

As the rotation stands at Triple A Indianapolis right now, we will be getting a good look into the future of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. The top three will be Tyler Glasnow, Jameson Taillon, and Nick Kingham. If all three of these pitchers pitch to their full potential it could lead to the Pirates having one of the best rotations in major league baseball. If all goes well, we could be looking at a mid-season 2017 rotation of Gerrit Cole, Tyler Glasnow, Jameson Taillon, Nick Kingham and Jeff Locke. With this star studded rotation, The Pirates could become a top contender for a world series title in years to come.