Marlins Mader an intriguing pitching prospect

In his first season of professional baseball, Marlins 2014 third-round pick Michael Mader showed why he was a high pick in the draft. Mader had a few extremely solid outing in Single-A Greensboro and showed the organization why he is the number 14 ranked prospect in Marlins system according to MLB Pipeline.

One of Mader’s biggest strengths was how few home run balls he gave up. He averaged giving up 0.51 home runs per nine innings over his 140.2 innings pitched in 2015. Mader also averaged only walking about three men per nine innings, a solid rate for a young pitcher in the South Atlantic League.

Mader was also a strikeout artist, sitting down 86 batters over his 27 outing in 2015. Mader averaged striking out 5.50 batters per nine innings once again, a strong pace.

Mader’s fastball sits in the low 90s topping out around 95. He has an arsenal of solid secondary pitches and a curveball with serious potential. During his 2015 outings, he’s showed the ability to use a variety of pitches, something that is extremely important in this era of professional baseball.

While 2015 had it’s ups and downs and certainly was not perfect, there was plenty of encouraging signs for 2016 and beyond. He still has a lot of work to do and is still many years away from the major leagues, but there’s strong potential and maybe in a few years, Michael Mader will be pitching at Marlins Park.