Baseball America No. 9 Nats prospect: Austin Voth

Another pitcher who really had a very strong and very consistent 2015 season was right-handed starter Austin Voth. Baseball America's scouting department was also impressed with the University of Washington product's advancing skills.

He is the No. 9 Nationals prospect on Baseball America's top 10.

No. 9 RHP Austin Voth:

The 23-year-old from Redmond, Wash., went 6-7 in 27 starts (28 games) in 2015, all with Double-A Harrisburg. Voth recorded 148 strikeouts in 157 1/3 innings, surrendering only 51 earned runs over the entire campaign.

Baseball America editor-in-chief John Manuel said his scouts told him Voth showed consistent delivery all season. Manuel said the 6-foot-1, 190-lb. Voth reminds him of a very famous starter who pitched in the Pacific Northwest in college.

"It is interesting, contrasting him with a guy like right-hander Reynaldo Lopez," Manuel reasoned. "I think 20 years ago, Austin Voth would have been almost a more intriguing prospect in some ways because 88-92 mph was solid to average velocity. That was where right-hander Aaron Sele lived and Aaron Sele was in a big league rotation for a long time. I shouldn't compare those two because Sele went to Washington State, not Washington. I'm sure all your Cougar and Husky fans on your (blog) will be upset. But that's kind of who he reminds me of a little bit."

Voth will not overpower hitters with his fastball, but that is the point: If he can command his pitches, he can make it to the next level.

"Good changeup, doesn't have that big breaking ball that Sele was known for," Manuel said. "But watching the video, he's a little bit of a smaller version in some ways. He's a command-oriented starter. If Austin Voth is going to be a big league starter, he's going to have real solid command of his fastball, not just control.

"Ted Cahill, our main college writer who wrote the Nationals for us, really loves the command and control pitcher. So Teddy had Voth rated higher.

Do Manuel see Voth as a candidate for a mid-season call-up or spot start because of his full season consistency at Harrisburg, similar to a Taylor Jordan? Manuel says Voth shows that ability, but he would prefer to see a little more deception in his delivery.

"I think you are right, the Nationals have had some success with this genre of pitcher in recent years," Manuel said. "I would like Voth a little bit better if his delivery was a little funkier. I wish it had a little more funk to it, kind of like a Tanner Roark did. Roark was able to hide the ball a little bit (and) it was hard to get used to it when he had all his success. That's the kind of guy Austin Voth might be. So there is a little bit of a fine line for his success."

What is exciting is that Manuel envisioning Voth as a starter who is valuable to the Nationals to complete a rotation, even venturing to predict how they could use him in the postseason.

"He does have upside as a back-of-the-rotation starter and if you wind up being 170- to 190-inning fourth or fifth starter, there's a lot of value in that kind of starter," Manuel said. "Voth is the kind of a guy in your rotation, you want him to make one playoff start and but probably not two. You're looking for four or five innings from him in a playoff game and then you are going to your bullpen. That is kind of his upside."