Jonathon Holt

The Indians selected Holt in the 5th round of the 2007 Draft from the University of Tampa where he was their closer. He was described in scouting reports as being durable with good fastball movement and a two pitch mix - fastball and slider although his changeup has the potential to be a good pitch against lefthanders which is something he probably needs to be a late inning guy and not just a specialist. He doesn't break 90 MPH with his fastball very often, pitching at 88 MPH mostly, but like real estate, it's all about location and his fastball has good arm side run. He is a strike thrower as evidenced by his 27:4 K/BB ratio in 33 innings this summer. His numbers were a bit skewed as the Indians used him four times as a starter. This proved disastrous to his stats as he had a 9.00 ERA in 12 innings as a starter and a 1.69 ERA and a 0.90 WHIP in 21.1 innings as a reliever. Dennis Nosco and Baseball America think that Holt has a chance to move fast as reliever and potentially be the first Indians' 2007 draftee to reach the majors. John Mirabelli agreed in an interview right after the draft. Holt projects to be a good 6^th or 7^th inning guy, or if he overachieves, a major league setup man maybe in the mold of Rafael Betancourt.