When the Twins drafted Texas high school lefthander Dasan Hill and his fastball/changeup mix, they were convinced that his scrawny 6-foot-5 frame would fill out, add velocity to his fastball and give him a swing-and-miss weapon.
They were right. Hill’s fastball is now averaging 95 mph and often touching 99.
But it’s Hill’s changeup that has become almost unhittable.
“He’s getting almost 50% swing-and-miss off his changeup now. It may be the best changeup in our entire organization,” Twins GM Jeremy Zoll said. “It’s gone from an offspeed option to his wipeout pitch.”
Well, at least against opposite-hand batters. The 19-year-old mostly throws his changeup to righthanded batters, roughly 28% of the time, compared to less than 5% to lefthanded ones.
The Twins drafted Hill last year in competitive balance round two. In 16 starts for Low-A Fort Myers this season, he recorded a 2.77 ERA in 52 innings with 68 strikeouts and 33 walks. In early August, the Twins promoted him to High-A Cedar Rapids
“The fastball was always projectable for a skinny high school kid with room to fill out,” Zoll said. “He’s already made the fastball play more, but he’s made it clear that he’s got a lot of breaking pitches, too.”
The Twins suspected as much when they drafted Hill from Grapevine High outside Dallas. The club signed him for a $1.997 million bonus that was nearly twice slot value. He was the only pitcher among the Twins’ first eight selections—and the only high school player they drafted at all.
“He really stood out in that late second-round territory,” Zoll said. “We were pretty excited to get him.”
Hill needs to fine-tune his control after walking nearly 15% of batters in the Florida State League.
“Yeah, he needs to stay in the zone a little bit more,” Zoll said. “But he earned this promotion. We love how he’s throwing. And we’re confident he’ll be a strike-thrower.”
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