MLB Propects: Who Is Charles Nolte?

As you may already know, the Yankees acquired minor league prospect and relief pitcher Charles Nolte from the Minnesota Twins for Jason Jones, who Minnesota had already taken in the Rule Five draft.

But who exactly is Nolte? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself.

Nolte pitched for Junipero Serra High School, where he was known for lighting up radar guns while keeping his composure on the mound.

His two best pitches were a fastball that reached up to 94 MPH, and a curveball that, in 2004, was said to be major league average.

Nolte had an outside chance of being selected in the top two rounds of the draft—and probably would have gone in the top five—but signability issues and Tommy John surgery pushed him toward college instead.

Following surgery, Nolte struggled, barely playing in two seasons at San Diego State University. In his first season, he appeared in eight games, all in relief, and racked up a 24.43 ERA.

His sophomore season was better and he got into a few more games. That year, he had a 7.13 ERA in 17 2/3 innings, which lead the Twins to take a chance and draft him in the 24th round.

Further removed from surgery, Nolte had a decent season in rookie ball in 2007. In 14 appearances, he had a 3-0 record with a 1.85 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP.

He followed that up with another successful 2008 campaign, going 4-3 with a 2.05 ERA in 70 1/3 innings.

Nolte has become a seemingly dominant sinkerball pitcher who enduces groundballs at a crazy rate—4.82 GO/AO in 2008—and strikes out almost 10 batters per nine innings.

His problem is he’s a little shaky with his command, walking 4.48 batters per nine innings last season.

This is what one Aaron Gleeman, who follows Twins prospects and ranked Nolte 40th in their system, had to say:

“He’s emerged as an intriguing relief prospect by racking up 97 strikeouts in 94 2/3 innings while inducing an extreme number of ground balls.

"Nolte has served up a grand total of one homer while facing 417 batters, which is what happens when 71.3 percent of your balls in play are on the ground. To put that stat into some context, consider that no MLB pitcher had a ground-ball rate of even 70 percent last season, and no Twins pitcher was above 60 percent.

"Nolte has induced over five ground balls for every fly ball as a pro and that alone would make him someone to watch, even without the low-90s fastball and strong strikeout rate.

"Most relievers who dominate in the low minors eventually fail to pan out and Nolte is a long way from Minnesota, but his combination of velocity, missed bats, and ground balls is much tougher to find than just another sparkling ERA at low Single-A.

"His lack of college experience suggests that Nolte could be a late bloomer and also means that his arm hasn’t accumulated much mileage since the surgery four years ago, so if healthy, he has a chance to move pretty quickly through the Twins’ system.”

Nolte seems to be a long-shot at this point. He’ll likely start the season in Single-A Tampa and the Yankees probably won’t know what they’ve got until he plays in Double-A Trenton.

But to get him for Jones, who they had no room for and lost in the Rule Five draft, is a pretty good deal.

Nolte’s stats.