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Oakland Athletics to call on top pitching prospect Sean Manaea

By Jordan Wevers |
Nov 7, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Oakland Athletics pitcher Sean Manaea during the Arizona Fall League Fall Stars game at Salt River Fields. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 7, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Oakland Athletics pitcher Sean Manaea during the Arizona Fall League Fall Stars game at Salt River Fields. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Another young arm with promise is set to debut for the Oakland Athletics. Sean Manaea will make his Major League debut tomorrow night at home vs the Astros.

As per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Athletics are promoting top pitching prospect Sean Manaea for a start Friday night against Mike Fiers and the Houston Astros.

Manaea is a towering southpaw at 6-foot-5, weighing 245 pounds. His fastball is his most effective pitch, but he offsets that with a slider that has lots of promise as well as a developing change-up. He was the main haul the A’s received in the trade that sent Ben Zobrist to the Kansas City Royals last summer.

The Royals drafted him 34th overall in the 2013 MLB amateur draft out of Indiana State University. While with the Sycamores in 2012, Manaea converted 115 outs via the strikeout in 105 sophomore innings pitched. He went on to play summer ball in the Cape Cod league, where many talented collegiate players spend their off-seasons honing their skill sets.

Manaea blew the competition away there, winning the Outstanding Prospect Award for the league. He went 5-1 with a 1.22 ERA in 51.2 IP, recording 85 punch outs. Upon returning to the Sycamores in 2013, he was named a preseason All-American and went 5-4 with a 1.47 ERA and 93 K’s in 73.1 IP.

During his time in KC’s system, Manaea showed promise, but things took off after moving onto the Athletics’ organization. In seven Double-A starts last year he posted a 6-0 record with a K/9 of 10.8 and a K:BB of 3.40 for the Midland RockHounds.

This season, the 24-year-old picked up where he left off in 2015 by dominating Triple-A for his first three outings. 18 innings with Nashville saw him go 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA. Manaea seems to have improved his command as well, with a 5.25 K:BB ratio in those three starts.

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The Oakland Athletics love young, promising pitchers with years of control left on their professional contracts. MLB.com ranks Sean Manaea as the No. 65th overall prospect in the nation. But when you filter things and look strictly at the top left-handed pitching prospects in the minors, you will see Manaea’s name shoot up to seventh overall. His play so far in 2016 has warranted an opportunity to pitch on the big stage. Whether he sticks around for the A’s or not is the true question.

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