Top Washington Nationals prospect Alex Clemmey strikes out 10 in fabulous start

On this update from the farm, we will look at Alex Clemmey and his impressive start last night

The Wilmington Blue Rocks, the Nationals High-A affiliate have a stacked roster on paper. They have highly drafted guys like Seaver King, Caleb Lomavita, and Elijah Green. However, all of those guys have gotten off to pretty brutal starts, especially King who is 2-19 with 11 strikeouts.

However, the Blue Rocks top arm Alex Clemmey had a fantastic start last night. He struck out 10 batters in five innings, walking two and allowing just one hit. Clemmey is such a dynamic arm and when he is throwing strikes, he can be dominant.

I saw Clemmey at the Spring Breakout game and he really impressed me. Yes, his command is scattershot at times, but his delivery looked more in control than it did last year. Clemmey still has his starts where he struggles to find the zone. In his first start of the season, he went three innings striking out six but walking five.

At just 19 years old, Clemmey is still a project, but an exciting project. His fastball/slider combination is absolutely un-hittable at its best, and we saw that last night. The Nats got him from Cleveland in the Lane Thomas trade, a move that has the potential to become a big win for the Nats.

However, there is still plenty of risk with Clemmey. He still has plenty of command questions and reliever risk. Clemmey doesn’t really have a changeup yet, but he does have some variation on his breaking ball. I am not sure if they are two different pitches, but when I saw him, he manipulated the shapes on his breaking ball quite well.

If Clemmey has a big year, he can get to that Travis Sykora/Jarlin Susana tier of top Nationals pitching prospects. The Nats have been developing pitchers at a pretty high level the last couple years and that really excites me. Guys like Mitchell Parker, Jake Irvin and DJ Herz have all taken leaps the last couple years.

All of those guys had some strike throwing concerns that have improved in recent years. Jarlin Susana was also throwing a lot more strikes last year compared to previous years. Maybe the Nationals will be able to help Clemmey find the zone more consistently.

If they can do that, the league better look out because not many left handed pitching prospects have nastier stuff than Alex Clemmey. Mike Rizzo has a history of making good trades and I think he may have done it again with Alex Clemmey.