Howard, a former third-round pick of the Rockies out of Georgia Southern in 2014, was bumped to the Yard Goats on June 9 after 11 starts for the High A Modesto in the California League, and it been a rough transition for the left-hander, as he’s been lit up 86 hits and a .314 BAA over his first 63.1 IP at the level, with a 24 walks and 48 strikeouts, and 1.74 WHIP to-date.  He’s seen some improvement since the All-Star break, going 4-1 with a 3.31 ERA over his last six starts, however.  My viewing on August 3 at Trenton was one of his better outings at the level, as he threw six innings of five-hit, one run ball, with two walks and six strikeouts in a 4-1 win, throwing 15 first-pitch strikes to the 22 batters he faced.

Howard has a thin, wiry frame and he hasn’t added any weight since being drafted – it’s a frame that could surely benefit from some additional muscle mass to assuage any fears of durability in a starter’s role.  His delivery starts with a simple rock step into a high leg lift, and he brings his throwing elbow up quickly as he uncoils, and that, along with a quick arm action, brings some sneaky deception to the delivery and adds a couple ticks to his velo.  He finishes online with a clean, balanced foot strike and finish, though on a few occasions he would show some limited extension off the rubber, getting out over his plant foot and falling off to the third-base side.

His fastball sat in the 90-to-92 mph range (T93), with a four-seamer showing some limited arm-side run, and a heavier version of the pitch showing the most effective movement with some glove-side sink. His slider was his best offering in this viewing, coming in at 84-to-87 mph and commanded well in the lower third, and getting to the back foot of righties with late bite and consistent effectiveness as a swing-and-miss offering.  He struggled with the changeup, throttling back his arm speed at times and having it sit in the 81-to-83 mph range, resulting in more of a BP-fastball look with some light, straight tumble as the only meaningful shape.  It wasn’t an important part of his sequencing in this view, with his FB/SL combo generating the outs on the day, but he’ll clearly need the pitch working better to generate more consistent results over time.

While this viewing was a single, 107-pitch outing, it’s hard not to dream on his solid FB/SL combo playing up in a late-inning reliever role down the line, with the fastball gaining a couple ticks in shorter stints to make his slider even more effective, thanks to the additional velo separation.  But the Rockies’ plans don’t include anything but a starting role Howard right now. He’s got some post All-Star break consistency across multiple starts to draw on for confidence, so there’s no reason to think that his profile will change anytime soon – the ingredients are there, and adding some muscle mass – particularly in his lower half – certainly wouldn’t hurt at this point.  Having trouble with the changeup was probably a single-start anomaly, and replicating the fastball arm speed consistently should bring more movement and deception to the pitch.  Working more of them in to his sequencing to keep hitters off balance and play up the FB/SL combo will certainly help him get him through lineups over 6+ innings more effectively, and that would seem to be a point of development from here.