The Milwaukee Brewers continued to deepen their pitching pipeline from independent baseball this past week, inking another pair of hurlers who worked most recently in unaffiliated leagues and also spent time at Driveline Baseball:
Recent Driveline signees Karsen Lindell and Jackson Sigman both look to be headed to the Rocky Mountain roster for the #Brewers.
— Toby H (@YouKnowAndThat) June 13, 2019
Jackson Sigman, who turned 24 a few days ago, was passed over out of West Virginia in 2017 and began his career by pitching in the Frontier League with the Gateway Grizzlies. He caught on with the Royals two months later and made five appearances for their AZL affiliate, posting a 4.70 ERA with 11 strikeouts and zero walks in 7.2 innings. Kansas City couldn’t find a spot for him the following spring, however, and he was cut loose in March 2018.
Sigman spent the 2018 season by splitting time between the River City Rascals of the Frontier League and the Wichita Winguts of the American Association, totaling 20 appearances and 19.2 innings out of the bullpen. A 5.12 ERA and 24:16 K/BB ratio, though, didn’t catch any eyes and Sigman returned to the Frontier League for the start of the 2019 season. This time around with River City, Sigman tallied 11.2 innings with a sparkling 0.77 ERA with 18 punchouts against four free passes. That, combined with Sigman’s previous showing at the Driveline Pro Day, convinced Milwaukee to give him another shot at affiliated ball.
Sigman stands at 6’2” and weighs in around 200 lbs. The right-hander works from a side-winding delivery using primarily a fastball in the upper-80s and a slider in the upper-70s.
The most recent affiliated organization that Milwaukee’s other signee pitched for was...the Milwaukee Brewers. Karsen Lindell was considered to be a pretty intriguing high school prospect when the Brew Crew popped him in the 9th round of the 2015 MLB Draft, giving him a slightly over-slot bonus in order to convince him to skip out on his commitment to Washington. Lindell was praised for his polished delivery and fastball/slider/changeup combo, but he was never quite able to put things together during his first stint with the franchise.
Lindell got plenty of opportunities to pitch during three seasons from 2015-17, appearing in 35 games (22 starts) and tossing 111.2 innings in the AZL and Pioneer Leagues. But he also coughed up an 8.22 ERA, walking nearly as many hitters (74) as he struck out (75) before getting released in December 2017. He briefly toyed with the idea of retirement before getting back into the game with the semi-pro Seattle Studs and beginning workouts at Driveline. There have been some suggestions that Lindell’s commitment may have been an issue in the past, but he showed a renewed vigor while working at Driveline, and the results showed in his work off the mound.
When Lindell began his work at Driveline last August, he was topping out around 89 MPH. By November, he was hitting 95 regularly and topping out around 97 MPH. He’s also worked a splitter in as part of his repetoire. Lindell went unsigned out of Driveline’s Pro Day but returned again to the Seattle Studs before convincing the brain trust in the Cream City that he deserved a second chance.
@Karsen_Lindell peaked at 89.3 mph in his baseline mound velo in early August.
— Rob Hill (@Berticushill) November 6, 2018
Today, his lowest FB was 93.3.
Avg. velo of 95.1, peak of 97.1. pic.twitter.com/xJnHdhk8Yk
After a bit of a rough start in today's Live AB's @Karsen_Lindell settled in and put on a bit of a show.
— Rob Hill (@Berticushill) February 16, 2019
Normal camera footage followed by @Edgertronic of the same pitch featured here, followed by a couple full abs at the end that were just...mean..for lack of a better term. pic.twitter.com/V2HOEd7sUr
Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference