When the Cincinnati Reds drafted Taylor Sparks in the 2nd round of the 2014 draft he was lauded as a very toolsy player, but one who was perhaps a little bit raw in his plate approach. Both of those things have turned out to be true over the last two years.
In 2015 he walked 30 times and struck out 162 times. Those numbers were very ugly in the first half where he had just nine walks and 93 strikeouts, but things were better in the second half with 21 walks and 69 strikeouts. He’s continued to show a better approach this season with 10 walks and 36 strikeouts, though you’d still prefer to see the ratio a bit better than that.