I agree they took Howard with upside in mind. More learning how to pitch upside though than physical projection. His velocity has picked up a bit since he was drafted, but I am pretty sure they drafted him with the mid-90s velocity already in their thinking. Basically a guy with a body like Pivetta that they thought had some upside if they could teach him how to pitch.
My point though is that there were college pitchers selected around his time in the draft that also had upside but with greater certainty in knowing how to pitch. This was a high second round pick. You can't really equate him to lower picks or back end starters because everyone drafted at this point usually does have at least mid-rotation upside other than the very rare Eshelman types (who usually go a round or two later).
Their reasoning for picking him may have been sound, but it certainly had lots of risk. He is struggling in Low A. That is not good, whatever the raw stuff might look like. This is a little bit the pitching version of draft picks like Hewitt and Collier except it is a college guy so one should expect him to be a bit less raw. However sound the reason to draft him, it is also worth calling out that it does not look like a great pick at this point.
