Archive for Eduardo rodriguez

When Eduardo Rodriguez came up in 2015, he relied heavily on his four-seam fastball, throwing it 69% of the time, the greatest frequency in major-league baseball among pitchers with at least 100 innings. He mixed in a slider and and change and was mostly successful, putting up league-average numbers at just 22 years old.

Last year, Rodriguez missed time at the beginning of the season due to a dislocated kneecap. He never really got on track after that, getting off to a bad start that included a demotion to the minors. He improved somewhat by the end of the season but never really put up great numbers. Clay Buchholz beat him out for the third spot in the playoff rotation, and Cleveland’s sweep of Boston meant there was no need for a fourth starter.

It would have been fair, not so long ago, to regard Rodriguez as the fifth starter — behind David Price, Chris Sale, Rick Porcello, and Drew Pomeranz — on the 2017 Red Sox. Two months into the season, though — with Price injured, Porcello failing to repeat last year’s success, and Pomeranz continuing to struggle since last year’s trade — Rodriguez has been the team’s clear No. 2 option after the excellent Chris Sale. His 3.10 ERA is quite strong; his 3.34 FIP, 20% better than league average and bordering on ace level. It’s early, but Rodriguez has made a few different changes that have helped him become a more successful pitcher

We could simply write off last season as one plagued by injury and not bother to examine it any more thoroughly than that, but there’s some solid data in there. One thing to keep in mind — and something we should do for all pitchers, especially younger ones — is that it generally takes time to figure things out at the major-league level. Pitchers can be tinkering with different pitches, different pitch mixes, in order to get things right. A pitcher might not be pitching well at times, but he also might be taking the next step to becoming a better pitcher. Some of this should be taken with a grain of salt, but here is Rodriguez’s pitch mix over the last three seasons.

As noted above, Rodriguez threw his fastball a ton when he first arrived in the majors, mixing in his slider and change. Last season, he introduced a two-seam fastball and upped his slider usage. The slider was a pitch on which he worked in the minors and used it a lot when he came back up, but ultimately didn’t have a lot of success with it. Rodrgiuez’s best pitches in the majors have been the fastball and change. This season, he has gotten back to using those pitches the most. He throws both pitches for strikes, induces swings close to 50% of the time, and generates above-average whiff rates for each pitch (11% for the fastball and 22% for the change, per Brooks Baseball). Throwing those pitches more has yet to lessen their effectiveness. While increased use of his four-seam fastball is notable, as is continued use of the change, the decrease in the use of the slider is a big difference.

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Eduardo Rodriguez’s big-league debut went about as well as anyone could have expected. The hard-throwing lefty struck out seven in 7.2 scoreless innings, and allowed a mere three hits. Boston’s original plan was for Rodriguez to make just one spot start before returning to the minor leagues. However, following Thursday’s outing, the Red Sox decided they’d go with a six-man rotation for the time being in order to give Rodriguez at least one more start. They apparently saw enough to keep him around.

The thing that stood out most about Rodriguez’s debut was his crazy-hard fastball. As Eno Sarris noted on Friday, Rodriguez threw his fastball harder than almost any active starting pitcher. In fact, his average fastball velocity from last Thursday night was the highest we’ve seen from a lefty starter this year. Read the rest of this entry »

The Orioles list is strong at the top but begins to taper off quickly after the Top 4 players. The system boasts a fair bit of up-the-middle position talent (especially in the outfield) and strong pitching. There were another three or four prospects that could have easily slide into the 11-15 range and just narrowly missed the list.

#1 Dylan Bundy (P)

There’s not much to be said about Bundy that hasn’t already been written about a hundred times. Just 19 in 2012, he carved through the minors and reached the majors in his first full pro season. Bundy possesses mid-to-high-90s velocity on his fastball and he also features a plus changeup and a curveball that shows plus potential. He also has a cutter that he hasn’t thrown much as a pro.

I asked a scout familiar with Bundy about the other aspects of the young phenom’s game. “His mechanics are clean and he’s a good athlete with very good body control which allows him to repeat his delivery for solid-average to plus command and he’s got a good feel for what he’s doing,” the talent evaluator said. “His make-up is off the chart. He’s the most driven and focused young man that I’ve every seen and he’s a good character guy. As far as what Dylan needs to work on. I would say he needs to refine his repertoire and learn the finer points to using his pitches.”

The fourth overall selection in the 2011 draft, Bundy made just three starts above A-ball in 2012 so he could return to double-A or triple-A in 2013. With three potentially-plus pitches and plus make-up, Bundy has true No. 1 starter potential. Only an injury appears capable of derailing this once-in-a-generation talent. Read the rest of this entry »