It’s the time of year when nobody has anything to write about, and thus we’re treated to endless lists. Here’s Baseball Prospectus’ addition to the lexicon of prospect 1-10.
Excellent Prospects
NoneVery Good Prospects
1. Daric Barton, 1b
2. Travis Buck, lfGood Prospects
3. Kurt Suzuki, c
4. Javier Herrera, cf
5. Jermaine Mitchell, cfAverage Prospects
6. Matt Sulentic, lf
7. Marcus McBeth, rhp
8. Jason Windsor, rhp
9. Kevin Melillo, 2b
10. Henry Rodriguez, rhp
Good times. Not much different from most other lists of the same ilk, with the exception of one entry towards the bottom. If you said to yourself "who the hell is Henry Rodriguez?", you should know you’re not alone in your confusion.
No, Oakland didn’t go out and sign the former Dodger/Expo/Cub/Yankee/Marlin (seen left) - this is a new Henry Rodriguez. A Henry Alberto Rodriguez, to be exact. He’s a Rodriguez that pitches… Hard.
Here’s what BP had to say about Hen-Rod:
The Good: The best raw arm in the organization, Rodriguez sat at 92-96 mph in 2006, touched 98, and has been clocked as high as 100 mph in the past. His curveball projects as a plus pitch and he shows excellent feel for a changeup, especially for a pitcher so inexperienced.
The Bad: Raw is the understatement of the century, as Rodriguez has little clue as to what he’s doing out there. Complicating matters even more are issues revolving around Rodriguez’s maturity and willingness to work with coaches.
The Irrelevant: When the A’s finally stretched out his arm at the end of the year, pitching him for a season-high five innings in each of his last three outings, Rodriguez allowed just six hits over those 15 frames, walking eight and striking out 21.
In a Perfect World, He Becomes: A pitcher who misses bats? It’s hard to really project anything more.
Gap Between What He Is Now, And What He Can Be: Crazy High - Rodriguez has one of the most intriguing skill sets in the organization, and despite his struggles, he caught the attention of numerous other teams for his arm strength alone. He’s not ready for a full-season either mentally or physically, and will begin the year in spring training before spending the second half of the season in Vancouver.
Uh-huh. That’s right, we get to see the crazy arm in V-Town this season. Sounds like a bit of a Nuke Laloosh, and we all remember how much fun it was the last time Vancouver had one of those (Jason ‘Death" Ray), don’t we?
Incidentally, the original Henry Rodriguez is still playing - for the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks - along with such ex-major leaguers as Nelson Figueroa, Pat Mahomes, and Bill Pulsipher.
2 users commented in " Baseball Prospectus rates top 10 Oakland up’n'comers "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackOne question OZ, how can a guy that was 17-2 in the minor leagues last year between AA and AAA be considered only an average prospect? Average means majority where I come from and I didn’t see anything average about Jason Windsor’s stat’s last season. So he didn’t dominate in his big-league appearances, SO WHAT! Who does their first games out without the last name Weaver on their jersey? I completely disagree with where he landed on the prospect chart.
Furthermore, what the hell is Marcus McBeth doing as an average prospect? He tops 97-98, slider is just FILTH and he’s doing pretty damn good in only his second year pitching, but that’s average, that’s what everybody does. Sulentic definatly deserves to be up there, he’s just as good as Windsor and McBeth, hell, I bet he challenges Travis Buck next year for a big league roster spot…… *SARCASM ANYBODY*? That kid couldn’t hold Windsor’s jock strap!
Has anybody actually seen this Rodriguez throw? His 100 looks like 85 and he got knocked all over the yard in rookie-ball last year. How does a guy with 100mph in the tank and a + Curve get knocked around. Because he’s a mental midget. His 100 usually hits 4-5 screens high on the backstop and the reason he had any sort of success is because he didn’t know where it was going, guys just wanted to take three hacks and get out of there befor he hit them in the neck or drilled their parents in the stands. Nobody is safe when this kid is on the mound. My suggestion is to put him in the outfield and DH for him and let the pitchers hit for themselves, at least then when he throws the ball in, everybody is looking and has a glove on. Next step is to get helmets for the fielders that play while he’s in the OF!
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