Leonardo Rodriguez

[MurphDogg]

4 hours ago, LookinUp said:

What can I say? I saw 21 and 242 days and didn't do the math. Only on this board would someone call you out for something so minor.

Haha, just thought it was funny that two people in this thread described him as almost 22 despite his birthday being four months away. 

[MurphDogg]

Keith Law was asked about him in his chat today, evidently he was at the Aberdeen game last night.

ben: You flagged Leonardo Rodriguez as a sleeper a couple years ago. He’s had a great start in Aberdeen this year but is a little old for the level. Is he still a legit prospect worth watching?
Keith Law: I saw him again last night – he hasn’t progressed.

[Frobby]

Keith Law is such a buzzkill.

[JMU_Birdfan]

He's never met an Oriole's prospect he didn't hate

[Tony-OH]

I was at the game last night.

Rodriguez is a funky delivery fastball-slider guy who can throw strikes with both pitches. His fastball sits a a pretty solid 92-94 though he touched 95. there's a little life in the end but he does a good job or using around the edges of the zone. His slider gets more downward action though there is some break as well. He likes to use it low in the zone and gets a lot of swings over the pitch from New York Penn League batters. His slider is typically in the 82-84 range though he flashed an 87 MPH wipe out slider that was a plus pitch once.

His change is firm and straight and he doesn't  have any feel for the pitch. He's a pretty good athlete for his size and is unafraid to shake off his catcher and call his catcher out to talk if he wants to talk over something despite his limited English.

Is he a guy for me? I'll say he's interesting enough to keep a watch on but he definitely has a reliever profile for me. If he can sit 95-96 as a reliever and that slider can bump to the 85-87 range, he suddenly gets a potential late inning reliever. 

He'll be in consideration for the top 30 no doubt. Right now I think he's in the 20-30 range but can rise or fall still over the last month.

[Frobby]

Great outing from Leonardo tonight, 6 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K’s.    1.65 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 10.8 K/9 to date.

[Filmstudy]

For the season now:

49 IP, 25 H, 13 BB, 59 Ks, 0.78 WHIP, 4 HRs, .148 opp BA.

Rutschman did allow a steal while he was pitching, so we know he can't hold runners on (sarcasm).

Anyone looking at his stats would note terrific progression from 2018, so some of the "no progression" comments must be qualitative.

His age dif is -0.4 for Aberdeen this season, so he's still a little young for the league.

[POR]

5 hours ago, Filmstudy said:

 His age dif is -0.4 for Aberdeen this season, so he's still a little young for the league.

There is a difference between a 21 year old player in short season ball that has been playing pro ball for several years and a 21 year old college player that was just drafted this year.

[Jammer7]

2 hours ago, POR said:

There is a difference between a 21 year old player in short season ball that has been playing pro ball for several years and a 21 year old college player that was just drafted this year.

Is there? No matter where you’ve been for the past 4-5 years, it’s where you are headed from here. No?

I get what you’re saying, but does that really matter in the grand scheme? I mean if he takes off, prospect wise, from here, does anyone care that he has been in professional baseball for 5 years before getting to Delmarva? Does he somehow become less of a prospect? Or is he a success story of perseverance and good coaching? He seems to be another existing talent that Chris Holt and staff have helped turn a corner. 

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, POR said:

There is a difference between a 21 year old player in short season ball that has been playing pro ball for several years and a 21 year old college player that was just drafted this year.

I agree with this, but that certainly doesn’t mean Rodriguez is “old” at 21.   It’s not like we signed him at 16 and it’s taken him 5 years to get this far.    His first year of pro ball was 2017.   So, call him a late bloomer who’s showing some potential.   He’s made good progress from last year to this one.   I’d like to find a way to get him to Delmarva this year and see how he fares in the Sally League.   But the rotation is crowded there.   

[LookinUp]

6 hours ago, Jammer7 said:

Is there? No matter where you’ve been for the past 4-5 years, it’s where you are headed from here. No?

I get what you’re saying, but does that really matter in the grand scheme? I mean if he takes off, prospect wise, from here, does anyone care that he has been in professional baseball for 5 years before getting to Delmarva? Does he somehow become less of a prospect? Or is he a success story of perseverance and good coaching? He seems to be another existing talent that Chris Holt and staff have helped turn a corner. 

I mean, you can argue that nothing before today matters. The only thing that matters is every day from now on. That leaves out some context when evaluating prospects though.

The argument against a guy like this is that we've had him for 4-5 years and he hasn't taken off yet (maybe until now). The general argument for him is that this might be the first time he's pitched in front of really good player development guys. In that context, there's more hope than there might otherwise be. 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, LookinUp said:

I mean, you can argue that nothing before today matters. The only thing that matters is every day from now on. That leaves out some context when evaluating prospects though.

The argument against a guy like this is that we've had him for 4-5 years and he hasn't taken off yet (maybe until now). The general argument for him is that this might be the first time he's pitched in front of really good player development guys. In that context, there's more hope than there might otherwise be. 

That would be a factually wrong argument.   We’ve had him since 2017.    

[POR]

Rodriguez could certainly be a late bloomer who is benefiting from the new Orioles regime.  However, Rodriguez had a lot of buzz about him in spring training 2018 and was expected to open in Delmarva and he sill has not made it.  To me is is telling that Stauffer was promoted to Delmarva and Rodriguez has not.  

In general there are a bunch of advanced 21 year old mid round 2019 draft picks who are only in the NY Penn League because they already threw a full college season and are just throwing a few pro innings to get their feet wet. 

On a similar topic, who is the better prospect between Robert Neustrom and Jomar Reyes?  Neustrom is a actually few months older but was a 2018 draft pick who just got promoted to Frederick on July 24th.  Reyes is in his 4th year with the Keys and has made little progress.  While I don't think either are likely to emerge as a top prospect, Neustrom clearly has a better chance. 

 

[Ruzious]

LeoRod's been absurdly consistent in his 9 stats this season - pitching 5 or 6 innings every time, never giving up more than 2 runs, a high of 3 walks - in his first game, a 0.78 WHIP in 49 innings, 59 SO's.  

[Ruzious]

Again, Stauffer's been essenttially the same - except his innings haven't been nearly as consistent.  They seem to think Rodriquez can handle more innings than Stauffer.