Drew Rom 2023

[Frobby]

The Forgotten Pitcher of Norfolk threw 6 shutout innings tonight.   He allowed 3 hits, one walk and struck out 4.  He navigated the 6 IP in only 83 pitches, 59 of which were strikes.  

[RZNJ]

6 hours ago, Frobby said:

The Forgotten Pitcher of Norfolk threw 6 shutout innings tonight.   He allowed 3 hits, one walk and struck out 4.  He navigated the 6 IP in only 83 pitches, 59 of which were strikes.  

I think he is the forgotten pitcher and prospect.  I know when I watch him pitch nothing really impresses me but who knows.

[Chaka Garcia]

Any concerns that he’s not striking out a lot of pitchers? Maybe a Zimmerman type who has a nice few games and gets  bombed when the league figures him out.

[glenn__davis]

18 minutes ago, Chaka Garcia said:

Any concerns that he’s not striking out a lot of pitchers? Maybe a Zimmerman type who has a nice few games and gets  bombed when the league figures him out.

Sure - that's why he's ranked 24th on the OH prospect list.

That said, he's probably had a better minor league career than John Means.  If he pitches well at Norfolk he'll get his shot in the majors, either with us or someone else.

[Just Regular]

Here's a chart that's nice to Drew Rom.    I finally poked around enough to figure out a multi-year report of All Affiliated Minors pitchers to see how extensively Grayson has run circles around everyone the last half decade.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/minor-league?pos=all&level=0&lg=2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,14,12,13,15,16,17,18,30,32,33&stats=pit&qual=250&type=1&team=&season=2018&seasonEnd=2022&org=&ind=0&splitTeam=false&players=&sort=11,1

Since 2018, at a 250 IP minimum, Rom also made the first page of K-BB%, a little bit ahead of DL Hall.

[btdart20]

54 minutes ago, Just Regular said:

Here's a chart that's nice to Drew Rom.    I finally poked around enough to figure out a multi-year report of All Affiliated Minors pitchers to see how extensively Grayson has run circles around everyone the last half decade.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/minor-league?pos=all&level=0&lg=2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,14,12,13,15,16,17,18,30,32,33&stats=pit&qual=250&type=1&team=&season=2018&seasonEnd=2022&org=&ind=0&splitTeam=false&players=&sort=11,1

Since 2018, at a 250 IP minimum, Rom also made the first page of K-BB%, a little bit ahead of DL Hall.

Dean Kremer was #11 too.

[Triple Crown]

Another nice start from Rom. 5IP 2H 0R 2BB and 5K. He’s definitely going to get some consideration the way the current starters are going 

[bpilktree]

Another good start 5ip 7 hits 2 ER 0 walks and 5 strikeouts.  I keep waiting for his lack of stuff to cause trouble getting out more polished hitters but he has continued to pitch better then I expected at each level.  

[emmett16]

He knows the show is right around the corner.  Saw some pre-seasons interviews and sounded like he was in a good place. 

[Frobby]

Outstanding start for Rom tonight.  6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 11 K’s. 

[now]

Irvin, Hall and Zimmerman, move over. Let's have a look at this guy in Oriole orange. 

[Just Regular]

One of just three qualified 23 year old pitchers in the International League by Fangraphs reckoning - the much more famous Matthew Liberatore and Luis Patino the others.

Due Rays praise diligence - the still more youthful Taj Bradley has already aced the league, but is still pitching and/or load managing there intermittently for daily roster maximization.

[Spy Fox]

Is Rom the next up if Kremer has another bad start or two?

[RZNJ]

Told you guys he didn’t have a plus pitch!

[Tony-OH]

So, let's take a look at Rom's stuff. The question is whether Rom is just another soft tossing lefty that can get AAA hitters out similar to Lowther, T. Wells or Zimmerman or if he's something else?

So we can assume Rom was at his best in his past effort and thanks to having statcast info, we can do some comparisons.

Here's is Rom's stuff

Now I made up the second chart on movement based off averages from the movement chart provided above. They are approximate and for the last game only since statcast doesn't give his season overview for AAA players yet only game by game views.

So who is a major league comp for Rom's stuff? I went to statcast and looked at left-handed pitchers in 2023 and 2022.

From  fastball perspective, the three left-handers with the closest fastball combo of velocity, Vmov and Hmov were: Austin Gomber (22 and 23), Kris Bubic, and Eduardo Rodriguez.

The bad news is Gomber's fastball gets murdered by major league hitters and is the closest to Rom's, though Rom does spit about 100 RPMs better. It'w wort noting that Eduardo's fastball is very close to Bubic's yet the result are quite different so command comes into play here. Looking at major league average for 91 MPH 4-seamer's, both of Rom's Vmov and Hmov would be slightly below average.

I'll work on his other pitches tomorrow in comparison to MLB pitches but the fastball looks to be in some trouble unless he's able to spot it real well consistently. He won't get away with many mistakes.