Aug 4, 20193 min read

Mid-Season Dirty Thirty-Five: Prospect #14

Thanks to Fangraph for the stats!

Thanks For Reading!!

Kyle Reis Since this is the mid-season write-up, it's just a quick overview of the player. When we get to the preseason re ranking in the offseason, they'll be a lot more involved.

All stats are current as of 8/4/2019.

All write-ups were published during all-star week.

Prospect #14: RHP Angel Rondon

Springfield Cardinals

Signed as an International Free Agent in 2016

Age 21

FIRST, a gif of our boy throwing back to back curves:

Angel Rondon gives us a chance to peer into my brain, and the battle that goes on within it, in regards to a prospect. This is what it's like when a player like Angel Rondon emerges. I'm truly truly sorry for this:

KYLE: LOOK AT THIS KID!! HE'S AMAZING.

Rational Kyle: Yeah, he's making strides, and he has some good stuff, but he only throws two pitches well enough to matter.

KYLE: HE'S A STUD! THOSE TWO PITCHES ARE WELL ABOVE AVERAGE! HE'S A MAJOR LEAGUER!

Rational Kyle: Calm yourself down, you nitwit. There's a lot of work to be done. He might be doing enough now, but he's getting away with stuff that he won't be able to at the next level.

KYLE: WHAT DO YOU KNOW?! HE'S 21 AND PITCHING REALLY WELL AT AA!!!! HOW MANY PITCHERS HAVE DONE THAT IN RECENT YEARS FOR THE CARDINALS?! HE HAS FRONT OF THE ROTATION STUFF.

Rational, and now reactionary toward emotions, Kyle: No, he doesn't. Those guys are rare. Jack Flaherty has front of the rotation stuff. Carlos Martinez has front of the rotation stuff. And, even then, look at how hard it is to be a front of the rotation pitcher. You're an idiot.

KYLE: NO, YOU'RE THE IDIOT. HE'S HAD 16 STARTS ON THE SEASON AND HE'S ONLY YIELDED MORE THAN THREE RUNS IN THREE OF THOSE STARTS. HE'S STRIKING OUT 25+% OF HITTERS. AND HE'S COMING OFF OF THE BEST START IN HIS CAREER.

Rational Kyle: Sure, but his FIP at the AA level is 4.00, and that tells us that he's getting bailed out a bit. When you add in that his xFIP is 4.49, and that he's walking roughly 12% of batters at Double-A, you start to see some alarming trends.

KYLE: SUCK IT WITH YOUR TRENDS, YOU COCK. STOP BEING SUCK A PUNK-ASS-BITCH-ASS-DICK-ASS-BITCH AND OPEN YOUR EYES: THIS KID IS GOOD!!! AND HE STILL HAS ROOM TO GROW AND GET BETTER!

Rational Kyle: Actually... Yeah. That checks out. I agree.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand SCENE.

Anyway, here's another gif. This time, it's of our boy striking out Royals' stud infielder Adelberto Mondesi while Mondesi was on a rehab assignment. It's also a five-pitch mix of his entire arsenal, and another example of how he uses and manipulates his curve so well:

Quick aside: If you're going to do the stupid powder blue jerseys, do them like these. Look at how good they look!! "Victory Blue", L.O.L. LOVE the black bat, too mmm mmm mmm.

We were on Rondon in the off-season, weren't we?! There's no taking away that he's talented, and I love seeing a player as young as he is do so well at AA, but he needs to continue to refine a third offering and lower the walk total. Now, six of his twenty-five walks over 51.1 Double-A innings came in one start, a start in which he worked around that trouble to the tune of two earned runs over six innings. I bring that up, because I want to show you that his stuff is good enough, and he trusts it enough, to get out of trouble at the minor league level. With a fastball that keeps it's mid-to-low 90's velocity well into starts, a curve-ball that's deceptive because of Rondon's arm speed, and a quirky delivery that creates a ton of deception, few prospects in the organization have made the gains during the 2019 season as Rondon has.