Game Report: Julio Rodriguez, P, Philadelphia Phillies

As I left my hotel room for FirstEnergy Park in Lakewood, New Jersey on a cool, misty mid-August afternoon, I made several mental notes on the prospects I might see that evening, specifically on the Blue Claws roster. I wanted to make sure I was paying attention to the right players, so I could give some observations to Mike Newman. I knew I’d be studying guys like Colby Shreve, Jonathan Singleton and Sebastian Valle.

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Colby Shreve pitched well in 5 hitless innings, dominating a less than spectacular Delmarva Shorebird lineup with little more than pedestrian secondary stuff. While Sebastian Valle rested on the bench, Jonathan Singleton was as good as advertised, slugging a home run over the centerfield wall. As Shreve navigated through some trouble in the 5th inning, I got my first glimpse of Julio Rodriguez warming up in the bullpen.

The Phillies drafted Julio Rodriguez in the 8th round of the 2008 MLB amateur draft as a 17 year old, right handed pitcher out of Puerto Rico. Physically, he is tall (6’4’’) and very lean (around 200 pounds). With his frame, it is imperative for him to build muscle. I think the lack of strength affected his motion some. Now, I know it was late in the season; I just couldn’t ignore his lower half not consistently pushing off the rubber. It looked like below his waist took pitches off, which added unnecessary stress on his pitching arm. I think added leg strength would do wonders with correcting this flaw. I also think that the coaches may want to explore widening his stride a bit. This kid has long legs, a nice, high leg kick but a stride of a 6’ pitcher.

Rodriguez featured a fastball that I clocked on the scoreboard between 90-93 MPH, sitting primarily at 91. He used his 4 seem fastball up in the zone, utilizing very good rising action. He was not afraid to challenge a weak hitting Delmarva lineup, constantly peppering his fastball for strikes. On more than one occasion, Rodriguez was able to use his fastball on the hands of right handed hitters, setting up his Curveball, diving out of the zone.

In my brief game recap, I had commented that Rodriguez threw a slurvy curveball. I glanced at my scouting report on Shreve when I typed that recap. His 12 to 6 curveball is slow with sharp diving action out of the zone. The Stadium gun had him consistently throwing his curve between 75-77 Mph. He only threw it just over a half dozen times. When he did throw it, it usually resulted in a hitter flailing at the ball in the dirt. I did think he slowed down his motion a bit too much throwing the curve, which isn’t unusual for such a green pitcher. With that said, this is definitely an offering with promise. His third pitch, his changeup, was used on a couple of occasions. I recorded one reading of 83 MPH, noting good arm action. Not enough changeups were thrown for me to give an accurate scouting report.

Julio Rodriguez was one of the two best pitchers I saw in the Sally this season. I wish I had seen him pitch more than 3 innings so I could compare him better to the other top pitching prospect I saw, Braves prospect Arodys Vizcaino. I am very surprised, even after his electric second half, an extremely positive write up by Kevin Goldstein, and a good winter ball start for Carolina in Puerto Rico, that Rodriguez isn’t viewed as a top prospect among Phillies fans. In most systems, this guy is a top 15 prospect, even cracking the top 10 in a few organizations. I don’t know the Phillies system like I know the Mets and Braves systems since I’m a Mets fan.  Being transplanted in the south, I have the opportunity to catch several Braves minor league games every season on various levels.

Why isn’t the Phillies bloggersphere isn’t jumping all over this kid yet? Rodriguez is young, projectable, and has a couple of pitches to work from already.  In my mind, he’s top-15 in the Phillies system with definite room to grow.

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