Eddy Rodriguez

[mabrowndog]

Eduardo Jose (Hernandez) Rodriguez
LHSP
 

 
(No relation to the late Eduardo Rodriguez, the former Brewers/Royals RHP and Puerto Rico native who died in 2009.)
 
DOB: April 7, 1993
Born: Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela
B/T: Left/Left
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 200 lbs
Signed: IFA on January 22, 2010
By: Baltimore Orioles (Scout: Calvin Maduro)
Bonus: $175,000
Acquired: 7/31/2014 from Baltimore Orioles (Traded for LHRP Andrew Miller)
Roster Status: Rule 5 Draft-eligible December 2014
Options Used: 0 of 3
 
 
LINKS
 
* Baseball-Reference.com page
* MiLB.com page
* SoxProspects profile
* Baseball America page
* Baseball Prospectus page
* Baseball Cube page
* Fangraphs page
* Minor League Central page
 
 

 

 

 
SCOUTING REPORTS
 
* Ranked as Orioles #3 prospect and MLB overall #65 prospect by Baseball America.
 
* 2014 BA Prospect Handbook:
 

The Orioles signed Rodriguez for $175,000 as a 17-year-old in January 2010, and he gained attention for pitching well in the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League. Baltimore invited him to big league spring training in 2013 and he jumped on the fast track, moving from high Class A Frederick to Double-A Bowie, then finishing the year with three scoreless innings in the Arizona Fall League championship game. Rodriguez works off a fastball with natural cut to the glove side. He pitches mostly at 92-93 mph, touching 95, and showed the ability to work to both sides of the plate with his fastball. His slider is his best secondary pitch and has made nice gains in the last year. So too has his changeup, which he even threw to some lefthanded hitters. Rodriguez has three potential above-average pitches. He still has some issues repeating his delivery, but he made improvement there while showing durability in a long season, posting a 0.36 ERA in his final four Double-A starts and pitching deep into the AFL. After throwing more than 160 innings, Rodriguez is close to big league ready. He ought to begin 2014 in the Double-A Bowie rotation and finish at Triple-A Norfolk—or possibly Baltimore. He has a No. 3 starter ceiling.

 
* Ranked as Red Sox #10 prospect by MLB.com after 2014 non-waiver trade deadline:
 

Scouting grades: Fastball: 55 | Slider: 50 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 50 | Overall: 50
 
Rodriguez has made steady improvement since signing out of Venezuela as a 17-year-old in 2010. He made a big jump in 2013 when he reached Double-A Bowie, and then finished the year as the starting pitcher in the Arizona Fall League championship game. The Orioles used him as trade bait at the 2014 Deadline, sending him to the Red Sox for Andrew Miller. Initially more of a command-and-control lefty, Rodriguez has grown into his lanky frame and has seen his velocity jump as a result. He now throws his fastball in the low 90s, with good sink and movement. Rodriguez pairs his fastball with a hard changeup and a tight slider, both of which grade out as at least average offerings. Rodriguez hasn't been quite as sharp in 2014, but at 21 years old, he's young for Double-A, and he still profiles as a possible middle-of-the rotation starter.

 
* SoxProspects.com profile
 

[SIZE=8pt]Lefty starter with a filled-out frame. Delivery is smooth and repeatable. Low-90s fastball that touches 95 mph. Command needs refinement. Slider and changeup are both average with potential to improve. Slider works 82-85 mph and and shows good two-plane movement. Changeup sits 83-85 mph but is inconsistent. Had an excellent 2013 season but has taken a step back numbers-wise in 2014. [/SIZE]

 

[MakMan44]

Beaten by a minute. 
 
Starts tomorrow for Portland

 

[mabrowndog]

Former SoxProspects scouting director Chris Mellen, now writing for Baseball Prospectus, filed a detailed scouting report on Rodriguez in early June.
 

Mechanics - 3/4 arm slot; evenly filled out body; easy, repeatable delivery; smooth and efficient; uses frame to create leverage and plane; gets on top of the ball; throws downhill; can drift with feet during finish; quick to plate - 1.29-1.34 out of stretch.
 
Fastball - Fringe-average command - tried to work both sides of the plate; not afraid to pitch inside against right-handed batters; lacks strong movement - demonstrated occasional arm-side tail; left pitch up and in middle of the plate too much; very flat when elevated; offering will need to be consistently spotted down around the knees and on the corners; needs to finesse the strike zone; will not overpower hitters and miss bats frequently; must pick spots when elevating.
 
Slider - Solid-average command; consistently threw for strikes; tilt and depth to offering, but not presently a hard biter; showed more sweeping action; lack of hard break off the table enables batters to wait on pitch and get the barrel on well spotted ones; capable of consistently executing pitch; room for growth - showed feel for creating snap with wrist; will need to tighten up to miss bats at the major league level.
 
Changeup - Below-average command; left up in zone often; lacked finish causing pitch to float and hang in the strike zone; on the firm side; action more like a fastball pitcher is taking something off of; willing to throw pitch in sequences; at times got deliberate with delivery, tipping that it was coming; can throw with appropriate arm-speed and create deception.

While Rodriguez's stuff was bland in this outing, I saw some room for growth with his arsenal and an understanding of the fundamentals behind executing his craft. The lefty was willing to work both sides of the plate with his fastball, along with showing no fear in trying to get the pitch up under right-handed hitters' hands. There was a lack of execution, however, especially in the 3rd inning of the outing. It was compounded by Rodriguez losing his rhythm, and what seemed to be some focus in slowing the game down. The pitcher went into an ultra-attack mode, where he was trying to hard to force the execution of his pitches and it lead to a loss of control over the outing.

Rodriguez's fastball is the type that is best served being thrown in the lower tier of the strike zone and on the corners. The pitcher needs work improving the consistency of his fastball command to limit hard contact and continue to progress through the upper minors. There's a fine line with the pitch. Presently, neither of his secondary offerings are of the bat missing variety. I saw his slider as having the best potential to progress towards this level. Rodriguez feels the pitch well and shows the ability to throw it for strikes. The lack of hard bite is a hurdle now for getting opposing batters to commit early to the pitch and swing over the top of it. The way he threw the pitch lead me to believe it can tighten up a bit more with further repetition over the next year or so. The changeup can be a serviceable offering for him in the long-run, but I didn't see the feel for it getting past an average offering.

Overall, this isn't a flashy arm or one with top shelf stuff. I did like the way Rodriguez went about trying to execute his craft. The lefty had an idea of who he is as a pitcher. But, there are rough edges here and limitations when laying in the present stuff against major-league hitters. His body language and overall demeanor left me with the impression that the mind is in the right place to make progress, and more repetition will drive future growth to reach the projection.

 

[mabrowndog]

Starts tomorrow for Portland

 
Yup. It's a 1 pm start vs Trenton, and will air live on NESN with Tom Caron on play-by-play at Hadlock Field.

 

[mabrowndog]

It wasn't a very deep outing, but it was certainly effective and fun to watch. Rodriguez goes 5.1 IP allowing just 1 ER on just 2 H with a walk, HBP and 7 Ks while throwing 62 of 88 pitches for strikes. He found himself in a couple of jams, both of his and his teammates' doing, but bore down to strand every baserunner.
 
A single (hit solidly to CF but not crushed), wild pitch and walk to lead off the t-2nd strained his pitch count to 25 for the inning as he briefly struggled with location working from the stretch, but he coaxed three medium-depth outfield flyouts. In the 5th he once again found himself with 2 on and no outs despite no balls leaving the infield after errors by 3B Mike Miller and 1B David Chester, but escaped without any damage. His only true mistake pitch of the day was a letter-high 1-0 fastball clobbered over the LF wall by RHH Dan Fiorito in the 4th.
 
He showed a pretty nasty slider (a few wound up in the dirt, but Swihart was cash money on his plate blocking all day), a nice changeup, and got his fastball on the inside edge to RHH several times for strikes.

 

[mabrowndog]

Chris Mellen @ChrisMellen  ·  5h

#RedSox LHP Eduardo Rodriguez showing more lively FB than last time I saw him. Sitting 92-94, and has touched 96. Some trouble keeping down.
 
Chris Mellen @ChrisMellen  ·  4h

#RedSox LHP Eduardo Rodriguez: FB 91-94, T96; moved around zone; SL 84-88; changed shape when needed; CH 84-87; flashed quality armside fade

 

[Paradigm]

Could be a hell of a return for two months of an elite reliever. And I say this really, really, really hoping that the front office re-signs Miller next year.

 

[Snodgrass'Muff]

I don't think you can call it a steal, even with the Orioles only getting two months of Miller. They traded for what was probably the most valuable reliever on the market. They had to give up value to get it done and so they decided that 6 years of control over a promising arm was worth it to help secure the division and take a shot at the World Series while the two financial juggernauts in the division are down.
 
It's a short term move that made sense for them.

 

[Sprowl]

I'm on my phone so can't really throw a lot of stats up here, but holy shit, looking at his numbers from his 5 starts in Portland, this looks like an absolute steal. Has anyone seen him pitch? It's tough to go just off of numbers but that's a hell of a start.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=rodrig006edu&mobile=false

 
A snippet from the link:
 

Red Sox beat writer Alex Speirer of WEEI  noted that the young Venezuelan was topping out at 96-97 on his fastball in all of his starts while aggressively pounding both sides of the zone with the pitch. Less than a year ago, he was averaging just 92, and topping out, by most accounts, at 94....
 
His 84-88 MPH changeup is his most most advanced off-speed weapon right now and should develop into a plus major league offering, according to ESPN.com Keith Law.  The development of his slider, though, could be the ultimate determinate of his long-term success. It’s still raw but has the potential to be above average down the line, allowing Rodriguez to develop into a legitimate number two starter.

 
A very promising velocity boost in the last month.

 

[pokey_reese]

Yeah, if he is sitting in the mid-90s from the left side, then consider me pretty excited about that velocity differential on the change-up.  It seems like we have had some starter prospects lately who throw good change-ups in terms of movement, but don't have that kind of separation.

 

[Paradigm]

Nice video of his 6 K's last night here: http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2014/09/13/red-sox-minor-league-roundup-rusney-castillo-makes-his-mark-eduardo-rodriguez-trade-deadline-steal/
 
Looks like a very easy delivery. Smooth, fluid. Exciting prospect. 

 

[FelixMantilla]

from Alex Speier:
 
http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/alex-speier/2014/09/20/did-red-sox-land-their-future-ace-deadline-rev
 
 

"He has stuff that can possibly dominate a lineup a few times through," noted PawSox manager Kevin Boles, who saw Rodriguez in his final start of the 2014 season, in the Governor's Cup Finals against Durham. "Plus arm speed, feel for three pitches. His velocity and the life out of his hand with his fastball, it's explosive. He's got swing-and-miss capability. But what I love about him is the way he competes. He's another one of these arms that you just go, 'Whoa.' He's one of the top guys, just from the one look I saw. He looks like he's one of our best guys."

 
 

 

[The Talented Allen Ripley]

From yesterday's Ask BA:
 

Q: What happened this season with LHP Eduardo Rodriguez?  Going into the season he was one of Baltimore’s top prospects but had a horrendous season in Bowie. Then he was traded to the Red Sox organization and completely turned things around.  What’s your opinion on him going forward?

 ​

A: The Red Sox did a good job of landing Rodriguez at just the right time.
 
Rodriguez was considered one of the Orioles’ top prospects after both the 2012 and 2013 season, and he was expected to be in Triple-A getting ready for a spot in Baltimore’s rotation by the middle of 2014. Instead, a knee injury cost him a month early in the season, and when he did return he had trouble repeating his delivery, although he still showed the makings of a plus fastball to go with at least an average changeup and a potentially fringe average slider.
 
So when the trade deadline came along, instead of pitching in Triple-A for a spot in the big league rotation, the 21-year-old Rodriguez was struggling in Double-A, going 3-7, 4.79 in 83 innings with Bowie. That meant the Orioles were willing to offer him for lefthander Andrew Miller. It’s one of those trades that may end up working out well for both teams. Miller has been everything the Orioles’ hoped for as a lefty reliever. He’s 2-0, 1.35 with 34 strikeouts and only 13 baserunners in 20 innings of work and will be a big part of their bullpen in the playoffs.
 
But for the Red Sox, Rodriguez was outstanding. The Red Sox emphasized to Rodriguez to use his secondary stuff, especially his changeup, in all counts. But more than anything Rodriguez gained a little bit of arm speed that helped his fastball, slider and changeup all play up more than they did when he was pitching for Bowie. He was 3-1, 0.96 in six starts with Portland and he was just as effective in the playoffs for Triple-A Pawtucket.
 
Rodriguez didn’t overhaul his delivery, so there isn’t some significant difference between Rodriguez with the Orioles and with the Red Sox. It’s possible that the Red Sox’ training or between-starts program clicked with Rodriguez, but he’s shown similar stuff in the past. It’s just as likely that as he got further away from his spring knee injury, he just got more stretched out and his velocity gained a tick. As a result, he was once again the 92-94 mph lefty who can touch 96-97, which makes him a very intriguing option for the Red Sox in late 2015 or 2016.
 
The Red Sox have an interesting but difficult problem going into 2015 because they have too many starting pitching prospects who are right on the cusp of the big leagues. Allen Webster, Rubby de la Rosa, Brandon Workman, Joe Kelly, Anthony Ranaudo, Matt Barnes, Edwin Escobar and even Steven Wright have all seen action at the big league level this year. Behind them, Rodriguez, Henry Owens and Brian Johnson will all be arguably ready for Triple-A when the 2015 starts. That’s 11 starting pitchers to find spots for between the big league rotation, the big league bullpen and Triple-A Pawtucket’s rotation. Considering how poorly this year went for Boston, and how poorly some of those young pitchers performed in late season callups, it’s likely that Kelly is the only surefire rotation member of the young arms, with likely one or at most two starting spots up for grabs among the other young pitchers.
 
While teams always want to have depth, there simply aren’t enough innings to keep everyone happy and at a representative level for their development. These problems usually work out, either through trades or attrition, but with the Red Sox headed toward a busy offseason, it will be an interesting logjam to keep an eye on.

 

[Rough Carrigan]

He looked great in his first spring training outing against the Orioles and was throwing 96.  I loved Andrew Miller, but hey.  Young lefty starters with excellent changeups who throw 96 and have reasonable control are like raindrops in the Gobi.

 

[kieckeredinthehead]

Duquette:
 

 
 
I offered about 50 other pitchers before him,” Duquette recently told the Boston Herald. “It was required that we give up Rodriguez for Andrew Miller. We had to take a shot.

Read more at: http://nesn.com/2015/03/dan-duquette-trading-eduardo-rodriguez-to-red-sox-was-painful/

 

[AbbyNoho]

Duquette may be a few negative things, but one thing he is great at is evaluating talent. I like hearing how much he didn't want to give up Rodriguez. 

 

[Rough Carrigan]

Some nice words from Farrell and a little insight into what more they want to see from Eddy:
http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/42305/red-sox-prospects-make-good-impression-on-john-farrell?ex_cid=espnapi_public

 

Red Sox left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez held hitters to a .172 batting average in 7 2/3 innings spread over three spring appearances.

Red Sox manager John Farrell said Rodriguez impressed him the most in a game in which he struggled -- March 12 in Bradenton, Florida, when he gave up three hits in 2 2/3 innings and worked his way out a few jams without surrendering a run.
"He didn’t have his best stuff and yet he didn’t let the traffic or the challenge of the inning affect the body language, the poise, the ability to make pitches," Farrell said. "He’s an impressive young guy."
Asked if he is as developed as two other left-handed prospects, Henry Owens and Brian Johnson, Farrell said, "To say who’s ahead of the other, you almost have to look at the individual. What does that individual pitcher have to do? In Eduardo’s case, we want to see the breaking ball get tightened up a bit. But when you get to understand some of the aptitude, the intelligence and the poise, those are all strong points. Not to mention a left-hander who can throw in the mid-90s is a pretty damn good starting point. He’s got a bright future ahead of him."
 

 In today's Herald they have an article in which they ask Sox pitchers who has the nastiest pitch.  Uehara's splitter is the answer the author, Scott Lauber, settles on.  Buchholz suggests that maybe the right answer is Rodriguez's fastball:
 
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox_mlb/boston_red_sox/2015/03/who_has_nastiest_pitch_on_red_sox_pitching_staff

"Being left-handed and sort of cross-firing, 97-98 it's pretty special," Buchholz said, "Any other pitch you can almost teach, but you can't teach velocity and how it comes out.  That's something a lot of guys wish they could do."
 

 

[Rough Carrigan]

Eddy pitched against the yankees triple A squad in Scranton Wilkes Barre and put up a nice line in the course of getting the win:
 
7 innings
3 hits
1 run (earned)
0 walks
7 K's

 

[Rasputin]

Eddy pitched against the yankees triple A squad in Scranton Wilkes Barre and put up a nice line in the course of getting the win:
 

 
He's been phenomenal since coming over in the trade. 56 IP, 8 ER, 9 BB, 55 K.

 

[Rough Carrigan]

 
He's been phenomenal since coming over in the trade. 56 IP, 8 ER, 9 BB, 55 K.

Yup.  And he didn't even cost them Andrew Miller for more than 2 months.  He was, apparently, willing to come back to the Sox but they were outbid by the yankees.  So, for the cost of Andrew Miller's August and September of 2014 they will get Eddie Rodriguez's first 6 years.

 

[mt8thsw9th]

Curious, but what's with the "Eddy" references? 

 

[Rough Carrigan]

Curious, but what's with the "Eddy" references? 

I was just mimicking browndog.