Braves Sign A Pair of Minor League Pitchers

Matt Eddy reports that the John Hart front office continued to add pitching depth by signing to minor league free agent pitchers.

Braves Sign Pitchers – Is that news?

It’s not news when the Braves sign minor league free agent pitching this off season. In fact it’s a slow week when they don’t as they’ve added Greg Smith, Donnie Veal, Sugar Ray Marimon and Chien-Ming Wang  in the last three weeks.  So adding two more players in an area Hart obviously feels is weak should not be a surprise but who are these guys?

Victor Mateo

There’s not much data on the  6’5 175 lb. righty. Mateo signed with the Rays as an international free agent in 2006 at 17 years old and has been groomed as a starter.  He remained in the Rays minor league system through last season. In 2009 he posted a 1.98 ERA in 50 innings of rookie league ball and in 2011 season he finished with a 12-6 record (20 starts, 6 relief appearances) that included a complete game, a seven inning no-hitter, a shutout and a save with a 3.98 ERA  and 1.4 WHIP. He spent the last two season with facing off against the M Braves with the Biscuits and tossed another no hitter in 2013  against the Suns.

Baseball Prospectus (subscription required) provided some insight into Mateo prior to last season.

"“. . .(Mateo) right-hander features a low-90s fastball that has missed fewer and fewer bats as he’s moved up the minor league ranks. . . At 24, he’s not much of a prospect as a starter, but perhaps this winter is a step in the right direction toward being a usable major league bullpen arm. . .”"

I saw another report that his fastball was in the 91-94 range pretty consistently and the indicators are teams really want him to be a starter. At 6’5” he has a built-in downward plane on the ball. Perhaps the vaunted Braves pitching development team can get him to miss more bats.

Francisco Rondon

The Yankees signed the 18 year old Dominican in 2006 and he remained in their system through last season. After reviewing a plethora of old scouting reports it appears that the 6’1, 190 pound left features a plus fastball that sits between 93-96 mph with a lot of lateral movement away from lefties and boring in on right handed hitters. That makes it hard to square up.

He backs those up with a mid-eighties slider that with a sharp downward tilt. and developed a changeup with a lot of downward movement that tails away from lefties. With has two plus and an average or better changeup he seems to define a two or three left handed starter and he has shown flashes of what could be.

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His pitches move so a lot and and his mechanics aren’t consistent so he has trouble locating those pitches. That results in a high walk rate and lots of base runners. Base runners don’t necessarily bother him because he has a good pickoff move and fields his position well. In 2012 he worked solely in relief posting a 26% K rate in AA – 9.9 K/9 – in 63 2/3 innings. Unfortunately he also walked 14% and as a result he finished with a 1.492 WHIP and a 3.96 ERA. Last year as AAA he put up a similar K rate but walks continued to plague him.

Like many young pitchers Rondon can let his mistakes get inside his head and he loses focus. He has the pure stuff to be a Jonny Venters like reliever or – should a miracle occur and he learn to control all that movement – a mid rotation starter. Our sister site Yanks Go Yard summed up the lefty this way prior to the 2014 season.

"Rondon’s easy to dream on — he throws hard and happens to be left handed, but until he improves his command, he’s not someone who’s of any use in a big league team."

That sounds la lot like Juan Jaime and a plethora of other good stuff low control pitchers.

That’s A Wrap

Writing the career summaries and outlooks for the six year minor league free agent minor league pitchers Jon Hart and company have signed points out why they are six year minor league free agents. They all have good stuff and have trouble locating it.  Finding the magic bullet to fix such things was the calling card of Dave Duncan, Leo Mazzone and Dave Wallace. For reasons undisclosed Leo is no longer welcomed inside the Braves system and Frank Wren interfered so much with Wallace that he left for the Orioles and turned their staff of prospects and who? into a division winning crew. Thanks Frank.

Roger McDowell has right earned praise for his work with the Braves pitching development team but his work is primarily with the 25 man roster. Hart and crew are hoping that their reconstituted  pitching development crew can do what Duncan, Mazzone,and Wallace have done in the past.  Along those lines I have a suggestion, hire Jim Hickey away from the Rays.

Hickey is a very underrated pitching coach – among fans anyway – but he turned Fernando Rodney into s dynamic if annoying closer, made Kyle Farnsworth forget to choke under pressure long enough to save 25 of 31 opportunities in 2011 and generally made some pretty average pitchers look pretty good. It looks like the Rays are cleaning house so a move to add Hickey could work and for one would love to see him on board.