Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Scouting Report on Sal Romano and some White Sox Prospects

Sal Romano is an 18 year old pitcher that was drafted in the 23rd round by the Reds in 2011. This was his first year in the minors and he started in the Pioneer League and pitched pretty well (3.15 FIP, 3.97 SIERA). His K/BB is unimpressive (especially his mediocre strikeout rate), but he got a ton of ground-balls and gave up just 1 homer in 59.1 innings.

The right-handed pitcher sits at 89-92 MPH with a very high leg kick and a slight turn. One suspects that it gives him some deception, but he also misses more glove side, which one is likely to blame on delivery repetition. He can throw it inside to righties, and this makes his average fastball a bit more dangerous. The fastball also isn't straight, as it has some tail and perhaps a little cut.
His change is without a ton of movement but has good speed differential and a little bit of drop. It is his favorite pitch against lefties.

He also has a curve that breaks away from right-handed hitters. He threw both for strikes, but also had the tendency to hang them. At this level, I would rather this be the case than the absolute inability to throw it for strikes. So even though his fastball is mediocre to average, he does have two off-speed pitches that he can command and throw for strikes.

Micah Johnson was the White Sox 9th round pick in 2012. He is a left-handed hitter that plays 2nd base. When I watched him, he really struggled with breaking pitches. He had a very mediocre career at the University of Indiana, and was actually horrible in his final year. In the Pioneer League, he stole 19 bases (caught 6 times, and had a speed score of 7.7, meaning he is pretty fast). With the bat, his strikeout rate was a little high (just over 23%, something you would expect if he is struggling with breaking pitches), but had a good walk rate (13.5%) and hit about league average overall (108 wRC +)

Justin Jirschele was an undrafted free agent, and didn't hit real well and seems to have no power. However, he had a nice K/BB and he seems to play a solid 2nd base (he plays shortstop as well, but I just him play 2nd). Left-handed hitter with average to below average speed (I clocked him at 4.23 to first).

Brandon Brennan was a 4th round pick by the White Sox out of community college. He is a RHP with a pretty clean delivery, although perhaps a rather unorthodox arm action. He has a 91-93 MPH fastball that he can tail glove side
with a pretty hard sweeping slider. He doesn't have good control of the slider but it is probably his best pitch. It looks like he has a change as well, but it doesn't have great movement. Overall, he can move the ball from his arm side to his glove side with okay to average command. He doesn't have great velocity, but it is adequate.You can see why he was a 4th round pick. There is some talent and projection there, but he isn't going to be great.

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