jkcarew

It probably says a lot about the top end of the 2017 prospect pool that TD had Romero No.1. At the time that declaration was made, Romero was a 22-year-old 6'-0" right-handed starting pitcher with a grand total of 31 starts over 4 professional seasons...none beyond single-A...and with elbow surgery thrown into the mix for good measure. Ouch. The title of the article could be "Is it time to slow the roll on Fernando Romero?". He really hasn't been great this year. He started slow, then was very good for a while, then has been downright poor recently. Aside from a couple of instances (one referenced in the article) where he was removed early with a decent pitch count, more often than not, he has been very inefficient. Even when he was rolling, his pitch counts were usually getting away from him early. The numbers speak for themselves. He's barely averaged over 5 innings per start and his walk and hit rates have been significantly higher than in seasons past. Of course this can be considered SSS, but then, so can the combined total of his 'good' seasons. I'd be careful with him. I'd try to balance wanting him to experience the reality of a long professional season, while avoiding him trying to force results by changing his mechanics, etc. One thing I'm certain of having listened to the Chattanooga games this year...ceiling aside, Romero is significantly further away than is Gonsalves...at least as a starter. And yes, Romero is younger...by about 5 1/2 months. I'm guessing that we'll hear soon that Romero is shut down, and I'd be very surprised if we see him up for anything more than a relief inning or two...and only after the games don't matter.