Rubby De La Rosa has been in the news lately thanks to the Sox development program, and the "news" that Rubby's grandmother was a nanny for Pedro Martinez when he was a boy. It doesn't take much about Pedro to get Red Sox fans' attention.
Anyway, I dare you to read this piece by Alex Speier and not immediately mark Rubby down for eight Cy Youngs over the next decade:
“His main pitch is his tremendous fastball, anywhere from 94-100 mph with very good movement on it. His main secondary out-pitch is his changeup, which is what we consider in the scouting world [on the 20-80 scouting scale, with 80 being the highest) an 80 changeup. It's very deceptive, especially with his arm speed and fastball,”Chuck Crim, De La Rosa’s pitching coach in Double-A Chattanooga in both 2011 and 2012, recalled in October. “He's got a put-away, strikeout changeup. He's got a slider. He's got a curveball.
“He's pretty creative. As soon as he starts to spin pitches, he likes to change arm angles, create different breaks. It's really one main kind of breaking ball that he uses different angles with. But his main secondary is the put-away changeup. It's an 80. It's unbelievable.”
Ooh, baby. Hard thrower with a perfect changeup? Sign me up.
Of course, the Red Sox have been very cautious with young players lately. Jose Iglesias is likely to spend yet another year in Pawtucket. Ryan Lavarnway, barring a trade or Mike Napoli not signing, might do the same. Felix Doubront took forever to be ready. The only guy they took a chance on was converting Daniel Bard into a starter, and we all know how that turned out.
So we'll see on Rubby. But hopefully sooner rather than later.
