Teddy Klein, fellow Minor League Analyst here at MMO, did an excellent piece on German Ahmed Rosario earlier today. I did a review of some footage on Rosario, and wanted to share some thoughts I had on the exciting prospect. The first thing I noticed was that Rosario is very raw at the plate. He seems very aggressive, and his stride in the batter’s box is a tell-tale sign of it. His stride is quite long, and he seems to be out on the front leg quite a bit.
This causes concern for two reasons. The first reason being the length of his stride. When a hitter has a long stride, it changes their eye level significantly, which could cause issues at higher levels in the organization. The second reason being out on his front foot. If I were a pitcher, and saw his aggressiveness at the plate (being out on the front foot) I would never throw him a fastball. He would get a steady diet of off-speed stuff to take advantage of his aggressiveness.
An easy fix for his stride length would be to have Rosario start with a wider stance. With regards to being overly agressive at the plate, there are some drills that the hitting coach can have Rosario do which can help him keep his weight back. He will have to learn how to become a complete hitter, and accept the principles that are taught to him, then execute them. His pitch recognition will develop in time.
So while Rosario is a very exciting prospect, he is still quite raw, and has a few things he will have to work on in order to become a more complete hitter.
Other News and Notes:
- The Triple-A affiliate of the Mets, the Las Vegas 51s, recently announced they were joining a new marketing strategy called Project Brand. They will be teaming up with 159 other minor league ball clubs in an attempt to sell the overall brand of Minor League Baseball to national advertisers. Minor League Baseball has more than 40 million fans, and this would be a big step in gaining national recognition for teams that are usually just locally marketed.
- The Mets’ minor league pitching prospects continue to put up solid efforts, and the latest one came yesterday from Logan Verrett. The right-hander was selected in the third round of the 2011 MLB draft, and spilt time between Savannah and St. Lucie in 2012. Verrett allowed two runs during the first inning of yesterday’s contest, but then finished strong and didn’t allow any runs over the next four innings of work. In 2012, he had a solid season going 5-2 with a 2.70 ERA.
- Happy Birthday to Brandon Nimmo who turns twenty years old today!
