Written by Greg Fertel
|
07 February 2008
- Age: 18
- Height: 6'1"
- Weight: 189 lbs
- Position: Starting Pitcher
- Throws: Right
I'm not going to try and reinvent the wheel. Mike from River Ave Blues
wrote a better profile than I could ever write given my limited access to information on someone as new as Heredia.
Ranking: I have Heredia at #16 while Eric ranks him at #9, and Ashish ranks him at #10. I'm about as impressed by Heredia as I can be considering his age. Young pitchers very often have flaw after flaw to work out, even the most talented ones, until they can hone their craft and become top-flight pitchers. It usually takes them two or three years in the minors to put all the pieces together. However, Heredia already has superb control (2.14 BB/9 in the minors), a strong fastball (90-92 now, and it probably will get a little faster), a good breaking pitch (which led to a 10.1 K/9 this season), and plausible tertiary pitches. Pretty much the only thing that a young pitcher has to accomplish that Heredia has yet to do is get a lot of innings under his belt. He'll get a few more in 2009 but probably won't be unleashed until 2010. Although I know that a lot of people want to see him in Charleston this year, you can bet that the Yankees will follow the Betances/McAllister route and hold Heredia back to Staten Island this season.
Let me simplify this a bit.
Control, Control, Control, Control, Control. Heredia is already, at the age of 18, described as a strike throwing machine. Barring injury, that alone will make his low 90s fastball a major league asset. Combine that with what seems like a decent shot to strike a lot of people out and we're looking at a seriously good prospect. I think that a top-10 rating from Eric is a little premature, but #16 for an 18 year-old pitcher in my mind is very high praise.
Next: I'll be gone for the weekend, but come Sunday night we'll move on to one of my personal favorites, Francisco Cervelli.
