The Giants selected RHP Julian Fernandez in today's Rule 5 Draft. Fernandez had been in the Rockies organization and his a hard thrower, rumored to hit 102 on the radar gun. Only problem is he has not pitched about low A ball and the Giants have to keep him on the 25 man roster if they want to keep him. He did put up good numbers with Asheville in the SAL. Asheville is probably the most hitter-friendly park in the SAL. 1-2, 3.25, 58 IP, 8.84 K/9, 2.79 BB/9, 3 Saves.
Fernandez has had severe control issues which is why he is Rule 5 eligible while having never pitched above A ball, but those have improved steadily year-to-year and his BB/9 was actually quite good in 2017. It is doubtful he will stick on the Giants 25 man roster for all of 2018, but perhaps if the Giants can't use him at the MLB level but want to keep him in the organization, they can work out a trade with the Rockies?
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In other Rule 5 News, Albert Suarez, who the Giants dropped from their 40 man roster to make room for a Rule 5 pick was taken by the D'Backs.
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Can you take your own guy in the Rule 5 draft?
ReplyDeleteNot that it makes any sense -- if you wanted him you would have kept him on your 40-man roster.
I guess this is a Hunter Strickland pick. Only an even lower-level. Heck of a flyer.
ReplyDeleteGood analogy! I was thinking Dirty Sanchez.
DeleteYes, heck of a flyer, it could crash and burn, most probably will, but if they can keep him aloft, that'll be a heck of a find! And that's the way to go with these picks, find someone you can dream with, not incremental stuff.
Did not know Asheville was a hitter-friendly park, so I guess it is SSS that his road ERA is higher than his home ERA then. But that would explain why his WHIP is much lower on the road, this fits in with that factoid, glad you shared that.
ReplyDeleteI was digging in his stats on Fangraphs, which has great details about minor leaguers, I will have to go there more often. Anyway, he has had great infield fly percentages of 20-40% during this career (SSS caveat), as well as a lot more ground balls than fly balls, making his mediocre K/9 look much better. The only problem is that he is a Roogy, really nails RHH to the floor (.400-something OPS) while LHH love him (.800-ish OPS), again, all SSS. So he could be good if facing mostly RHH, with maybe one LHH in the bunch.
Yeah, I don't see him sticking either, but at least I'm hopeful that the Giants could tinker with the Ferrari and see if they can make him playable in the majors. Not just rumored, MLB and BA both are quoted as saying he has done 102 before.
I'm okay with walks as long as there are plenty of K's to cover for them. I was thinking parallels to Jonathan Sanchez, but Dirty had a much higher k/9 in A than Fernandez did. Hopefully he still pops guys up here as well, no word on his stuff. There is hardly any articles on him, other than the ones mentioning his prior control problems or his 102 MPH (second only to Chapman per MLB.com!). Oddly, I would a number of articles on him after his 2016 season, but nothing after 2017.