Prospect Profile: Edgar De La Rosa

In continuing with putting together profiles for some of the prospects in the system that might be lesser known, today I want to profile the youngster Edgar De La Rosa. De La Rosa came in at 15th on my top 50 prospects list, and has a good amount of potential. De La Rosa should get his first crack at full season ball starting in the spring, and will likely begin at West Michigan with the Whitecaps.

Here is his profile.

Background:

De La Rosa is a big 6’6″ right handed pitcher signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2009. At 22 years old, De La Rosa hasn’t moved quickly to this point, and spent all of his 2012 season with the Connecticut Tigers of the short season New York Penn League. With Connecticut last season, De La Rosa posted an ERA of 3.10, while striking out 54 batters in 72.2 innings. De La Rosa did hold batters to an average of just .242. After spending two years in the Dominican Summer League in 2009 and 2010, De La Rosa came stateside for the Gulf Coast League Tigers in 2011. After a slow start to his career, De La Rosa has seen a decrease in his ERA every season that he has pitched, as he has moved up the ladder.

Scouting Report:

De La Rosa is a big physical guy that owns the requisite three pitches to be a starter. An imposing presence on the mound, De La Rosa attacks hitters with a fastball, curve, and a change up. His fastball is his primary pitch, and ranges anywhere from the upper 80’s to hitting 98. Last season, he begin sitting in the low 90’s more comfortably with some movement, and popping mid 90’s numbers more often.

De La Rosa has a slider as his primary breaking pitch, and this pitch is still a work in progress. He has shown the ability to throw a good one on occasion, but doesn’t repeat his mechanics enough to get a consistently good one.

His change is his third offering, but as of right now, it probably is ahead of the breaking ball in its development. De La Rosa shows good arm action with the change, and gets pretty good fade on it at this point.

There are some things to really like here, however, De La Rosa is really going to have to work on repeating his mechanics. This can be a difficult to do for youngsters with his size. His mechanics and therefore his command can get away from him at any time during his starts. It affects the quality of his pitches.

De La Rosa is known to have a good attitude, and is a hard worker.

Outlook:

This is a tough one. De La Rosa does have the raw tools to become a mid rotation, and if you really dream, a top of the rotation type guy. In a perfect world, he is a guy that can sit mid 90’s and work both an above average slider and change. More likely, however, he will struggle to improve his mechanics to allow him to have the necessary command to be a top of the rotation guy. This doesn’t mean that De La Rosa can’t make it, just means he will struggle to reach his ceiling. Factoring into that is my lack of faith in the Tigers ability to develop pitchers, and minor league players in general.

All that being said, a big kid with a potential mid 90’s fastball and above average change is a good piece of clay to work with. Interesting to say the least.

It all comes down to being sound and repeating his mechanics consistently. With that will come the better command, and hopefully will help improves the sharpness of his breaking ball.