Yorman Rodriguez and Juan Duran - questions

[Blitz Dorsey]

Dayton can actually use both of them. Dayton's offense is pretty anemic this year, especially among OFs. Not sure why they sent Yorman down to extended spring training instead of Dayton, unless they saw a mechanical flaw in his swing that they're trying to fix before playing him in "real games."

Duran is what he is. Wily Mo Jr. He's going to hit his share of HRs (and some really long ones in fact) but he'll never make enough contact to be a legit Major Leaguer IMO.

[Wonderful Monds]

Watched a little bit of them both in Dayton last year. Duran's got too many holes that can be attacked and I don't think there really is anything that he could realistically do to fix that. Yorman showed some flashes, I think he still has a chance.

[texasdave]

Bump.

Kudos to YRod. Offensive POTW in the Midwest League.

Midwest League
Yorman Rodriguez, Dayton
(.464/.483/.893, 7 G, 13-for-28, 4 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 6 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 CS)
The Reds signed Rodriguez for $2.5 million as a 16-year-old, and despite a disappointing 2011 season cut short by a shoulder injury, he began the season at Class A Advanced Bakersfield as Cincinnati's No. 9 prospect. After a miserable .156/.181/.200 start in his first 23 Cal League games, the Reds reassigned him to Dayton. Still just 19 years old, Rodriguez seems to have recovered his confidence at the plate -- he reeled off four straight multi-hit games this week and went deep on both Friday and Saturday -- and is again showing the vast potential the Reds hoped for in 2009.

[corkedbat]

Originally Posted by texasdave

Bump.

Kudos to YRod. Offensive POTW in the Midwest League.

I think the time in Goodyear working on his overall approach and away from the normal games was an excellent decision. Now that he's back in Dayton and seeing some success, his confidence may get a big boost. I'd leave him there the rest of the year (no matter his production) and start him out with the Blaze next year.

[camisadelgolf]

Originally Posted by corkedbat

I think the time in Goodyear working on his overall approach and away from the normal games was an excellent decision. Now that he's back in Dayton and seeing some success, his confidence may get a big boost. I'd leave him there the rest of the year (no matter his production) and start him out with the Blaze next year.

Would you protect him from the rule five draft? A team could stash him on the roster for a year and option him the following three years to keep him in the organization.

[lollipopcurve]

Would you protect him from the rule five draft? A team could stash him on the roster for a year and option him the following three years to keep him in the organization.

Let's see how the year plays out. If he looks as good at the end of the year as he does now, the answer is yes. Too much ceiling to give up on.

[Scrap Irony]

I wouldn't. Too many strike outs at this point for any team to take that gamble (and have it work). I don't know of a team in baseball bad enough to be willing to play short-handed all year for a chance at a guy that's not in many discussions about great prospects.

Too far away and too much work for him to do.

(Were he a slick-fielding shortstop, decent catching prospect, or potential Gold Glove CF on top of his offensive ceiling, I'd have a different answer.)

[JayBruceFan]

Yorman is like a completely different guy this season, it's like night and day when comparing last year and this year. It's crazy

I'm not the only one that thinks so either, a lot of people in the organization that have played with him before feel the same way too.

[dougdirt]

Started last year. When he went to instructional league people started talking about how things were just a complete 180 in terms of his attitude.

[Scrap Irony]

Problems at home figured out, grew up, or realized he needed to do some work?

[redsof72]

Every problematic player has periods of ups to go with the downs.

Hard for me to imagine that there will not be more issues, ala Milton Bradley. This is a player that cussed out the farm director in instructional league, 2011, saying "no one tells me to run." I think they finally called his bluff on his constant threats of "I go home" and said, "ok, go then."

The difference really, is he figured out he has used up all of his get out of jail free cards and that the stuff was no longer going to be tolerated.

He has played extremely well lately in this second go at the Midwest League. He looks like a prospect again. He hits the fastball really, really well. One pass through the league and they will catch on to that and start throwing the slow stuff. Lets see how he adjusts.

My prediction is he will be back in Bakersfield before the end of July. I don't think that is the best move but I think it will happen.

[lollipopcurve]

Hard for me to imagine that there will not be more issues, ala Milton Bradley.

Pretty strong indictment there, especially of a teenager. Bradley did a lot of crazy stuff. I have to hope Yorman can do better. Put some good coaches and leaders (Spanish-speaking) around him.

[powersackers]

Originally Posted by redsof72

Every problematic player has periods of ups to go with the downs.

Hard for me to imagine that there will not be more issues, ala Milton Bradley. This is a player that cussed out the farm director in instructional league, 2011, saying "no one tells me to run." I think they finally called his bluff on his constant threats of "I go home" and said, "ok, go then."

The difference really, is he figured out he has used up all of his get out of jail free cards and that the stuff was no longer going to be tolerated.

He has played extremely well lately in this second go at the Midwest League. He looks like a prospect again. He hits the fastball really, really well. One pass through the league and they will catch on to that and start throwing the slow stuff. Lets see how he adjusts.

My prediction is he will be back in Bakersfield before the end of July. I don't think that is the best move but I think it will happen.

My teenagers have threatened to leave home and no one tells them to do the dishes. Until the cell phone, I pods, xboxes and privileges are taken away then they do what their told. Maybe someone in the Reds figured that out with Yorman.

[REDREAD]

Originally Posted by camisadelgolf

Would you protect him from the rule five draft? A team could stash him on the roster for a year and option him the following three years to keep him in the organization.

I guess it depends on who else the Reds have to protect.
If 40 man roster slots are tight, I probably wouldn't worry about protecting him.
Many teams carry 12 pitchers on the ML roster now. There just isn't room to make the 25th man a rule V position player that never plays anymore. This was more common in the 80's with 10 man pitching staffs.

It just seems (not researched) that a lot of Rule V picks now are pitchers that teams can use as mop up men for the first year if they decide to keep them.

[JaxRed]

I don't know who else needs to be protected, but we have a lot of chaff on the 40 man roster right now

Rolen, Cairo, Valdez, Wilson, Brackman, Constanzo, Negron, Phipps, Smith, Valaika.