The Pittsburgh Pirates announced today that left-handed pitcher Joely Rodriguez was named the Arizona Fall League Pitcher of the Week. Rodriguez won both of his starts last week, giving up one run over eight innings. He allowed six hits, one walk and struck out eight batters. In four starts, he has a 1.35 ERA in 13.1 innings, holding batters to a .234 BAA, while posting a 13:3 SO/BB ratio. Rodriguez makes his next start on Friday afternoon in a game that will be shown on MLB Network.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
I have to tell you John, I am SMH at that news. But hey, I sure hope the kid does succeed.
Like I said, the scouts love him a lot more than I do and I’m not going to pretend I know more than scouts. His results are hard to overlook though. I’m looking forward to seeing him pitch on Friday. It sounds like the regular season snowballed on Rodriguez and he went into the AFL with a clean slate and game plan and it seems to be working so far. Should be an interesting game.
Yes indeed John, I sure will be looking forward to seeing how he does Friday also.
Wonder why neither Glasnow, Joely, or Mark Appel did not chosen for the AFL ASG?
Glasnow is pitching Thursday, Rodriguez and Appel are pitching Friday, so none of them would be available to pitch Saturday