18 year-old Ronny Henriquez has been promoted to Hickory. This is pretty significant. It means having played his first season of pro ball in the Dominican Summer League last year, he skips 2 levels: Arizona Rookie ball and short-season Spokane. I missed Ronny in Surprise this year and I was pretty bummed about it because scouts I’ve spoken to light up when he’s mentioned. There ain’t much to him and he’s listed at 5’10” and 155lbs. While I didn’t see him pitch, I did see him and I’d be (pleasantly) surprised if he really is 5’10”. With a FB that sits comfortably in the 93-95 range and rather easily blasts higher, he’s been described to me as a lightning quick arm with more advanced pitchability, but slightly less raw stuff than the late Yordano Ventura. I saw quite a bit of Ventura in the minors and that’s some lofty praise indeed, but the comp may just be coming from the fact that they’re both short Dominican starters. Either way, it’s a helluva thing to throw around there. His offspeed arsenal includes a CB and a SL that scouts really like, as well as a CH that dives down with a bit of split action.

Ronny absolutely dissolved the opposition last season in the Dominican Summer League. The velo and life on his FB created an unhittable pitch and he used it to post up some video-game numbers. 11 starts, 58ip, 8bb, 79k. Sweet Mary, Ronny. And the makeup, I’m told, is outstanding. Having not met the kid, I can tell you if the only thing we have to go on is the Rangers promoting him to Hickory this week, that’s more than enough for me. They don’t really do this. Everyone reading this knows they’ve slowed down the pitching development cycle to a thoughtful crawl. They ain’t rushin’ fellas into positions where they’re facing long odds to succeed. This move merits some serious attention. We all saw Ronny posting up those silly numbers last year, but we really see him now. We see you, Ronny, we see you.

As Always, Enjoy Baseball!

Love Ya!

-Tepid