[image title="riverdogs_vs_power_pitch_t600" size="full" id="3305" align="right" alt="Photo Credit: Wade Spees, Charleston Post and Courier" ]Age: 24
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 185 lbs
Position: Pitcher
Throws: Left
2008 Team: Tampa Yankees
Current Team: Trenton Thunder
The good: Wilkins started out as a toolsy outfielder. The problem was he couldn’t hit. De La Rosa may have been the best right fielder in minor league baseball. He was incredibly quick, and had a gun for an arm. I remember reading about how good this young A-ball outfielder’s arm was. I wasn’t at all surprised when I heard that he had been converted to pitching after a few years of struggling to hit. I didn’t realize at the time that De La Rosa was a lefty. He throws a fastball that sits at 92 and often reaches into the mid-90s with ton of late action. His best secondary offering is the changeup, which is average or better. But really, he’s a fastball guy.
The bad: De La Rosa throws a slider as his breaking pitch, and it is still coming along. For all intents and purposes, he has only been pitching for two years, so this should be expected. Mike Ashmore reported last night that his slider looked very good, so De La Rosa may already have tackled that hurdle heading in to the young season. He still has very little pitching experience under his belt, so its hard to gauge how much work he’ll need to prepare for the toll of a long major league season. His control is not fantastic, but it has dramatically improved in time and could probably be considered average.
Projection: The sky is the limit with De La Rosa. I remember a fan once pointing out that Johan Santana started out as a young converted outfielder with lots of raw stuff but little polish. Obviously that comparison is just dreaming, but it illustrates how special a lefty with his kind of stuff is. He not only throws hard, but the late movement really makes him deadly. If his off speed stuff comes around, he could very well remain a dominant starter. I rated him our #11 prospect on the year to begin the season, and a powerful performance at Trenton this season could put him in the Brackman/Betances range very easily. Projection-wise, one knock against him is his frame. At 6’0″ 185 lbs, he may have trouble holding up as a starting pitcher long term. He’s been able to throw a 100 pitches per game without a hicup as a starter though, so maybe I am wrong.
Reasons to be optimistic: De La Rosa has dominated batters at every level of the minors. His career K/9 sits at 10.56, with just a BB/9 of 3.56. He has allowed roughly .6 hits per game, and gets plenty of democratic ground balls. He has actually gotten better since being converted to a starting pitcher: while his K/9 dropped from 11.51 to 9.29, he cut his walk rate in half to 2.51 walks per 9. He has remained healthy, and is supremely athletic. The Yankees had enough confidence in him to add a 24 year-old he played just a handful of innings above Single-A to the 40-man roster.
Reasons to be pessimistic: Besides that fact that he is still very raw and potentially unknown, I don’t think that there is much reason to be pessimistic about De La Rosa. At the very least, he’ll be a lefty reliever in the majors thanks to the great fastball. His rawness might actually be a net good for him – he doesn’t have years of high school and college abuse to sap his velocity. Basic prospect caveats apply, but De La Rosa is a damn good prospect, who probably should have been higher on all of our prospect lists at the beginning of the season.
Bottom Line: As they said in the film The Rookie, “We don’t turn down lefties who throw 97.”
Photo Credit: Wade Spees, The Post and Courier
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
12 Responses to Prospect Profile: Wilkins De La Rosa
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
On a another De La Rosa note: I’ll be returning home to New Jersey soon. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get out for a few of his starts in Trenton, snap some photos, and maybe get a chance to talk with him.
Dunn and De La Rosa can both probably help the Bullpen next season.I think Marte is a bust and Coke, Dunn & De La Rosa would give a manager lot of nice options from the left side and getting out left handed hitter is obviously going to be key at Yankee Stadium.
I’d like to see in August in either event.
At this point, Ramierez, Veras & Albaldejo all look shakey at best.
I wouldn’t give up on Marte. He’s having shoulder issues right now. And he’s got a 3 year contract, so he isn’t going anywhere. Dunn/Coke/De La Rosa are a huge improvement on our formerly lefty-barren system.
I’ve always liked the lefty power package Marte has, but I’ve always been skeptical of him due to his command.
Hopefully, with a fully healthy shoulder, he can come back and give the Yankees two legit lefty relievers.
damn EJ…I’ve heard some people high on this kid, but you speak of him as someone who [has a chance] to be a front line starter at the ML if it all pans out (I say front line because that’s kind of how I interpret “dominant starter”.
I like the results he’s had thus far, though.
I think that I might be a bit ahead of the ball here a bit. De La Rosa’s parts add up individually to a potential front line pitcher. Holistically it seems like that he isn’t there yet, but this is all about projection.
The bigggest knock against him, I think, is size.
Ron Guidry 6’0″ 190#, was a good pitcher, don’t you think?
But, your point is well taken. Cone/Key were others but, again more the exception then the rule.
If WDLR stays in Trenton and destroys the competition like this… could he jump into the top 30 in all of baseball?
for now im leary of wdlr’s last start… flame throwing lefties don’t grow on trees and are hard to hit wherever they are. once people get scouting reports and see his weaknesses we might see him get hit hard. or maybe he has legit improved his slider and change. we’ll see…
Well, its worth remembering that he throws hard, but also has a lot of movement. That’s going to set him apart from some of his peers in this sense. I’d also like to make the observation that stuff is usually scouting report-proof if you have control.
The real key I think is the development of the 3rd pitching. You can’t start in the majors without a decent breaking pitch. If he has one, he should be pretty good.
Top 30 in all of baseball is stretching it. Assuming no one graduates, I foresee him being behind Jackson and Montero, but right up there with Brackman and Betances.
EJ, good write-up.
Fastball, change-up and slider, if all are plus pitches should be enough to be a starter. We know about his Fastball, I want to see his other two pitches, if his slider is a back-foot type…that’s good. Change-ups are only good if one can get it over with C&C, when needed.
A good FB and a back-foot slider can get one by for a while but, life is easier with another plus pitch to keep them honest.
If he dominates AA for close to a full season, I’ll get excited, but raw + overage for his level + 92mph fastball + lack of ideal frame + lack of plus breaking ball = a healthy dose of skepticism. It seems like his biggest advantage right now his his left-handedness
Hey maybe one of you can help me out here. How did the Yankees acquire De La Rosa and when was it? Was he signed as an amateur free agent?