Sergio Valenzuela

[redsrbetter]

Is our Rule V pick in the first round. Guevara went to the Marlins.

Anyone know much about Valenzuela

[Doppelgänger]

It looks like he played for the class A braves?

[McKain]

He's not as good as Carlos Guevera, and that's all you need to know.

[missionhockey21]

^^ Seriously. Well that and he is from the Braves organization so he must be golden, despite his performance, lack of playing above the A level and lackluster talent reports.

Way to go Kriv.

[NFLman2033]

yeah looked up his Minor League numbers, not impressed

[Mario-Rijo]

He's not as good as Carlos Guevera, and that's all you need to know.

I think the statement should be, he hasn't been as good as Guevara yet. The difference is Guevera is a guy who kills minor leaguer's who can't lay off his one good pitch which is a screwball.

Valenzuela has a plus fastball and plus change-up.


So if you are gonna take a chance on a guy take a chance on one who has the better shot at making it. Not only that but Guevara is a reliever and Valenzuela is a starter, we have little need for a 1 trick pony.

[redsrbetter]

Is Valenzuela a better fit for this team than Cantu? Afterall, we did get rid of Cantu to fill a spot for Valenzuela.

[McKain]

Valenzuela is 23 and hasn't gone above A ball yet, Mario. And he's been awful in those A-ball stints.

And they have to keep him on the MLB roster all season or lose him. Don't try to spin this into a good pick because it's not, especially when he gets sent down after having a 23.32 ERA in the first month and they lose him back ot the Braves or wherever.

[Mario-Rijo]

Valenzuela is 23 and hasn't gone above A ball yet, Mario. And he's been awful in those A-ball stints.

And they have to keep him on the MLB roster all season or lose him. Don't try to spin this into a good pick because it's not, especially when he gets sent down after having a 23.32 ERA in the first month and they lose him back ot the Braves or wherever.

I don't think it's spinning at all. The guy has 2 plus pitches and an avg one (can't recall what that was, slider maybe). We had a scout watching him all through the fall league (and he did much better than previously in lower levels, albeit in a smaller sample size) and he felt that this kid could be helped. I am not saying he willl be a good pick, in fact I think the odds that he sticks are remote myself.

However you said Guevara was better and although he has produced in places Valenzuela has not is frankly a bit meaningless. Because Guevara has one good pitch and it's one where when he throws it to a big leaguer it will be noticeable enough (due to the hand motion at the end of the release) that they can just lay off of it and if they do it's not likely to be a strike often as it is a pitch that moves down and in to a RH batter (like a reverse slider).

Really that pitch is fine because he throws a plus screwball, however for it to be effective his other pitches have to be effective as well because it's not like a knuckle ball which you can throw over and over again. Not only that but that pitch has a tendency to lead to a lot of arm problems. And his other pitches just aren't very good. Now if you put him in a big ballpark (Like S.D.) and put a stellar defense behind him he could be a decent bullpen arm on the cheap. Kind of an 12th member of the staff sort of guy who can do some mop up work and the like. But he is never likely to be any better unless perhaps he has TJ surgery at some point and gains about 3-4 MPH on his FB (I think it was about 88-90, with little movement).

On the other hand Valenzuela could not only be a good BP arm but also a good starter down the road because unlike published reports he isn't 6 ft tall he is closer to 6 ft 3. He has the stuff and so therefore he has a chance, worst case scenario is we offer him back to Atl for 25 K and they accept. The middle scenario would be that it would take longer to fix him and thus we make a minor trade for him. So what's the downside here? Whereas if they find something mechanical that they can fix with Valenzuela and pop out a gem it's a big upside. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt after they took Hamilton and more specifically Burton (who got himself ironed out in the AFL, last yr).