McCovey Chronicles: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:

Network Bar & Login
Section Navigation
Main Blog Content
Secondary Sidebar: Links to Recent Stories, FanPosts and FanShots
Masthead

Around SBN: Spencer Hall's College Football Week 12 Alphabetical

Official Sergio Romo Diary

by DrBGiantsfan on Nov 12, 2007 5:48 PM PST Comment 38 comments

OK, I haven't seen a Romo diary yet and not a lot of comments in the Minor Lines diaries either. What does everyone think of this guy?

Today in the AFL, he had another 2 shutout IP's with 3 K's. His AFL record so far is 0-0, 0.64, 14 IP, 4 BB, 16 K's.

Just for background, Sergio Romo was a low round draft pick in 2005. Here is his record so far:

2005, S-K: 7-1, 2.75, 61.2 IP, 9 BB, 65 K.

2006, Augusta: 10-2, 2.53, 103.1 IP, 19 BB, 95 K. Including 7 IP of a combined no-hitter. Season was cut short by a fractured hand from hitting the dugout wall.

2007, SJ: 6-2, 1.36, 66.1 IP, 15 BB, 106 K's!! Used as a 2-3 inning reliever after a mysterious injury at the end of spring training delayed the start of his season. Eventualy worked his way to closer where he was lights out and played a big role in bringing the Cal League Championship back to SJ.

He is a fairly exreme flyball pitcher with GO/AO's well below 1.

Over the last 3 seasons, his WHIP has progressed 1.15, 0.94, 0.75.

What should be his role next season?

Is he for real?

Should he be moved back to starter or stay in relief?

Is he too old?

This FanPost is reader-generated, and it does not necessarily reflect the views of McCovey Chronicles. If the author uses filler to achieve the minimum word requirement, a moderator may edit the FanPost for his or her own amusement.

0 recs | Comment 38 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

I saw him in San Jose...and I don't get it. I get why people would be excited about his stats, but I don't get where those stats come from. He's like Brad Hennessey without the heat.

But I hope that he has a Chad Bradford-like career path ahead of him.

by Grant on Nov 12, 2007 5:38 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

How Does He Do It?

Giantfan9 has been posting reports from Arizona on the Giants Message Board. He said from his observation, Romo has a decent 88-90 MPH fastball, a good breaking ball and a very good change. He has excellent command/control of all 3 pitches. Adam Witter was quoted as saying he is very confident on the mound and isn't afraid to go after hitters.

The way I've envisioned it is to imagine Brad Hennessey with better control and a better changeup. You'd have a serious pitcher with that package.

by DrBGiantsfan on Nov 12, 2007 10:16 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

I think we should trade him for Miguel Cabrera.

SJ Giants, 2007 Cal League champs! Couldn't have done it without the All-Father.

by EliminateMe on Nov 12, 2007 5:47 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Isn't he related to Velez?

While short for a ML pitcher he keeps putting up great numbers. After playing the 2006 season at AA was disappointed to see he spent the entire 2007 season in Hi A ball. Let the kid come to ST and see if he can make the jump to ML as a RP. If struggles or there is no opening then send to Fresno to start where it would be easier to convert back to reliever if necessary. Or maybe it is ARod who is his cousin?

by wilriv21 on Nov 12, 2007 6:01 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Belay that AA stuff

by wilriv21 on Nov 12, 2007 9:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Isn't he related to Velez?

It's going to be very tough for any kid to make the major league roster out of spring training. You already have Brian Wilson, Brad Hennessey, Vinnie Chulk, Tyler Walker, Steve Kline, Randy Messenger, Jack Taschner, Pat Misch, a loser or two for that fifth rotation spot, and add that to the fact that Sabean wants to sign a couple of veteran relievers. Good luck to any of the minor leaguers.

BRING ME ALEX RODRIGUEZ!!

by rxmeister on Nov 13, 2007 8:13 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

My hope is to snag Romo sometime this week for the Sergio Romo story: Romo in his own words.

Democracy is lovely but baseball is more mature. BVCE supports Manny Burriss and SF Dugout.

by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Nov 12, 2007 6:13 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

snag, shag what is the difference? Just hope the two of you hook-up and we get the story.

by wilriv21 on Nov 12, 2007 6:19 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

Love what he's done so far but I'm a little skeptical until he does it at AA/AAA because his stuff is so fringy.

by xanthan on Nov 12, 2007 6:57 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

And I think he'll be a bullpen guy in the MLB, no question.

by xanthan on Nov 12, 2007 6:57 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

What pitch is he getting all those Ks with? I've always heard he has very fringy stuff.

by mxmob33 on Nov 12, 2007 9:07 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

It's probably not necessarily what pitch but the way he pitches, if that makes sense. He's got plus command and control and can put his pitches wherever he wants. He's delivery is a 3/4 quarter motion that has a little bit of sling in it that helps to add deception.

To my knowledge his main two pitches, fastball and curve ball, rate as average. I would assume he probably throws a changeup but I'm not for sure. He might have a slider, too. Anyone know his repertoire better?

His pitcher type (not much "stuff", extreme control and command) are usually the ones that run into trouble at the upper levels because their margin of error is so small. That's why I'm holding judgment on him until he pitches in AA.

But, what he's done so far is excellent, I'm just not sure it'll translate to the higher leagues.

by xanthan on Nov 12, 2007 9:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

fastball, curveball - average to a tick above for the fastball

his changeup however is fantastic from what i've heard.

add that to plus command and it sounds pretty alright. I'd like to give him a chance as a starter. He sounds like a pretty decent right handed noah lowry with command.

Pedro Feliz: Marginally better this year.

by SloIsLonelyForTheOrange on Nov 12, 2007 10:45 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

He also throws from various arm angles, which adds to his deception.

A BA writers described him as having "5-6 pitches", which seems a lot more than I ever saw, but he may have been addressing those arm angles.

He's not overwhelming, but he has a lot of stuff to work with. He's a reliever long-term, for sure, but there's potential.

Let's see what he does next year.

SFDugout.com - Returning Offseason 2007

by BruteSentiment on Nov 13, 2007 1:28 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Juan Marichal?

Hmm....5-6 pitches from all arm angles? Great control? Could he be a poor man's Juan Marichal?

by DrBGiantsfan on Nov 13, 2007 8:17 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Juan Marichal?

I suspect very very poor. A pauper's Marichal. A vagrant's Marichal.

My boy ain't fat, he's just big boned. Big bat, too.

by Roger on Nov 13, 2007 9:34 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Juan Marichal?

Lisa Winston just raved about his control and different arm angles today. You know that cliche about how when women get together they talk nonstop? Lisa and I did that...except we talked about baseball for something like an hour. She just loves Sergio. After today, I sort of love him too.

Democracy is lovely but baseball is more mature. BVCE supports Manny Burriss and SF Dugout.

by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Nov 13, 2007 3:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

Appropriately, it's the fringeball.

Nattowear | comics | Durham? I hardly know 'im!

by Natto on Nov 13, 2007 2:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

As my adopted son, I think he's the best pitcher in the minors - Juan Marichal with less velocity. As a diehard Giants fan, I believe he'll be in our bullpen sometime in 2009, and as a prime contributor. As a bitter, post-2007 Giants fan, I'll withhold judgment until I see how he survives AAA - assuming he breezes through AA.

The SF Giants: agressively promoting young talent since 2008.

by Lyle on Nov 13, 2007 7:13 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

You know Lyle, no matter how much we praise them in public, our kids intuit how we really feel about them.

My boy ain't fat, he's just big boned. Big bat, too.

by Roger on Nov 13, 2007 7:22 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

Oh, you should see the punishments I've had to hand out to him privately. But I'm still proud of him.
"My son is an honor student at Tidrow Academy"

The SF Giants: agressively promoting young talent since 2008.

by Lyle on Nov 13, 2007 9:51 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

His arm action is weird. My gues sis he'll blow out his shoulder in a year or two after the Giants throw gobs of money at him

If Brad Hennesy had Steve Kline's attitude you'd get Rob Nen... without the triple digit heat.

by milesntrane on Nov 13, 2007 9:44 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

I think he's a pretty good QB, but not really elite.

by zenbitz on Nov 13, 2007 10:53 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

Excellent ribs, though.

SJ Giants, 2007 Cal League champs! Couldn't have done it without the All-Father.

by EliminateMe on Nov 13, 2007 2:32 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

Sounds like some of you here aren't sure that he'll be able to stand on a mound with basically 3 pitches, one of them a not-very-fastball. He has more than 3 pitches, but what you need to do is look beyond his stats & sit behind home - the movement of his pitches approaching the plate & in the zone is definitely deceiving and a thing of beauty. And you can't stack stats on "fringy" stuff...............

by sharmo on Nov 13, 2007 1:49 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

I really wish we had a good scouting video of him from behind home plate -- like the MLB Draft scouting videos. I'd also like to know what kind of velocity separation he has on his changeup (with identical arm action, of course). If he can throw a 75 mph change up then a 88 mph fastball will do just fine, particularly if the movement is good.

Zealously advocating for Nate the Great since 2007.

by orangeandblackattack on Nov 13, 2007 2:12 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

I've seen him throw, with identical arm motion, a mid 70's change followed by a low 90's fast, and vice versa, with no tells to the batter.
As far as where he should be, it looks like his 'home' is as a mid-reliever, and maybe even as a closer.
As for being too old - his game set maturity has really improved since his college days, so age in this case seems to be just a number.

by sharmo on Nov 13, 2007 3:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

If he can do that then it would kind of negate the whole "lack of stuff" thing that's holding him back, at least to the extent that if affects his ability to pitch out of the bullpen.

Zealously advocating for Nate the Great since 2007.

by orangeandblackattack on Nov 13, 2007 5:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Starter?

I just seems to me that a pitcher with that varied an arsenal should be starting to take full advantage of all of his pitches.

by DrBGiantsfan on Nov 13, 2007 10:13 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Starter?

I've been wondering that, too. In this diary alone I've seen that he has 3-6 pitches depending on arm slot, with a devastating change and pinpoint accuracy, though less than stellar velocity.

It's always been my understanding that starters usually have more pitches and better control because it enables them to run through lineups multiple times without batters being able to figure them out, while relievers tend to be a bit of the opposite because they rarely see more than three batters at a time anyway.

But everybody who has mentioned it has been saying that his arsenal is perfectly suited for bullpen duty. I haven't seen him pitch so I'm not sure what would be wrong with what I understand to be starter's tools.

I guess if it's all smoke and mirrors because the fastball doesn't pop and the curve is average at best, you might not want batters seeing him more than once... that could be it?

Dave Righetti: You Know You Want It. / Also, my blog. For writers.

by howtheyscored on Nov 14, 2007 11:04 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Starter?

I don't think his persona would be able to maintain smoke & mirrors for as long as he's been stacking solid stats. I'm talking about pre-Mesa State, too, even though MS is where he seemed to announce his presence with authority. "Slurve", anybody?

by sharmo on Nov 14, 2007 3:45 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

I guess "lack of stuff" depends on your (figurative) perspective - I'd much rather watch this pitcher with a few tricks up his sleeve than a one-pitch-96 mph-fastball thrower anyday. And maybe one day soon, he won't be held back because of somebody's preconceived notion of what he should have instead of what he does......

by sharmo on Nov 14, 2007 10:10 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

Romo's 2005 stats at Mesa St. college:

Player ERA W-L APP GS CG SHO/CBO SV IP H R ER BB SO 2B 3B HR AB B/Avg WP HBP BK

Sergio Romo.....2.46 14-1 15 15 11 2/0 0 124.1 95 36 34 16 129 14 1 15 457 .208 2 20 3

by slojoe on Nov 13, 2007 3:31 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

Everything else looks good, but I was kind of surprised how many homers Sergio gave up. Apparently he wasn't fooling everyone.

by sharksrog on Nov 16, 2007 10:37 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

HR's

Shark,

Apparently Sergio is learning to keep the ball in the yard. Here is a list of his HR/9 for each year of his pro career:

2005- 0.92
2006- 0.78
2007- 0.54
He has had an even more precipitous drop in his H/9:

2005- 9.17
2006- 6.79
2007- 4.75

Interestingly, his BB/9 has risen over the same time period:

2005- 1.18
2006- 1.65
1007- 2.04

In spite of this, Sergio's WHIP was steadily improved:
2005- 1.15
2006- 0.94
2007- 0.75

This goes along with a hypothesis that maybe you don't want to be too much of a strike throwing if the cost is more hits and HR's. Perhapes Sergio is fewer fat pitches at the cost of a few more walks but to the benefit of fewer hits, an most importantly, fewer HR's allowed.

by DrBGiantsfan on Nov 17, 2007 1:10 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: HR's

It sounds as if Sergio is figuring it all out. That is nice improvement you have shown here.

by sharksrog on Nov 18, 2007 1:51 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

yeah, and the HBP interesting

by slojoe on Nov 19, 2007 3:46 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Official Sergio Romo Diary

I'd like him more if he wasn't an extreme fly ball pitcher. As others have said it will be interesting to see what he does at higher levels.

by Cainer on Nov 13, 2007 4:21 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed

Search

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recommended FanPosts

McCovey Chronicles Christmas Cards

by thehavenot 1 day ago

142 comments | 8 recs

MCC Recipe Swap & Food Talk Jamboree

by jcb9 7 days ago

220 comments | 4 recs

What I Would Do With the Roster

by Davenport Deserved It 9 days ago

48 comments | 9 recs

Recent FanPosts

Candlestick_small

What This Giants Fan is Thankful For

by mlb22 about 8 hours ago

20 comments | 0 recs

Rank Your Giants Prospects

by Cody_ransom about 13 hours ago

84 comments | 0 recs

Brett Pill tearing up Venezuela...Bowker apparently scared of the country and going home

by jbpeterson 1 day ago

102 comments | 1 recs

Lincecum's Ks - A Very Basic Question on Judgement of Pitching Savvy

by Tycho 1 day ago

94 comments | 1 recs

Could the Giants get any Compensation Picks?

by Bay Area Sports Fan 3 days ago

57 comments | 0 recs

Shadow_grad_small

We're interested in Uggla...

by NorCalGiant 3 days ago

213 comments | 0 recs

Giants add four to 40-man roster

by wilriv21 4 days ago

149 comments | 0 recs

Timmy_avatar_small

Expansion Teams / Relocation Discussion

by Norm Median 5 days ago

216 comments | 0 recs

Howtheyscoredcat_small

Lincecum Arbitration Results Prediction Thread!

by howtheyscored 5 days ago

191 comments | 0 recs

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >

Recent Posts