A few guys have come up in discussion over the last week or two, mostly relievers, who haven’t had much information on them out there. So today I thought I would take a quick look at a two of those guys and give some mini scouting reports.
Wirfin Obispo – RHP
Obispo is a bit of an urban legend in some Reds prospect circles after he dominated the Dominican Summer League after a conversion to the mound from shortstop. He was, however, caught up in a marriage scandal that left him unable to obtain a work visa to enter the US and eventually wound up in Japan where he pitched for several years before finally being able to obtain a work visa when the Reds signed him this past offseason. Obispo throws a fastball, change up and slider. His fastball seems to work, in my limited time seeing him, in the 89-93 MPH range while touching 94. The pitch is a little straight, but he seems to hide the ball well with what I can best describe as, interesting mechanics that seem to have a little bit of violence to them. His change up shows some solid late tumble on it. The slider has short break to it, and could work well at the bottom of the strikezone, but the break isn’t sharp enough for it to do much if it isn’t at the bottom of the zone. At best, it is an average pitch and is only a pitch that should be thrown in the lower half of the strikezone and is thrown in the mid 80’s.
Curtis Partch – RHP
Curtis Partch has been in the system for a while, but his production hasn’t been much to write home about with a career ERA of 5.06 over his 6 minor league seasons. However, for the most part he has been a starting pitcher (getting over 95% of his appearances since 2009 as a starter), but was recently moved to the bullpen where this season he has a 3.28 ERA and 4 walks (two of which were intentional) to go with 17 strikeouts in 14 innings so far. Partch has a fastball and breaking ball that he seems to use out of the bullpen from the limited action I have seen him in this season. His fastball works out of the bullpen in the 93-95 range and has touched 97 MPH. His breaking ball looks like an average pitch right now, though he did flash a few that has tight and quick breaking action that were above-average.