Franderlyn Romero was almost perfect last night for the Dayton Dragons. The right hander took a no-hitter into the 8th inning before a ground ball single found it’s way past third baseman Brantley Bell and a diving Luis Gonzalez at shortstop with two outs in the inning. The only other base runner he allowed in the game was in the 2nd inning when he struck out four batters, with the batter reaching when a 3rd strike got away and the batter was able to reach safely.
The Cincinnati Reds signed Franderlyn Romero as a non-drafted free agent signing out of Venezuela in May of 2010. The 23-year-old has pitched for the now defunct Venezeulan League Reds, the Dominican Summer League Reds, the AZL Reds, Billings Mustangs and Dayton Dragons in his six seasons since signing.
Romero missed most of 2014 after recovering from Tommy John surgery, but returned in 2015 to make 15 appearances (10 starts) with 67.1 innings pitched with 21 walks and 46 strikeouts. He’s been a ground ball pitcher throughout his career and that hasn’t changed in 2016. In fact, he’s getting more ground balls this season with the Dayton Dragons.
In the 2015 season with the Billings Mustangs his ground ball rate was 52%. Through four starts with the Dragons he has posted a 65% ground ball rate. Even more impressive is that he’s lowered his walk rate, which was already low coming into the season and he’s really upped his strikeout rate. Romero currently has 29 strikeouts in 25.2 innings pitched this season with just six walks allowed.
Scouting Report
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Fastball | Romero works with his fastball in the 89-92 MPH range, occasionally touching a tad higher. At times the pitch shows good sinking action with a little bit of armside run.
Slider | It’s generally an average offering, but will flash itself as an above-average offering at times with some 12-6 biting action to it.
Change Up | A solid offering, but one he doesn’t use too often as he relies more on his slider of his secondary pitches. The pitch shows a little armside run and some sink to it.
He’s got good control of his fastball, particularly on the horizontal plane. On the vertical plane he does miss a little bit more. His slider is his go-to secondary offering and it plays well at this level, but as he climbs the ladder he is going to need to throw it in the zone, or at least start it a little closer to the zone than he has done thus far this season. It’s a good pitch, but more advanced hitters won’t chase it as often as Low-A hitters have been doing.
In the long run, he probably winds up as a reliever where his fastball may play up a tick or two and he can rely on a fastball/slider combination. He probably sticks in the rotation for a little longer though to get more innings and experience on his arm, but with the depth of the starting pitching in the organization a move to the bullpen seems likely in the long run.
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