February 25, 201610 yr www.fangraphs.com/blogs/two-comps-for-two-views-of-carlos-rodon/ From what any of us can tell, the American League is going to be close, and maybe closer than ever. It wouldn’t appear that there are any great teams, and it wouldn’t appear that there are any bad teams, and my favorite thing about this kind of landscape is it means a whole season could conceivably be determined by the fate of one single player. One player greatly under-achieving could knock a given team out of the hunt. On the other side of things, one player greatly improving could push a given team into first place. The closer the pack, the less it could take to emerge. That’s the theory, anyhow. The White Sox are one of those teams you can look at and imagine 90 wins or 90 losses. Last year’s version almost got to 90 losses, but then this year’s version promises to be better and deeper. And as you get to thinking about the White Sox’s upside, you get to thinking about Carlos Rodon, who’s going to slide into the rotation behind Chris Sale and Jose Quintana. It wouldn’t be a total shock if Rodon were to struggle. But then, if Rodon were to put his skills together, that could send Chicago to the playoffs. So Rodon should be what people like to call an “x-factor,” and in thinking about Rodon, I’ve come up with two other names. One name you can link to Rodon’s signature pitch, and one name you could maybe consider as Rodon’s future. more... Rodon's slider is practically identical to Kershaw's slider. Edited February 25, 201610 yr by Eminor3rd
February 25, 201610 yr Wow, that's some pretty high praise of Rodon. With all due respect to Kershaw, I like Rodon's slider much more but as the article stated and I agree, Kershaw' fastball and curveball are the difference. As far as three pitch arsenals go, Sale has done very well with a FB/SL/CU combo and I think Rodon will be successful with that combo. Rodon's FB location got better as the season went on and his CU deception did too. Overall, things are definitely moving in the right direction for Rodon and I give him tons of credit for learning so fast. One thing that impresses me most is how Rodon got stronger in August and September which is says alot for a young man in his first season and still building up his innings. Dude found his groove in August and never looked back. Thanks for posting this Eminor. That is a great read!
February 25, 201610 yr Liriano is a pretty interesting comp, I could definitely see their careers being very similar. Hopefully Carlos has a little more upside, but if that's his floor, that's a nice player to have.
February 25, 201610 yr That was a great read, it'd be cool to see a write-up on the X-Factors for all the AL teams.
February 25, 201610 yr That was awesome to read. Especially when I was about to make fun of it thinking it was a paul sullivan article.
February 25, 201610 yr QUOTE (Dunt @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 09:14 AM) Liriano is a pretty interesting comp, I could definitely see their careers being very similar. Hopefully Carlos has a little more upside, but if that's his floor, that's a nice player to have. We finally have our Liriano?`
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