Jeremy Rhoades

Position: RHSP
Level: High A
Affiliate: Inland Empire 66ers
League:
Age: 23 yrs, 6m
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 225
B/T: Right / Right
Acquired: 4th Rd., 2014 MLB First-Year Player Draft (LAA)

Prospect Spotlight

Rhoades recently moved into the Angels’ Top 30 in MLB’s 2016 Mid-Season Prospect Watch and he showed off a big, maturely built body in my view against the San Jose Giants. He’s built with a strong lower half and has a compact arm action where the ball comes out of a big 3/4’s release point right around his ear. His delivery is simple and repeatable, with a side step that leads to him lifting his front leg high and his hands slightly at the same time. Though he does a decent job of repeating his delivery, there are times where he will rush his mechanics, causing him to fall off the hill to his glove side. The lifting of his hands allows him to get his long arm out smoothly, though it can come out in a rather short action which was surprising for a guy with his large build.

Rhoades worked his fastball (89-to-91 mph, T93) heavy early in the game and attacked the zone with it to both sides of the plate. It looked like he had no problem pitching to contact and letting his infield do their work behind him. In the first couple innings the pitch was heavy, and spotted to the inner half, causing weak contact ground balls while also flashing an ability to get under the hands of RHH’s. When going to the glove side, the pitch had some cut with life at the plate. This changed in the third inning when the pitch lost its heaviness and he lost some command, flattening out and causing the pitch to tail back over the middle and get hit hard. The rough inning and loss of control seemed to fluster him, but it also helped pump up the velo when putting away hitters with his fastball.

Rhoades has a fringy slider (83-to-85, T87) that is compact with hard spin. He showed some downward ¾’s break in it but he was inconsistent with the control and the spin, having it back up when not finishing through it. Rhoades changeup (82-to-85, T86) was his best off-speed pitch as it had some sink to the arm side out of a deceptive arm speed that mirrored the fastball out of the hand. It seemed like Rhoades had confidence in the pitch, throwing it early the second time through the lineup, to hitters on both sides of the plate, and when ahead in the count. The pitch, like others in the outing, was not controlled much, and would sink into the heart of the plate at times.

Nothing Rhoades throws is really overpowering, and he definitely lacks a go-to out pitch. His aggressiveness in the zone will get him into trouble when his command isn’t on. That aggressiveness will also keep his defenders active and if they aren’t doing their job, it could make for a long night for Rhoades. His numbers this season (.269 BAA, 1.39 WHIP, 73 K’s/37 BB’s over 110 IP) seems to point to a pitcher who’s stuff isn’t set up to go five-plus innings. In the look I had his stuff was good enough to get hitter outs for a couple of innings, but a second or third time through the lineup, and hitters start to track it better. Because of that, Rhoades best profiles to a bullpen arm where he can work his fastball at a higher velo and limit the looks against him.