Rubby De La Rosa Earns Spot on 2015 Rotation
Rubby De La Rosa has been announced by the Arizona Diamondbacks as the third starting pitcher in the rotation according to Steve Gilbert of MLB.com He joins Josh Collmenter and Jeremy Hellickson. The order has not been set as of yet, just who’s going to fill a spot on the rotation for the 2015 season.
De La Rosa earned a spot despite having some control issues through Cactus League spring training games. De La Rosa has issued 10 walks in 12 games so far this spring. The bright spot to this is that his fastball is consistently hitting 99 MPH.
“Rubby has proven enough to us,” D-backs manager Chip Hale said. Hale continued on, noting that De La Rosa adds power to the rotation, complimenting the finesse approach offered by Josh Collmenter and Jeremy Hellickson.
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So far this spring, De La Rosa is 0-1 with a 3.75 ERA over 4 games. His longest outing was on March 17th, where he fanned 7 batters over 5 2/3 innings.
FanGraphs projects the right-handed power pitcher to record a 6-7 record, pitching 107 complete innings with a projected 4.01 ERA. De La Rosa is expected to average almost 8 strike outs per game during his outings on the mound.
De La Rosa stands to benefit from the move to the National League. His primary pitch is an excellent fastball that averages 94 MPH. He follows this by using an effective change-up which usually produces whiffs or ground ball outs.
This could be an effective aid to an ailing Arizona Diamondbacks defense. Control might be an ongoing issue here, but De La Rosa presents an interesting addition to this rotation.