Indians Top 100 Prospects: #7 Hector Rondon

7. Hector Rondon - Right-handed Pitcher
Born: 02/26/1988 - Height: 6'3" - Weight: 180 - Bats: Right - Throws: Right

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2005	17	DSL Indians	R	3	3	1.65	15	12	1	65.1	60	12	2	8	55	1.1	7.6	1.04
2006	18	GCL Indians	R	3	4	5.13	11	11	0	52.2	62	30	6	3	32	0.5	5.5	1.23
2007	19	Lake County	A	7	10	4.37	27	27	0	136.0	143	66	13	27	113	1.8	7.5	1.25
2008	20	Kinston	A+	11	6	3.60	27	27	0	145.0	130	166	33	42	145	2.6	9.0	1.19
		Career		24	23	3.74	80	77	1	399.0	395	166	33	80	345	1.9	7.8	1.22

History: Rondon was signed as a non-drafted free agent out of Venezuela in August of 2004. In 2007 at Single-A Lake County he took part in one of two no-hitters for the team on the year, throwing six no-hit innings while striking out five and combining with two other pitchers to throw a no-hitter in early July 2007. He was also selected to the World Team last year in the Futures Game which took place at Yankee Stadium as part of Major League baseball's All Star celebration. He dominated the Carolina League, a league where at 20-years old he was almost three years younger than the league average, finishing 4th in wins (11), 8th in ERA (3.60), 6th in starts (27), 6th in innings pitched (145.0), 3rd in WHIP (1.19), and 2nd in strikeouts (145).

Strengths & Opportunities: Rondon is a young and projectable starting pitcher with power, aggression and puts the ball on the plate. His fastball has good life and consistently clocks in at 92-94 MPH and has topped out as high as 96 MPH. He has an ability to attack hitters, and has a lot of confidence in his fastball to where he struck out a batter an inning last season at advanced Single-A Kinston. Not only does he have enough velocity to challenge with a power pitch, but has also flashed a lot of touch and feel for finesse when it is needed. His slider used to be more of a show pitch, but has come a long way and is becoming more of a nasty weapon that he can consistently throw for strikes low and away to right-handers. He also throws a curveball that has the potential in the future to be an average breaking ball, and a straight changeup that showed improvement last year.

At 6'3" and 180 pounds, Rondon is long and lanky and has plenty of projection still with his body. He has shown the ability to mix up his pitches well, and showed plus control with the ability to throw strikes and locate his pitches well to both sides of the plate. He is a competitor on the mound and very aggressive with his fastball where he likes to challenge hitters. He often gets himself into good counts, and continues to get more consistent with making his pitches and get stronger. He has a good plan when he takes the mound, sticks with it, and shows good tempo. He has shown very good durability as he made every scheduled start at advanced Single-A Kinston last season, and has not missed a start in any previous season. He shows a very good work ethic.

Rondon went into last season as a prospect on the rise with some good potential, and by the end of the season was one of the biggest breakthrough prospects in the system. The overnight change for him was a result of Indians coaches working with his delivery and challenging him to be more aggressive throwing his offspeed pitches for strikes. Early in the season last year he battled with the command of his curveball and changeup, but after a lot of work in bullpen sessions with Kinston pitching coach Greg Hibbard his fastball command improved and his secondary pitches became much sharper. His confidence also steadily increased as a result. Once he started throwing his secondary pitches for strikes his fastball fed off of that and it made him much tougher to hit. The combination of his improved slider and changeup as well as fastball command allowed him to get more swing and misses with his fastball.

One of the big developments for Rondon which has shot him up the prospect charts is not only his age-related performance last year, but a significant spike in his average fastball velocity from 88-90 MPH early in the season to an above average fastball velocity late in the season of 92-94 to where it was topping out at 96 MPH at the end of the season. His velocity spiked and became more consistent by learning to better repeat his delivery, keep the ball down in the zone, and controlling his effort level. He also showed the ability to stay strong late into games as his velocity showed the same life hitting 93-94 MPH in the sixth inning of his starts which is a sign of really starting to get in a grooved with his delivery. The Indians actually think his fastball velocity could still continue to increase as he grows into his body and improves his mechanics.

Rondon loves to compete with the fastball on the plate almost too much, so the Indians have challenged him to throw more changeups and use his secondary pitches more. He is also continuing to work on solidifying his delivery since he tends to get a little sloppy at times with it. He has shown problems working out of the stretch as when men were on base he struggled at times to get hitters out. He needs to work on getting stronger out of the stretch, and also fine tune his delivery so he can create more deception. Overall, if he wants to stay a starter he needs to continue putting on good weight so his body can handle the heavy workload as a starting pitcher.

Outlook: Rondon has grown a lot as a pitcher in the last two seasons and has a good ceiling that is not even close to being reached. It is still really hard to tell exactly what he will be because he is so young, but he currently projects as a solid #3 or #4 starter at the major league level. That said, there is certainly room for him to grow and become more of a front of the rotation starter considering prior to the 2008 season he was viewed more of a #5 or depth starter for a major league organization. He is part of a young Latin Trifecta of him, Kelvin De La Cruz, and Jeanmar Gomez that has the Indians excited and is steadily moving up in the system. He should open the season in the Double-A Akron starting rotation.

Photo courtesy of Carl Kline

Hector Rondon MinorLeagueBaseball.com stats page

Hector Rondon Baseball-Reference page

Hector Rondon MinorLeagueSplits.com page

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