Article: Wherefore Art Thou Romero?

[Otto von Ballpark]

I think the big difference was some mechanical changes that he made between the 2016 and 2017 season. Had he spent the year in AAA he may have been able to make those changes in season as opposed to waiting for the offseason.

He spent plenty of time in AAA in 2016 (17 starts). Even before his MLB debut, he had 16 career starts in AAA and 23 more at AA. Seems the MLB experience was necessary to expose the problem before it could even be addressed. (Perhaps it could have been exposed and addressed earlier with a 2015 promotion to MLB?)

[Jordan1212]

Like every year we always have a "prospect" that should be on the team and they wait till June to bring him up. I get that the numbers are crunched but you can't tell me that he can't be possibly and im saying possibly better than Kyle Gibson, Phil Hughes, Tyler Duffy. This kid has some nasty stuff. I get that they want to protect him but come on sometimes you really should go with your gut that he could be a difference maker. I can't wait to see him in June making a start because we all know Kyle Gibson is gonna be his normal self 5+ era.

[jkcarew]

The stuff definitely looks good in the 3 (of 8) innings I've seen.  The 3 innings I saw were against mostly minor-league players.

 

But let's see him do it at least at the AAA level for a while, before we assume he's going to be immediately better than Gibson.  His demonstrated dominance in the minors was at the single-A level.  At AA last year, hit/walk rates both took a hit and results were not 'knocking-on-the-door' results.  If he's made the sustainable break-through with a pitch, let's see it in at least AAA results before we throw him into MLB games that should matter in terms of a playoff chase.