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On Tuesday, April 8, Kansas City Royals rookie Yordano Ventura made his much-anticipated 2014 debut against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Ventura is a highly-rated prospect by all measures: Heading into 2014, Baseball Prospectus ranked him 12th, MLB.com ranked him 35th, and Baseball America had him 26th. His role as Kansas City’s fifth starter will allow him to settle into the rotation with reduced expectations.

All the expected signs of an elite, hard-throwing young starter were there—we saw the velocity, the fastballs missing up, the inconsistency, and the flashes of brilliance. It’s easy to draw different conclusions, then, simply by changing the lens through which you watch the game.

However, negative conclusions require pessimism, and such a cynical outlook with regards to a 22-year-old pitcher is simply unfair. Instead, I think it is better to look at the positives we saw here while at the same time acknowledging that there are areas in which the young Dominican can improve.

First, the obvious positive with regards to Ventura is his fastball velocity. He was above 95 miles per hour from his very first pitch, and he even topped 100 mph a couple times. As you can see below, his fastball s an incredible weapon that he relied upon a lot.

His changeup also showed moments of being unhittable. The high-80s velocity is unusual, but when the 10 mph difference from his fastball makes it a legitimate weapon—especially once we take into account the movement on it. The excellent arm-side fade made it a real weapon against both lefties and righties, and it was utterly incredible Tuesday night.

On the other hand, though, we saw the variety of release points that isn’t surprising but is nonetheless discouraging. Young pitchers have a tendency to fail to repeat their mechanics properly, and Ventura was no exception.

Closing out his repertoire is a curveball that looked unhittable at times and unconvincing at others. Given the youth and inconsistency mentioned above, we wouldn’t necessarily expect to see a finished product, so it isn’t a red flag that he hung a couple breaking pitches—especially because he was able to get on top of some others and show off the sharp break.

If there is one takeaway from this game other than pure awe at Ventura’s velocity, it’s that he actually can pitch, rather than just being a stereotypical “thrower.” The prime example of this is how easily he toyed with Tampa Bay’s right fielder Wil Myers. He utilized his changeup and curveball to get swinging strikes early in the game, and then as the game went on, Ventura was able to keep Myers guessing. The 2013 AL Rookie of the Year struck out three times.

The box score for Ventura’s game is obviously impressive. However, the fact that the young righty could do that in a game against a quality opponent makes the line that much more remarkable.

NOTE: All statistics accurate as of 4/09/14

By Seth Victor
AriBall.com

Follow @AriBall Follow @sh_vic