DENVER – The Colorado Rockies announced today that the club has claimed right-handed pitcher Adam Ottavino off waivers from St. Louis. Ottavino is now a member of the Rockies 40-man roster. Ottavino has been optioned to Triple-A Colorado Springs.
Ottavino, 26, was originally selected by the Cardinals in the first round (30th overall) of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft out of Northeastern University. The 6-foot-5, 230-poun right-hander is 38-43 with a 4.29 ERA (656.2 ip, 313 er), 312 walks and 570 strikeouts in 127 career Minor League games/126 starts. Ottavino’s only Major League time came in 2010 with St. Louis when he went 0-2 with a 8.46 ERA (22.1 ip, 21 er) in five games/three starts. The native New Yorker has spent each of the last three seasons as a member of the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds starting rotation.
The Rockies now have 38 players on their 40-man roster.
WHO? and/or WHY?
I never heard of him either, but he is a former number 1 draft pick. The one thing I do know is that when I checked the Cardinal fan blog people seemed to be upset that he was let go for nothing. He was out of options. At worst he could be an organizational pitcher; at best an emergency spot starter for the Rox in the Clayton Mortenson vein. Not much down side to this acquisition.
According to some of the Cardinals reporters, Ottavino was being turned into a reliever this year. That’s a good idea since he hasn’t made it as a starter mostly because of high pitch counts and not so good secondary pitches, but apparently a pretty good fastball. No risk at all, and if the Rockies minor league pitching coaches work well with him and he makes progress in the pen you could wind up with a Matt Belisle type. Good move,… Read more »
This is why i love this website…learn something new all the time. Thanks for the background on Ottavino.
Yay, finally the Rockies are the ones cherry picking these kind of guys rather than on the other end like usual.
Probably just trying to find Wood a friend to relate and hang out with in the Springs.
And now I know the rest of the story.Thanks all.