OK, yeah, I don’t like this one. Not that it matters.
The odds that the big-budget Yankees would actually keep their Rule 5 pick around were slim to none to begin with; when you’re fighting for the pennant, wasting a roster spot is far from smart. But then they took Robert Fish, a pitcher with almost zero chance of sticking.
That’s not to say Fish doesn’t have skills–he’s a lefty reliever with a good fastball, so you can see him turning into Alan Embree if everything breaks right. He’s already pitched in Double-A at age 22, which is also nice.
Still, Fish has a lot of problems. His fastball lacks life, he doesn’t have good control, and his secondary offerings are poor as well. Combine that with a tendency to work high in the zone, and you have a homer problem that Texas League foes had no trouble exploiting. Imagine what would happen against the AL East, then, pitching half his games in Yankee Stadium?
I mean, the guy had an 8.93 ERA last year in Double-A. Of all the people to pick…really?