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Atlanta Braves Top 100 Prospects: #95 Bradley Roney

By Benjamin Chase

Mar 19, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell (45) sits in the dugout in the rain before the game between the New York Yankees and the Braves at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 19, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell (45) sits in the dugout in the rain before the game between the New York Yankees and the Braves at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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Feb 22, 2016; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Jason Grilli (39) fields the ball during spring training workouts at ESPN
Feb 22, 2016; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Jason Grilli (39) fields the ball during spring training workouts at ESPN /

Scouting Report

More from Tomahawk Take

To get a good view on Roney, I checked out 11 games in which he threw 14 2/3 innings, allowing a 4.91 ERA and 1.50 WHIP with a 14/28 BB/K ratio.

Roney is listed as 6’2 and 180 pounds on Baseball Reference. He pitches out of the stretch at all times. He tucks his shoulder in toward his pitching arm until he lunges forward toward the plate with a big lead stride.

That big, fast lunge is both Roney’s weapon and undoing at the same time. When he struggles, it’s due to inconsistent landing spot with his lead leg, which then causes Roney to open his hips too early in his delivery, and finally his excellent over-the-top arm angle gets drawn out to almost a 3/4 slot when he is struggling with his lead foot. While it seems like an easy fix, it does show just how fragile Roney’s excellent performance is from his major struggles.

Roney features a fastball and curve ball mix. The fastball sits in the mid-90s, topping out as high as 99 on the season, with some reports that he hit 100 on the gun in warm ups. The fastball is fairly “straight” without a lot of movement. When he’s going well, he can have a “rising” effect on the pitch up in the zone, however, as the pitch simply stays at the same level rather than having a natural drop. With his arm angle, that’s counter-intuitive, so it really plays with hitters’ heads.

The curve has some velocity you normally don’t see in a curve, topping out at 84 in the games I watched and sitting in the 77-81 range. The curve has incredible break, and it really exposed the poor defense that Bryan de la Rosa played behind the plate for Rome as he simply could not track that curve.

In all seriousness, Roney’s curve may break more than Touki Toussaint‘s fabled curve ball, but the problem is that it breaks out of the zone, so it frequently can get called a ball. Roney also mixed in a handful of sliders in the games I saw. The slider was in the zone too much, however, making it able to be hit fairly well the few times he offered it up.

Next: 2016 outlook

I would wonder with his arm location if Roney would be well-served to utilize a sinker or split-finger fastball to add in a third look with his high-velocity to also get ground balls. The over-the-top motion and velocity already induces plenty of grounders, even with minimal fastball movement, so a ball that sinks in the zone could really be effective.

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