Vince Velasquez

Vincent John Velasquez (pronounced veh-LAS-kehz;[1] born June 7, 1992) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for the Houston Astros, who drafted him in the second round (58th overall) of the 2010 Major League Baseball draft. Velasquez made his MLB debut with the Astros in 2015, and was traded to the Phillies before the 2016 season.[2]

Vince Velasquez
Velasquez with the Phillies in 2016
Philadelphia Phillies – No. 21
Pitcher
Born: (1992-06-07) June 7, 1992
Montclair, California
Bats: Right Throws: Right
MLB debut
June 10, 2015, for the Houston Astros
MLB statistics
(through September 19, 2020)
Win–loss record28–35
Earned run average4.71
Strikeouts609
Teams

Early life

Velasquez was born in Montclair, California. He attended Garey High School in Pomona, California, where he played shortstop as a switch-hitter and pitched on the baseball team, graduating in 2010.[3][4] Velasquez was a three-time All-Mt. Baldy League First-Team infielder, and in his junior season he was 6-1 as a pitcher with a 1.89 earned run average (ERA), and batted .608 with 14 doubles, 29 runs batted in (RBI), and 18 stolen bases.[3]

Professional career

Houston Astros

Velasquez was drafted by the Houston Astros in the second round of the 2010 Major League Baseball draft out of Garey High School, and signed for a $655,800 signing bonus.[5][3][6] He made his professional debut for the Rookie League Greeneville Astros. In eight games (six starts) he went 2–2 with a 3.07 ERA and 25 strikeouts in ​29 1⁄3 innings pitched. Following the 2010 season, Baseball America ranked him the 11th-best prospect in the Appalachian League.[3]

Prior to the 2011 season, he underwent Tommy John surgery; Velasquez did not play at all that season.[7] He returned in 2012 to pitch nine games for the Class A Short Season Tri-City ValleyCats. In ​45 2⁄3 innings, he was 4–1 with a 3.35 ERA, and 51 strikeouts, averaging 12.1 strikeouts per 9 innings.[8] Following the 2012 season, Baseball America named him the 14th-best prospect in the New York-Penn League.[8]

Velasquez started the 2013 season for the Class A Quad Cities River Bandits.[9] He led the Midwest League in strikeouts/9 innings pitched (10.06), tied for 2nd in strikeouts (123), and tied for 8th in wins, as he was 9–4 with a 3.19 ERA in 110 innings.[8][10] During the season, he was promoted to the Class A-Advanced Lancaster JetHawks. He finished with a combined record of 9–6 with a 3.54 ERA, and 142 strikeouts over ​124 2⁄3 innings, averaging 10.3 strikeouts per 9 innings.[11]

Prior to the 2014 season, he was ranked by Fangraphs as the 67th-best prospect, and by ESPN as the 82nd-best prospect, in baseball, and was ranked as a top prospect in the Astros system by Baseball America (#6), Baseball Prospectus (#6), and ESPN (#7).[12] Velasquez returned to Lancaster to start the season, and also pitched for the Gulf Coast League Astros.[13][14] He was named California League Pitcher of the Week on both April 14, 2014, and August 18, 2014.[3] Between the two teams, he was 7–5 with a 3.52 ERA, as he had 91 strikeouts in 64 innings, averaging 12.8 strikeouts per 9 innings.[11] On November 20, the Astros added Velasquez to their 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.

Velasquez in 2015.

Velasquez began the 2015 season ranked by Baseball America as the fourth-best Houston prospect, by Baseball Prospectus as the # 75 minor leaguer, and by major league baseball as the # 86 minor leaguer.[11] He pitched for the Class AA Corpus Christi Hooks, and was named a 2015 Texas League All Star.[8][11] For the season in the minors, he was 4–0 with a 1.91 ERA, and had 45 strikeouts in 33 innings, averaging 12.3 strikeouts per 9 innings.[11]

On June 10, 2015, Velasquez was promoted to the Major Leagues for the first time.[15] On July 1, he made his Major League debut. He earned a no decision going ​6 1⁄3 innings, giving up 5 hits, four runs, and a walk, and inducing seven strikeouts against the Kansas City Royals at Minute Maid Park. For the 2015 season, with the Astros he was 1–1 with a 4.37 ERA, with 58 strikeouts in ​55 2⁄3 innings, and averaged 9.4 strikeouts per 9 innings.[2]

Philadelphia Phillies
Velasquez in 2018

On December 12, 2015, the Astros traded Velasquez, Mark Appel, Brett Oberholtzer, Tom Eshelman, and Harold Arauz to the Philadelphia Phillies for Ken Giles and Jonathan Arauz.[16][2]

Velasquez registered 16 strikeouts (the 3rd-most in Phillies history) in a complete game shutout against the San Diego Padres on April 14, 2016, giving up only three hits and no walks in the process.[17][18] Through his first 9 starts, Velasquez sported an ERA of 2.75, but afterward he struggled the rest of the season while also missing a couple of weeks due to right biceps strain.[3] Overall, he finished 8–6 with an ERA of 4.12 in 24 starts, with 152 strikeouts in 131 innings.[2] His average of 10.44 strikeouts/9 innings pitched made him the second Phillies starter ever to make at least 20 starts and finish the season at or above 10 strikeouts/9 innings pitched, with the other being Curt Schilling in 1997–98, and he was 6th in the NL in strikeout ratio of all pitchers with 120 innings pitched.[3][19]

His 2017 season was also cut short due to a right middle finger injury, with Velasquez making only 15 starts with a record of 2–7 and a 5.13 ERA, and 68 strikeouts in 72 innings.[3][2] He battled inconsistency, walking 4.3 batters per nine innings. At the plate, he batted .250.[2]

Velasquez began the 2018 season with a 5–8 record before being placed on the disabled list on July 2 with a right forearm contusion after being hit by a line drive.[20][3] For the 2018 season, he was 9–12 with a 4.85 ERA and 161 strikeouts in ​146 2⁄3 innings, and was 7th in the National League in wild pitches, with 9.[2] His 9.9 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched were 8th in the NL of all pitchers with 140 or more innings pitched, and the 6th-highest rate of any Phillies pitcher in franchise history.[21][22] He held right-handed batters to a .211/.298/.308 slash line, and was the only pitcher in major league baseball to face at least 300 right-handed batters and allow only three home runs or fewer.[2]

In January 2019 he agreed to a one-year, $2.249 million contract with the Phillies.[23] On May 11, he was placed on the injured list.[24]

On August 2, 2019, Velasquez was inserted into left field in an extra inning game vs the Chicago White Sox while his teammate centerfielder Roman Quinn took to the mound in relief. The Phillies had used all available pitchers in the 15-inning game and Velasquez was unavailable to pitch having been used against the Giants two days prior, and had partaken in a bullpen session that day. He recorded an outfield assist on a run-saving play at the plate and nearly had a second to prevent the go-ahead run in the 15th. The Sox took the lead on the play by one run and on the very next play Velasquez made a diving snag for out number three containing the damage and keeping it a one-run game. The Sox went on to win the game.[25]

In 2019 he was 7-8 with a 4.91 ERA, as in 33 games (23 starts) he pitched 117.1 innings and struck out 130 batters (averaging 10.0 strikeouts per 9 innings) while hitting nine batters (9th-most in the NL).[26] As a batter, he hit .233/.281/.333 with one home run and three RBIs in 30 at bats, and made one appearance as a pinch hitter.[27]

References
  1. "Baseball Player Name Pronunciation Guide". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2019. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  2. "Vince Velasquez Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2019. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  3. "Vince Velasquez Stats, Fantasy & News". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  4. "Vincent Velasquez Class of 2010 - Player Profile | Perfect Game USA". perfectgame.org. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  5. Marshall, Pete (June 23, 2010). "Garey's Velasquez signs with Astros". dailybulletin.com. Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  6. "Vincent Velasquez - The Baseball Cube". www.thebaseballcube.com. The Baseball Cube.
  7. Levine, Zachary (July 30, 2012). "Minor league notebook: Velasquez on track after Tommy John surgery". houstonchronicle.com. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  8. "Vince Velasquez Minor & Fall Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  9. Batterson=Steve (July 3, 2013). "Bandits' Velasquez carries tenacious approach into battle". qctimes.com. The Quad-City Times. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  10. "2013 Midwest League Pitching Leaders". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  11. "Vince Velasquez Stats, Highlights, Bio | MiLB.com Stats | The Official Site of Minor League Baseball". MiLB.com. Minor League Baseball. 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  12. "2014 Top 100 Prospects – FanGraphs Baseball". fangraphs.com. Fangraphs. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  13. de Jesus Ortiz, Jose (April 14, 2014). "Velasquez leads stellar staff at Astros' Lancaster affiliate". houstonchronicle.com. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  14. de Jesus Ortiz, Jose (April 14, 2014). "Vince Velasquez bringing the heat, and a curve, to Class A Lancaster". chron.com. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  15. Gleeman, Aaron (June 8, 2015). "Another prospect promoted to Houston: Astros calling up Vincent Velasquez". nbcsports.com. NBC Sports. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  16. Short, D. J. "Ken Giles trade announced, with 2013 No. 1 pick Mark Appel headed to the Phillies". HardballTalk. NBC Sports. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
  17. Kruth, Cash (April 14, 2016). "Velasquez's performance one for history books". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  18. Zolecki, Todd; Cassavell, AJ (April 14, 2016). "Velasquez records 16 K's in 3-hit shutout". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  19. "National League Leaderboards » 2016 » Pitchers » Advanced Statistics | FanGraphs Baseball". fangraphs.com. Fangraphs. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  20. "Phillies' Vince Velasquez placed on 10-day DL; Pat Neshek activated". espn.com. ESPN. July 1, 2018. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  21. "National League Leaderboards » 2018 » Pitchers » Advanced Statistics | FanGraphs Baseball". fangraphs.com. Fangraphs. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  22. "Philadelphia Phillies Top 10 Single-Season Pitching Leaders". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  23. "Phillies' Vince Velasquez: Avoids arbitration". cbssports.com. CBS Sports. January 11, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  24. Seidman, Corey (May 11, 2019). "Velasquez's injury opens the door for a Phillies lefty's MLB debut". NBC Sports Philadelphia. NBC Sports. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  25. Zolecki, Todd (August 3, 2019). "Pitcher erases run -- from the outfield!". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
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