9:39AM Wednesday
March 6, 2013

Friday afternoon was my first opportunity to really get a good look at potential Detroit Tigers closer Bruce Rondon in action. I saw him pitch in the Futures Game last year but this was different.

Bruce Rondon

The 22-year old rookie-to-be has been all but anointed the closer for the 2013 Detroit Tigers. His calling card is his triple digits fastball and his ability to work in his off-speed stuff. Control issues have been his bugaboo.

His 1-inning stint went like this:

Single

Strikeout on a decent slider down and in off the plate

A quick popout to 3rd base

During a drawn out walk to Ruben Tejada the baserunner stole 2nd on him and Brayan Pena's terrible throw and then advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch

Got in trouble against David Wright and had to come with a fastball down the middle, which was mid 90's and rifled to left by Wright for an RBI single

Quick groundout to 2nd base off the bat of Ike Davis

A few things became quickly obvious during this outing. First off, he displayed no ...