A week after signing outfielder Roman Hernandez Jorrin, the Kansas City Royals have once again struck up a signing with a prospect from Latin America. This time the Royals inked 17-year-old pitcher Branly Crisotomo of the Dominican Republic.
I have seen varying reports on the Crisotomo's size, but the right-hander is roughly 6'0" and 185 lbs. His fastball is about 90 miles per hour at the moment, with velocity being an issue (for 17 that is no surprise). He also throws a solid curveball and change-up. Crisotomo recently shined in the DPL All-Star Game as well.
Dave Rawnsley of Perfect Game USA recently named Crisotomo the 10th ranked prospect in the Dominican League and had this to say of the pitcher-
He’s realistically about 5-11/175 but was 88-90 on his fastball with nice cut glove side from high three-quarters to over the top release point. Both his 74 mph curveball and 80 mph change up were potential plus pitches and he pounded the strike zone and overmatched hitters. If Crisotomo were a high school junior in the United States every college in the country would be after him and he’d end up a top-five round pick out of college.
The newest Royal is expected to report to the Dominican Summer League in 2012 after signing his contract, which was for $98,500.
Thanks to twitter user Clint Scoles of Pine Tar Press for first reporting the story. For more continued Royals discussion, make sure to visit Royals Review, part of the SB Nation network of blogs.