mickey moniak ‏@MickeyMoniak
Thank you to the @Phillies for this amazing opportunity! Excited to get after it and blessed to be a Phillie!

Yavapai, a junior college in Arizona, has had a top-notch baseball program for years, helping produce big leaguers like Curt Schilling and, currently, Kole Calhoun, Kirby Yates and Ken Giles. Romero, who transferred from the University of Nevada after his freshman year, has the chance to follow in their footsteps. Romero has a four-pitch mix that he knows how to use effectively. He'll throw both a two- and four-seam fastball, with the former sitting in the 89-91 mph range and the latter touching 94-95 mph at times. While his curveball was his best secondary pitch at the start of his spring, his slider and changeup have improved and perhaps surpassed the curve at this point. He is capable of throwing all of his pitches for strikes. There have been some concerns about his durability and some think he might end up in a bullpen. Though he is just six feet tall, there are teams that think he has the chance to be a back-end starter at the highest level. Willie Calhoun was taken in the fourth round out of Yavapai a year ago and Romero has the chance to do just as well.

Eric Longenhagen ‏@longenhagen Apr 16
By the way, the arm in question today was Yavapai lefty JoJo Romero. 89-92 with sink/run, 45 slider, 50 change, very athletic, 6' 180.

BigEd76 wrote:Video of Romero's reaction

https://twitter.com/bbyreree/status/741332267167932416
https://twitter.com/bbyreree/status/741332934557237248

ReadingPhilly wrote:

Eric Longenhagen ‏@longenhagen Apr 16
By the way, the arm in question today was Yavapai lefty JoJo Romero. 89-92 with sink/run, 45 slider, 50 change, very athletic, 6' 180.

After missing the 2014 season at Oregon following Tommy John surgery, Irvin returned in 2015 and worked to shake off the rust. He struggled at the outset of the 2016 season, but it appears a switch went off late in the spring as he took over the Ducks' role as Friday night starter and looked more like the prospect he was coming out of high school. The twice-drafted Irvin is the epitome of the advanced college lefty when he his firing on all cylinders. For much of the time since he returned from surgery, Irvin had been throwing his fastball in the 86-88 mph range, but was up to 93-94 mph consistently late in his redshirt junior season thanks to some added strength. His slider and changeup will flash above-average at times and he does a good job of throwing everything with the same arm speed to add deception. A good athlete with a solid pickoff move, he throws a lot of strikes, though he can be susceptible to the home run ball. Irvin's ceiling is limited to that of a back-end starter, but he is really polished and if he is the guy he was late in the spring, he's a high probability big leaguer.