Not a Rookie: Mat Latos
John Sickels on Latos. There are two worries with Latos: his makeup, and his health. Latos has an, um, unusual personality. The positive spin is that he's a free-spirit. The negative spin is best expressed by this quote from the 2009 Baseball America Prospect Handbook: "He tends to reject structure, lacks a commitment to improve and rubs teammates the wrong way with his flippant attitude." Descriptions I heard from informed observers in 2008 ranged from "he's just a different guy" to "what a jackass." ----- In any event, if Latos does stay healthy, I think he has the natural ability to be a number one or number two starter. If he'd come in under the 50-inning limit, I'd rate him as a Grade A- prospect and would have put him at number four on my Top 50 pitcher's list.



