Rockies prospect Peter Lambert: Destroyer of worlds, possibly 3 small children stacked on top of each other

Welcome to Football Friday, a baseball column by Connor. Each week I will dive into the previous seven days of baseball news, shout my opinion into the void, discuss some things about the Colorado Rockies, and answer your emails. Some of them.

Welcome to the very first Football Friday scouting profile. This special presentation will dive into a Rockies minor league player who has recently been making headlines and let you know how I, Connor, see them in the future as a major league contributor. Keep in mind the Connor Specific Scouting System introduced last month.

GOOD is for players I think will definitely make a valued impact in the major leagues, I THINK SO is for players that may be fringe prospects but I think will make an impact, MAYBE? is for players who may not be very good but who am I to say they will be bad? Scouting is an inexact science, so I'm not going to write anyone off.

Peter Lambert, RHP

Peter Lambert was the Rockies' second round draft pick last season. The 6'2" righty has an eclectic scouting profile and a strong three pitch regimen that he uses consistently to get batters out with efficiency. Peter's arm slot may be inconsistent, but his control isn't. In his last start, Lambert only used 50 pitches to get through 5 innings with four strikeouts. That's a strong start by high school standards and the young Lambert did it in pro ball—in a league where he's three years younger than his standard competition, no less. At only 19, Lambert features an advanced skill set that could help a quick development that leads to impact sooner than later.

Another interesting tidbit about Peter Lambert is that he may be three small children stacked on top of each other.

Lambert's arm movement is the riskiest part of his profile. It isn't smooth and the slot can often change, and while that isn't to say this will definitely be the cause of his downfall, as Chris Kusiolek notes in a profile early this year, it doesn't usually profile to rotation projection.

Here is a video of Lambert's windup in high school. Keep in mind when watching these videos that Peter Lambert may be three small children stacked on top of each other.

Lambert offers a lively two seam fastball that tails late and sits around 90-92 MPH. He combines it with a consistently lethal changeup and a good curve that is both a middle count and out pitch. He can play with the curve inside and out of the zone with consistency. These pitches are all the more impressive when you remember that Peter could be three small children stacked on top of each other in order to create the ruse of an adult.

Kusiolek profiles Lambert's ceiling as a back-end rotation guy, but he could become a middle leverage reliever at the big club. All of this is contingent on Peter never being found out as actually being three small children stacked on top of each other, which he could be.

Peter's athleticism and pure stuff make him almost assuredly a good bet to value at the big leagues in some capacity in his career. Only being 19 and already showing efficiency in getting batters out is also a huge uptick to his profile though a possible detriment to his potential value is the fact that he might actually be three small children stacked on top of each other.

If Lambert does make the big leagues, it would likely be in 2019 at the earliest. Lambert's young enough that this shouldn't be a problem for him to be a contributor for a long time. Combine that with the fact that he may be three young children stacked on top of each other resembling an adult, and Lambert is a very exciting prospect to watch in the Rockies system.

In the end, I have determined Peter Lambert to be GOOD.

Connor Farrell

★ ★ ★

Five Bold Predictions

Each week, I will make five bold claims about the coming week as well as going back and looking at last week's predictions to see how I did.

Last week, my predictions were:

-Trevor Story hits 20 home runs and .260 this year

Looking good, baby

-Jake McGee has 22 saves at the All-Star Break

Mmhmm

-Bobby DeMuro is an idiot

Nailed it

[Editor's note: Speaking of Bobby, if you want to see an actual profile on a Rockies prospect that doesn't use Connor's crackpot scouting system, please click here.]

-Tyler Chatwood is good

Absolutely

-Eddie Butler is Luke Hochevar

Jury is still out

This week, my five predictions are:

• I end up being wrong about stuff

This is already a guarantee as my first prediction was that Carlos Gonzalez would have a slow start to the season. Instead, CarGo's continued his torrid pace from last season and at this point we're just kind of waiting for the home runs to start and the All-Star votes to come in. I will be wrong about more stuff.

• Jeff Hoffman is up by June

The key point of the Tulowitzki return last July is very, very close to making his MLB debut. The right handed, glasses-wearing pitcher is 2-0 with a 1.62 ERA through his first three starts of the season. The top prospect won't, and shouldn't, be rushed by the organization in a down year but if he continues these ridiculous numbers it's only a matter of when, not if, the kid will make his Rockies debut this year.

• Nolan Arenado never stops shutting us up

Every day this offseason it seemed we got some kind of article about how Nolan was going to regress, and now it's April 22nd and I'm looking at them and saying "when does the regression start?" He's got six home runs in the first two weeks with 16 RBI and a .940 OPS. He's also walked five times already this year in 15 games, which is some kind of miracle considering he's walked a COMBINED 81 times in his MLB career prior to this season. If he continues to take pitches and walk this year he turns from "elite player" to "perennial MVP candidate". On top of that, he's actually started a little slow! He's only hitting .267! Using Nolan's past as an example he's about to go nuclear and hit .480 with 9 home runs over two weeks soon, so it's extremely possible the dude has a better year than last year and the "regression" articles will be burned in a bonfire to the Gods.

• Bobby DeMuro is an idiot

Just gonna keep posting this until he proves me wrong. [Editor's note: remember, Bobby does actual work.]

• Someone on Facebook loses their mind the second Jon Gray gives up a run

For some reason, opinion-havers on Facebook get angry about the smallest things. Jon Gray not throwing a shutout every time he's on the hill is one of those things. People will get upset the second he gives up a run, I guarantee it. It's a ridiculous thing, too. Facebook culture thrives in cynicism. Most of these people would rather live in negativity and yell to the Rockies social media team about nothing that effects their lives than actually think about why they don't have friends or why their mom won't call them back. It's easiest to see when the Rockies have a young pitcher and lots of hope. Why have hope when it's so much easier to not have hope?

• The 2017 rotation will be Jon Gray, Jeff Hoffman, Chad Bettis, Tyler Chatwood, and Kyle Freeland

Count it, buckets. Kyle Freeland will win a job out of spring training in the rotation and we will start to see this rotation turn around.

Game, blouses. Cleanse yourselves in the waters of Lake Minnetonka.

-Connor

[One final editor's note: You should email things to Connor. Good, bad, indifferent. He's taking your questions: connorsmailbag@gmail.com.]