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Vicente Campos is going to land in the Angels top 10 prospect list once it gets updated. Just you wait and see :)
This will be the second waiver wire pickup recently who immediately lands in the top 30 prospect list. Either Eppler is really good or our farm system is that bad. Perhaps it's a bit of both.
Campos was with the Yankees when Eppler was there so he's familiar enough with him. He had TJ surgery in 2014 and is still working on getting back his form.
Scouting Grades
Fastball 65, Curveball 55, Changeup 55, Control 50, Overall 50.
Not bad numbers. He throws just a few miles under Alcantara but with more command and control. His fastball tops out around 97MPH with 93-95 being more typical.
His curve and changeup both show signs of becoming plus pitches.
2016 Performance
Campos is a starter who took the mound in 25 games this year. 13 of those games were in AA and he made two AAA starts - one of which he went 5 innings and gave up only 1 run. Campos also made appearances for the Diamondbacks and threw 5.2 innings while allowing 2 runs (both on homers) and 4 hits.
He had a 3.22 ERA across all levels, along with a 1.178 WHIP and 120 Ks through 142 innings.
History
Campos played in the Venezuelan League at the tender age of 16. By age 18 he put together his best season with 81 IP and a 0.971 WHIP. His BB/9 were a low 1.4 which is very impressive for someone so young. In fact, his minor league career BB/9 rate is 2.3 which is pretty respectable. He also doesn't give up a lot of homeruns and has a career 0.4/9 rate there.
Campos has bounced around a few teams from the Mariners to the Yankess and most recently to the Diamondbacks over the summer. The Diamondbacks had him as #3 on their top prospect list so it's a bit of a mystery why they let him go. One possible reason is that Campos has found himself injured once again. He's had a history of injury problems and in September had surgery for a fractured Ulna which comes with an 8 month recovery (putting his return around May 2017). In addition to this injury, he had a series of elbow injuries in 2012 and 2013 and finally in 2014 when he underwent TJ surgery
Summary
There is no risk in picking this guy up. It seems odd from a Diamondbacks perspective since he has a pretty good track record. I'd be curious to hear why they let him go so easily. It will be interesting to see when he is able to pitch again and how effective he will be coming back from the broken Ulna in his pitching arm.