While the offense was rather erratic and young, the pitching staff very often had a veteran look. Of the six players logging ten or more starts (so, Tillman excluded), four of them had college experience, while the remaining two were fresh out of high school as of the ’06 draft. The bullpen was much the same, featuring only a couple of players even drafted out of high school, both of whom have been in the minor leagues since the ’04 season. That’s not to say that they are finished products, however, as they gave out the third most walks in the league and were the only team in triple digits for home runs allowed. Many have aspects of their game they are continuing to work out, so in the world of prospects, they aren’t exactly high on anyone’s charts.
Here is the Wisconsin native:
A year has made quite a difference for Tony Butler, though not as positively as we had hoped. Though some claimed he would have been taken in the first round had the draft been done again, fellow prep left-handers Brett Anderson, Kasey Kiker, and Clayton Kershaw have all sprinted out ahead of him. It would be too cruel to dismiss him, and a serious error in judgment at that, and I say that as someone who categorized him as a disappointment early in the year, so let’s look at the circumstances involved. For one thing, the player development folks, often eager to tinker, had him try throwing more over the top to get better downward movement on his pitches early in the year. This went badly and between April and May, he was walking nearly nine men per game and slowly slipping up when it came to putting hitters away. This eventually culminated with a trip to the DL. I don’t know what happened once he came off, whether the M’s came to their senses and let him go back to the traditional three-quarters slot he was using or he merely adjusted to it, but after coming off, his overall walk rate was a third of what it was before, and would’ve been the best on the team given a full year. His strikeouts also eventually dropped a little, and his earlier groundballs vanished in favor of his old flyball tendencies, but neither are damning. It wasn’t the year we expected from him, nor was it one that was entirely lost. The injuries, we can expect, were largely the result of aforementioned tinkering, and if the M’s wanted him to experience some adversity before making the climb, well, they certainly got it. As a flyball pitcher, next year in High Desert could prove somewhat unsettling for him, but there’s some good that could come of it too, as a solid performance would put him right back on the charts.
Head over there for Jay's take on the whole bunch of hurlers...Even those who aren't in the organization anymore.
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