Giants prospect Kevin Pucetas of the Augusta Greenjackets (get it? Masters is held in Augusta) won the "Most Spectacular Pitcher" award, which sounds very impressive and, not to demean his feat that got him the award - which was that he had the lowest ERA in all the minors - but that's a pretty lofty title for an award based on just one statistic, albeit a very important one. The news is here.
A 22-year-old right-hander, Kevin received the honor after compiling a 1.86 ERA over 27 appearances (23 starts), where he threw 145 1/3 innings, gave up only 124 hits (pretty good!) and only 21 walks (now THAT'S spectacular; only 1.3 BB/9 when 3.0 is the highest you want to be), with 104 striketouts, which is basically a 5.0 K/BB (which is also SPECTACULAR! You want starters to be at 2.0 or higher; however, his K/9 is a pedestrian 6.4). Also wonderful is that he is a groundball pitcher with a 1.47 GO/AO ratio, which means for every 2 air outs, he has 3 ground outs. His batting average against was only .228.
Congrats to Pucetas, who earned a $7,500 prize with the award. Looking at his stats, I can say that it was pretty spectacular overall, but it would be nice if he could up his K/9 rate. He should be in AA next season, when he'll be 23, though he could jump to AAA if the Giants think he is ready.
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