Been wanting to mention that our Madison Bumgarner won the Most Spectacular Pitcher Award for 2008, given to the pitcher who had the lowest ERA in the minors for that season. It was the second year in a row for the Giants, won last year by Kevin Pucetas, also at Augusta, like Bumgarner.
The amazing thing is that Bumgarner started the season out of sync because the Giants asked him to modify his mechanics, so they let him go back to his old form, and yet he still won this award because he had something like a sub-1.00 ERA after he went back. He was also one of the youngest pitchers in the league, making it all the more amazing.
I wonder if the team will give him a Green Jacket in commemoration of his award? :^)
FYI, Pucetas followed up his award winning year by hurling a 3.02 ERA at San Jose, good for second behind teammate Tim Alderson for pitchers with over 100 IP. Also, he was third for over 90 IP and fifth for over 80 IP. However, he is age 23 for the season and thus he is right at the average for the league. Thus he's good but not that good, so his future is still questionable regarding the majors, whereas Alderson, being only 19, is very good.
While Kevin wasn't "spectacular" this year, he did well enough to capture the Cal League "Pitcher of the Year" honors.
ReplyDeleteWhile he is older than both Tim and Madison, I would still keep an eye on him.
Sorry, yes, thanks Tom, definitely keep an eye on him, he could continue to develop and keep climbing his way to the majors.
ReplyDeleteI just meant to keep expectations on his future in check, he's a finesse pitcher and most of them start to stall out in AA and AAA unless they can develop another pitch to keep their development moving onward and upward. Though he was only in Advanced-A, he barely dominated hitters there, his K/9 was only 7.04, which translate to an MLE of only 5.6.
However, if he can still keep his BB/9 under 2.0, that 5.6 would be more than enough to give him a nice major league career, maybe even make it to his arbitration years.