NL Rookie Rush

Jason Michael Barker

A few changes to our month rookie feature this time around, not the least of which is that I've decided to look at the National League before the American League. No real reason for it, other than that it was time for something different.

The other change this month is the name "Rookie Rush." Over the past three years these rookie profiles have been titled everything from "Rookie Roundup" and "Rookie Lookie" to "Did it all for the Rookie" and "Rookies Love Cookies." These things take time, and I'm still working out the kinks.

The Rush begins in Arizona, where Byung-Hyun Kim has returned from the minors after a brief stay at the beginning of August. It wasn't as if he was pitching poorly, but he had gone through a bit of a wild stretch before being sent down. Working as a starter at AAA Tuscon, he allowed just one hit and struck out 13 batters in 8.1 innings, convincing the D-Backs he was ready to return.

Since his August 11 call-up, Kim has allowed nine hits and four runs in 14.2 innings with 21 strikeouts. He has also walked nine in those 14.2 innings, but he's never been a great control pitcher. He's just 21 years old, however, and has plenty of time to cut down his walks on his way to superstar closer status. For now the Diamondbacks will have to settle for having a good reliever who throws very hard. Must be rough.

Dan O'Dowd drastically overhauled the Rockies this off-season, hoping for a division title. Give Colorado credit -- when it was clear the post-season wasn't in the cards this year, they decided to go with a youth movement. You can debate the relative merits of Juan Pierre and Todd Walker, but any movement that includes Ben Petrick gets high marks from me. Some might argue (including yours truly) that Petrick has been ready for a starting job for the last year or so, but the Rockies wanted him to work on his defense and game-calling skills.

Much like Mike Piazza, Petrick's bat makes defense and game-calling largely irrelevant. He hit .312/.403/.606 in 84 games at AAA last season, and got off to a .315/.390/.536 start this year before his call-up. He draws a good number of walks, and he's even a decent basestealer. He's off to a nice .333/.418/.500 start with the Rockies this season, and should hold down a starting job for the next decade.

San Diego's Adam Eaton continues to lead the way among National League rookie pitchers. He has been roughed up a bit in his last two starts, but prior to that he had run off a string of eight consecutive good starts. He averaged nearly seven innings per start over that span, sporting an ERA of 2.11 and a 4-1 record.

For the season, Eaton has a 3.58 ERA in 113 innings, and his 1.4 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) is solid for a rookie starter. His biggest problem is left-handed batters, who have a .399 on-base and .488 slugging percentage against him this year. The fact that he's dominating half the hitters he's faced (.248/.283 vs. right-handers) is a great sign, though, along with his low walk rate.

Right up there with Eaton is Rich Ankiel, who has a better WHIP (1.35) and strikeout rate than Eaton, along with more wins. Like Eaton, he's done a good job preventing hits, but Ankiel has been hurt by a ton of walks (84 in 149.1 innings), leading to a 3.80 ERA this season.

Re-reading that last number, it sounds like I'm saying that's a bad thing -- it most certainly is not, given how high earned run averages are these days and considering Ankiel is a 21-year old rookie. Considering the success he had in the minors and his obvious talent, he should improve next season once he gets a better handle on the major league strikezone (if that's even possible).

Moving down the standings in the NL Central we arrive in Houston, where the emergence of Mitch Meluskey as a quality catcher and hitter is one of the few things to have gone right this season. After gradually working himself into more and more playing time as the season progressed, Meluskey is now "the man" behind the plate in Houston with fellow backstop Tony Eusebio out for the season with shoulder surgery. Good news for Meluskey fantasy owners, of course.

Neither Eusebio or Meluskey has hit well against left-handed pitching this season, and I doubt AAA veteran Raul Chavez is the answer, either. There's no real reason Meluskey shouldn't be able to hit lefties -- he's a switch hitter and didn't have any problem with them in the minors. His season line -- .299/.400/.517 with a good walk rate -- is great for a catcher not named Piazza, Pudge or Posada.

Perhaps part-time play was the reason Rafael Furcal was so successful early in the season. After being pressed into full time duty in August, when he played 29 games and had over 100 at-bats for the first time in a month, he slumped to .256/.246/.299 after hitting at least .294 each of the four previous months. He also stole only six bases in eleven attempts.

The good news is that his walk rate stayed high, and the only real decline was in his batting average. The other good news is that while it's convenient to draw conclusions from monthly splits, the simple truth is that 117 at-bats is too small a sample to learn anything meaningful. But if Furcal breaks down in the post-season while playing every day, remember you heard it here first.

I'll try to start with the NL East and work west next time, so guys like Furcal and Pat Burrell don't get the proverbial shaft. Moving on to Burrell... egads, man! That's a ton of strikeouts! Project his 116 whiffs in 315 at-bats to 550 at-bats and you're looking at 203 K's. It's not as if he's an impatient hack, because he has shown a good walk rate, with 49 bases on balls in those 315 at-bats.

Power, good walk rate... all that's missing is the batting average, as Burrell is hitting just .244 so far in his time in the majors. That should come with time, though, since he's never had any problem with it before and was a .312 hitter in the minors. There's talk that Burrell will be moving to the outfield next season to make room for Travis Lee's glove at first base, which would make Burrell's bat all the more valuable.

Look for Jason Michael Barker's new book Rookie Lookie Cookie Nookie Roundup in bookstores soon. Then tell him the title's too long at jmb@strikethree.com.