Arms Akimbo

Jason Michael Barker

Some things never change, I suppose.

Two teams with poor histories of pitcher development are at it again, needlessly rushing good young arms to the majors for no good reason. Last week the Marlins called A.J. Burnett up from AA to make a single start, and tomorrow Rich Ankiel is scheduled to make his big-league debut for the Cardinals.

A bit of background information: the Marlins are notorious for their handling of Livan Hernandez and Alex Fernandez in 1997 and 1998 (although most of that blame falls squarely on former manager Jim Leyland), while St. Louis has already ruined promising young starters Alan Benes and Matt Morris in the past two years. Again, most of the blame can be placed on Tony LaRussa.

I should also preface this by saying that I'm extremely conservative when it comes to young pitchers. I believe in strict pitch counts, gradually building workloads, and full seasons at each level of the minors, particularly AAA.

I wrote briefly about Burnett in last week's Rookie Roundup, but for those of you who don't know the full story, here goes. Burnett is probably the top prospect in the Marlins' organization, and nearly made the starting rotation out of spring training this season. He had a very good year at low-A ball last year, but having him make the jump from that level to the majors would have been a huge mistake.

Instead, Burnett began the season at AA Portland of the Eastern League. Even that is something of a jump, as there is a big difference between low-A ball and AA. Most players spend at least part of a season in high-A ball, which as you might guess falls somewhere between low-A and AA. Partly due to the higher level of competition, his numbers don't look all that great this season -- 6-11 record, 5.78 ERA, 15 home runs allowed -- and he's playing in a pretty good league for pitchers.

So what did the Marlins do? They called up the 22-year old Burnett to make one start, simply because they needed an extra day to get the rotation back on schedule. Given this same situation, most teams would either call up a veteran roster filler from AAA, or start a pitcher from their bullpen. The Marlins have, among others, Paul Menhart and Kurt Ojala in the minors, not to mention former starter Rafael Medina in their bullpen.

Burnett actually pitched quite well, allowing just one run in 5.2 innings, striking out four and walking two. He was also held to a very reasonable 92 pitches in the start, and earned his first major league win for his effort. After the game, he was shipped back to AA Portland, as promised by the team.

In the end, all this gained the Marlins was one extra win, in a game they might not have won otherwise. Will that one meaningless win be worth if Burnett now has an inflated sense of his own abilities? I've already shown I can pitch in the bigs, he might be thinking, so why am I stuck here in AA?

On the other hand, what if he had pitched poorly? He was already struggling this season, so you have to figure his confidence isn't quite what it could be. Would a shelling in the majors serve to further hurt his confidence, in the sense of "I'll never be able to get hitters out"?

Finally, a bit on Ankiel. I keep reading in various places how the Cardinals have shown such wonderful restraint in waiting so long to call him up, and how they should be commended for doing so. Perhaps I'm missing something, but to me calling up a 19-year old pitcher with only 16 AAA starts isn't showing restraint.

Don't get me wrong -- Ankiel is a tremendous pitcher, and will likely go on to great things in the majors. And although I don't agree with it, I can understand why the Cards promoted him from AA Arkansas to AAA Memphis earlier in the season, as he was dominating the league and probably didn't have anything else to learn. But he wasn't dominating at AAA. He was pitching very well, to be certain, but nowhere close to what he was doing for Arkansas.

If the Cardinals planned to use Ankiel in long relief, breaking him in as the Astros did Scott Elarton, that would be another matter. I don't see that happening, however, as he'll likely be in the starting rotation for the rest of the season, and barring a horrible spring, next season as well.

Keep in mind that he'll only be 20 years of age next season. When was the last time a 20-year old pitcher placed in the starting rotation had a reasonable amount of success in his career? The only name that comes to mind is Doc Gooden, who started with a bang and has since fizzled. I might be missing some players, so let me know if you have any to suggest.

As a baseball fan, I'd certainly like to see Ankiel pitch someday. Here's hoping he doesn't end up like last year's young pitching phenom...remember Kerry Wood?

about the author

Jason Michael Barker blew out his rotator cuff pitching twenty consecutive complete games in his slo-pitch beer league. Let him know that overusing the splitter was a bad idea at jmb@strikethree.com.