Though recently-extended Rockies slugger Charlie Blackmon is a star outfielder, he spent his early career trying to make it as a pitcher. Kyle Newman of the Denver Post details Blackmon’s story, beginning with his high school tenure in Atlanta. After struggling to gain any significant attention early on, Blackmon began experiencing arm troubles in his junior year at Georgia Tech. The following season, however, saw him excel as a hitter en route to being drafted by the Rockies. He’s now set to earn nine figures throughout the course of his MLB career. There are some insightful quotes and tidbits in Newman’s article, including this quote from manager Walt Weiss: “I didn’t foresee the power — he’s made some adjustments, and there’s lightning in the bat now because his power numbers are pretty amazing considering the type of player he was when he broke in.”
More from around the National League…
- The Cardinals have a pair of players set to return soon in Jedd Gyorko and Luke Gregerson, as Joe Trezza of MLB.com reminds us. In fact, both could come off the DL as early as this coming week. Trezza adds that Gyorko’s situation will complicate the infield alignment in St. Louis, as he could sap some playing time from either Kolten Wong or Matt Carpenter (both of whom are currently ice cold at the plate). Gregerson has thrown four scoreless rehab appearances; he began the season on the DL with a hamstring strain.
- Tyler Glasnow’s first season in relief has yielded good results so far for the Pirates, writes Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The fireballing righty has allowed just a run across six innings in his first three appearances, in part due to an increase in his spin rate. Brink notes that he’s averaged 2,859 revolutions per minute on his curveball, a mark that’s presently 12th in all of MLB. Glasnow’s also increased his average fastball velocity to 96 MPH. “He’s a little bit more free at ease out there on the mound and being himself,” said Ray Searage, renowned pitching coach for the Pirates. “When you have confidence in yourself and try to execute at the best of your ability, you’re going to be more free and easy.”
- Jeremy Hellickson will officially start for the Nationals tomorrow, Dan Kolko of MASN reports on Twitter. That falls in line with earlier reports that suggested the possibility. Nats fans are surely glad to see anyone but A.J. Cole, who sports a 12.00 ERA through two starts so far this season. There’s a $2MM salary to gain for Hellickson if he sticks in the rotation, as the terms of his minors pact with the club dictate.
Glasnow and “good results” do not belong in the same sentence
He actually was impressive through his first three outings, as the piece states. He was just annihilated in his fourth.
Just my opinion, but I think Glasgow was tipping his pitches in that outing.
At least carpenter still draws walks and works counts. Wong has been completely useless this season.
Carpenter is a 3 hitter though, arguably doing less than wong since he needs to produce more. Wong is almost always an 8th place hitter, most the time he can’t do damage.
Wong also was equally as useless at this point last season, finished 110 in wRC+.
Making an argument that carpenter has done worse strictly for lineup placement isn’t much of an argument. Drop carpenter to 8th then. Anyway you slice it he’s been significantly better. I expect both Wong and carp to improve. Thats the only way to go from here.
jbig I feel the same way about Wong. I think Wong should be benched until he proves he can earn it back.
How do you prove or earn anything, sitting on the bench?
With your can-do attitude!
Doing the numbers on the Glasnow rotation. It takes .40 seconds for a pitch to get to the plate on average. 150 pitches per one minute of time. That means he averages 19 rotations of the ball per .40 seconds. That’s ridiculous
You look up at the NL East and Central and you see two overachieving teams in the Mets and Pirates that are in first. Must not look scary for the teams below them.
Mets aren’t overachieving, they’re healthy
^^ I wholeheartedly agree with you here. The only area the Mets lack on paper is a star-studded lineup but they actually have some overlooked bats there. Love seeing them excel
Same can be said about the Pirates, as they were missing Gregory Polanco, Starling Marte, Francisco Cervelli, and Josh Harrison for big parts of last season. Plus the addition of Colin Moran and Corey Dickerson have given excellent results. Dickerson is just doing what he always does, no surprise with him.
Plus the whole team is very unified and happy together, and that kind of comraderie can’t be forced on a team, it just has to happen by itself.
There is no doubt that this is a very different Pirates team as opposed to the past couple years, it’s been quite apparent since day 1 of spring training to those of us who follow the team. The national media is always the last to know, especially that ‘espn cubs’ website.
Oops, I forgot to mention they were also without their ace Jamison Taillon for part of last season due to testicular cancer.
Now imagine if they had Gerrit Cole in that rotation. Maybe you can argue he would’ve never done that in Pittsburgh but he’s looked like a serious cy young candidate through his first 3 starts. Moran has been playing very well but Cole is on a different level.
He is also a douche bag and no one misses him.
I’ll take a huge douchebag on my team if he’s posting those kind of #’s.
Gyorko in for Wong, not Carp he is one of the most patient hitters in the game. If Gyorko can repeat last year this lineup has so much potential.
carpenter patiently walks to the plate, strikes out, then cries to the umpire, before patiently walking back to the dugout to sit by wainwright.
Talking about the patience at the plate he has over 100 walks last year . My bad I forgot what patience I was talking about .
Will be interesting to see who the Cardinals send down to make room for Gyorko and Gregerson.
Doh, just saw it now…..Munoz and Mayers. Too bad there’s no room for a guy like Mayers who has looked pretty good in a very small sample size. May have found his niche in the bullpen.
He had been pretty bad leading up to this year. Also his success was vs the Reds .
Yes he looked horrible as a starter last year including one on ESPN against the Dodgers where he gave up like 9 earned runs in the first inning. He has looked much better working out of the bullpen this spring including gaining some velocity. I don’t think the Cardinals weakness will be the bullpen this year unless, well, Matheny.
He looked awesome all spring. Cards have the luxury of sending down that would be closing for most teams. They are so deep in the bullpen. If they can continue to hit I look for them to run away and hide in the Central this year.
Uh well Matheny will look like such a better manager of the bullpen this year we he calls on it and they actually do the job they are getting paid to do
does themed perform at 100% everyday at work, even when overworked?