Sept. 7: Hultzen’s contract has officially been selected. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, the Cubs have designated Taylor Davis for assignment.
Sept. 6: It has been a long and winding road for former first-round draft pick Danny Hultzen, but the path will finally pass through the majors. The Cubs southpaw has received his first MLB promotion, according to Brett Taylor of Bleacher Nation (via Twitter).
Hultzen, 29, was the second overall pick of the 2011 draft after excelling at the University of Virginia. He was seemingly breezing through the Mariners farm system when a spiraling series of injuries completely derailed his career.
It seemed like a longshot that Hultzen would be able to get back to functioning on the mound, let alone thriving. But he has opened eyes in 14 1/3 innings this year at Triple-A, allowing just two earned runs on a paltry four hits while racking up 23 strikeouts against nine walks.
Calling up Hultzen will require the Cubs to clear a place on the 40-man roster. The corresponding move isn’t yet known.
Good for Danny. It surely has been a long, windy road. Hope this the start of a nice MLB run for him.
Way to stick to it, great perseverance.
He’s been pretty awesome in the hitter friendly PCL this year.
He’s actually pitching again? Good luck, could become the next Brandon Morrow.
He would probably love to make over 50 million in his career playing baseball. But way to take a shot at someone injured
#trollLife
This guy isn’t taking any shots on Hultzen. You should stop being so defensive about everything and actually start understanding things.
I think he’s just saying that Morrow, who had his career as a starter derailed by injuries, was eventually able to excel in a relief role and finally stay on the field, at least for a little while.
As a Cub fan I hate the Morrow contract and the fact that Theo was crazy enough to count on him to be a closer, but good for Morrow finally having success as a MLB pitcher after a lifetime of work, and for earning enough money to take care of his family for the rest of their lives.
Hultzen could do the same w some luck and if his arm can hold up. He could finally live the dream he’s been working towards his whole life. Good luck, Danny, we could use a decent LH RP.
Jealous much? Bet you wish you could have a tenth of the drive of his. The kid has been through a lot and that’s the crap you throw out there?
Morrow turned his career around after being injured in the Mariners system, he’s not taking any shots at Hultzen.
Calm down, it’s not that serious.
This is awesome! Good for him!
Wow! Really shows how much of a crapshoot the draft is. Good for Danny working hard to get to the Show
Talk about never giving up. It’s always good to hear about guys like this.
incredibly welll deserved. this kid’s a competitor.
As a Mariner fan, this is long overdue. Congrats to Danny and best of luck to him, dude has some grit.
I remember when he was drafted, way to hang. Too late for jack z, but go Danny!
Glad to see him get the opportunity most would have walked away and nobody would have blamed him. Hope he has a long injury free career to look forward to. Pulling for him
2011 draft was stacked… rendon 3b, lindor ss, baez 2b, Springer rf, bradley jr cf, story lf?, dwight smith 1b, Snell sp, cole sp, bauer sp, nimmo of, Josh bell dh, james McCann c.
You could have a very good team just from that draft.
That’s the year the Ray’s had 10 first round picks.
Dwight Smith is not a first baseman and Trevor Story is not a LF. No clue what you’re going on about.
It says Story as an infielder, and Smith has been a first baseman.
@24TheKid are you dense? Dwight Smith Jr. has never played one single inning at first base in his entire professional career. And the dude’s comment I replied to very clearly says “lf”, which capitalized is LF not IF. Which means left field. Nice try though.
Obviously you didnt notice I made out a potential starting 9. Bell isn’t a dh either. Good lord you people are desperate to find things to whine and cry about.
You people…???
Racist
Even if he was one, I’d put Bell at 1B & C.J. Cron at DH.
The sad thing is that Snell is the only one of those 10 Rays picks that did anything in the bigs. A 10% hit rate on 1st rounders is not very good, but it is especially bad when thy are all in the same draft.
The Rays drafted kind of late. They missed on Bradley, Story, and Bell, maybe Fulmer. There weren’t a ton of difference makers in the area they drafted in.
I think it was 12 or so in the first 2 rounds many of which were compensation picks. Your point is well taken, a very successful draft as far as current talent.
Yes!!!! I want all these top picks from a couple years ago to keep making their debuts
I guess that when you realize that you’re no longer a legit playoff contender you have to do something to grab some headlines. Kudos to the Cubs for bringing up a guy who has no business pitching in the majors, just to get some publicity. It’ll be a real touching moment…until the kid (man?) Gets shelled and realizes the Cubs exploited him just to stay relevant for a few more days
Did you just now with this comment make Jackwagon status, or were you already there?
Lifetime access to the MLB health insurance plan after 1 game. About halfway to qualifying for the lowest level pension by lasting out the season (he will need 43 game days). Even if he just pitches in blowouts like Adzolay did tonight…
I usually dont reply to trolls weasels and Cardinal fans but sometimes you just have to call a jackass out. Expolited by making his major league debut after years of hardships ? The Cubs need publicity ?? Not a legit playoff contender? Go ahead and hate the Cubs if you want but at least have a clue what you are talking about bro.
Gee, I guess you’d better hope he doesn’t do well after that bit if fortune telling. Who put the quarter in you anyway? Dude is a legit good story and he’s out in the work, let’s just give him a chance and wish him well, okay?
You obviously haven’t seen him pitch or his output in the minors. Only reason he hadn’t already been up was due to injury, not his talent.
Come on Giants! Call up Levi Michael and let’s get EVERY 2011 first rounder to the bigs. Man that draft was loaded…
The two choices to kick off the 40-man are Dillon Maples and Taylor Davis. Maples has been consistently horrible in over 20 appearances over three seasons. Davis is an organizational soldier and stretch run insurance. My bet is that Maples gets outrighted, how many more chances are they supposed to give him?
My guess is Rosario. He’s out of options after this season and wasn’t called up this September.
Maples has an option next year. Like you said, Davis will be needed for any catastrophic situations like 2 catchers going down to injury.
Ha, we were both wrong.
I remember when the Mariners’ blogosphere dubbed Hultzen, Paxton, and Taijuan Walker “Cerberus” after the three-headed dog of Greek mythology. They were the Big Three of “Can’t miss” Mariner pitching prospects. Ah, how naive we were.
Very happy for Danny. Could have thrown in the towel numerous times.
I like to see this. Keep grinding, dude.
Good job Danny! A tremendous show of perseverance! I’ll be rooting for him all the way
Baez probably out for the season can be hit. Cubs are done
Yup, you’re probably right and not a complete and total moron
They were holding on by a thread. I’m not trying to be a jerk about it I’m being realistic for you Cub fans. He’s one of their best hitters and their best defensive players. With no closer and all these games left against the division you go ahead and be positive.
He wasn’t doing much lately anyway. cubs were officially done two months ago.
They are done in the division, they still have a shot for the second wild card but even that is dicey. Man cub fans are defensive.
What good is a wild card slot? Especially for this team. They’ll get slaughtered on the road against the Nats. You can watch this team and the cubs have already given up on the season.
You can *tell the cubs have given up on the season. Nick the Stick will keep cranking single HRs to fatten his contract, but no one else looks motivated. Maddon is done as a cub. Epstein should be too, but the Ricketts family is making a killing so he stays.
I met Danny at a uva party way back and drunkenly talked his ear off about pitching, but he was super cool. Very excited to see him finally make it to the bigs.
I will miss Taylor’s angry eyes.
Struck out side
Let’s hope Davis just gets outrighted.