Impressed with the early-career debuts of Red Sox top prospect Clay Buccholz and Yankees top prospect Ian Kennedy? New Rangers call-up Edinson Volquez may trump both of them.
Volquez has been bustling between the minors and the majors for a couple years. The Rangers have considered him a top prospect because of his upper-90s mph fastball, but he has had problems developing an out-pitch and keeping his confidence up in the majors. The Rangers moved him all the way down to High-A to start the season, and he posted a horrific 7.14 ERA in seven starts. Then he woke up.
Volquez posted an ERA near 3.00 upon his call-up to Double-A, before getting back to Double-A. There he posted a 1.41 ERA in eight starts, forcing his way back to Texas.
Rangers GM Jon Daniels has received his share of criticism since taking over in Texas, and much of it is warranted after receiving very little in return after trading Alfonso Soriano, Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez. Still, he deserves plenty of credit for his handling of Volquez this season. The 24-year-old Volquez had one of the best major-league starts of his career upon his September call-up, and he is beginning to look like a formidable front of the rotation starter again.
Volquez had well over a strikeout per inning at both Double-A and Triple-A this season, and he didn’t allow a home run in more than 50 innings at Triple-A. That statistic is particularly important in a small ballpark like Arlington.
Keep a close eye on Volquez for the rest of the season. He is not receiving the press that he deserves because of his team and smaller market baseball region, but Volquez could be a nice immediate buy in AL-only leagues and huge sleeper going into 2008.
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