Uber-prospect Jeremy Hellickson will make his big league debut on Monday against the Twins as a starting pitcher ( wait, we thought the Rays were “monitoring his workload“?) Marc Topkin reports that the move is just to give the rotation an extra day of rest. Hellickson may just make one start and then be sent back to Durham.
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Cool?
Very excited to see this even if it is one start and back down.
I really hope HellBoy has a great outing this Monday! Won’t be to dissapointed if he does happen to have a bad start.
Best of luck Jeremy!
I just checked espn when I woke up and looked at the schedule for the week and just about choked on my coffee when I saw they had Hellickson vs. Pavano listed there. Then I was mad that espn knew about it before I did. I should’ve checked here first. But still so exciting!!
If it matters, the Bulls GM Twittered “Congrats to Helly. We will miss you and don’t expect you to be back. Debut on Monday.”
He would know if it was just supposed to be one start and a return to Durham, right?
As someone who has followed and scouted this kid since he was barely 17 I am torn about this.
I am happy that he has made it to the big leagues, and at a pace that he controlled and he felt comfortable with but I also don’t like the idea that if he throws a perfect game (or even just a quality start) that he will nevertheless sent down. That’s not how you should treat a starting pitching prospect (and a good one at that).
@DRR He could be being polite and perhaps if Hellboy does pitch well, he’ll stay. But I can’t imagine Davis moving out of the rotation.
I would assume that, if Helly stays with the Rays, he will be in the pen and not displacing any of the starters.
This kid is a starter. If Maddon decides to do that (or whomever that decision falls to) expect riots.
Then again they might be going the David Price route, since that has worked out well.
That would be my assumption, esp with Balfour out.
PS: JP Ricciardi is an idiot for calling the Rays losers at the trade deadline.
We do not, and did not need a DH. I believe that Maddon and Friedman would have taken care of business and I more than trust both of them (because they still have their jobs) than some moron who was fired from his.
He was the general manager for the Blue Jays from 2001-2009 and he inherited a 3rd place team in the AL East and after his 8 seasons, they finished 4th place (only finishing second once, 4th an 5th a combined 3 times).
I discredit anything this schmuck has to say and throw him into the bin with Buster Olney and Peter Gammons who lack real information that ever follows through.
Maybe you are right, Ben, but don’t you have a little of the “my front office went to the trade deadline and all I got was this stinking t-shirt” let down? Watching the Yankees and even the Red Sox make significant additions and all we could manage was a reliever with an ERA over 8? That plus the injuries to Balfour and Pena adds up to feeling that we are a less competitive team today than we were 48 hours ago,
I agree. Plus it feels sort of like the baseball gods are against us to see our 1B leave a game hurt hours after a deadline when were were not able to pick up Dunn or Berkman who could have filled right in.
Honestly, no I don’t.
The only player in the world that I know of that would have been worthwhile to trade for was Soria of the Royals (especially if we inked him longterm). His name was never on the table, ours at least.
There are several places that I can back this up but I would have been upset had we traded for Dunn, or Berkman, or pretty much any hitter.
I was happy with the way this team was playing before the ASB and before the trade deadline. Sure the injuries are bad, but this team has what it needs.
And consider that we aren’t only trading money, we’re trading players (and ones like Davis, McGee, Hellickson, and Jennings) are not names that I want to see outside this organization.
This team doesn’t need the players.
Congratulations to the Yankees for getting three mediocre players that may help their team win a few games. They got a DH/1B when they have Teixeira and didn’t need him (almost as if they were anticipating us getting Berkman or Dunn).
I am happy with our roster.
Yeah what are you talking about Beth. Where did the Yankees made great additions.
An over the hill hitter with a very slow bat now. A .250 hitter in the NL that will translate to about .220/.230 in the AL East. The Yankees are getting back to what they were doing in the early 2000′s spending money on players that are names but when you look at the numbers they are not good.
Kerry Wood another classic example. His numbers this year are horrible. He has a SO to BB ratio of less than 2. That is terrible, Triple AAA level pitcher. Below 3 is seen as average, above 3 is seen as good. And when you are Cliff Lee you ratio is close to 9. Hahaha!
Might we be seeing the start of a six man rotation?
The Rays really should have brought up Hellickson for his debut against the Yankees. According the to NY Times, the Yankees have done poorly against pitchers making their debuts:
http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/keeping-score-the-unusual-case-of-inexperience-winning-the-day/
Interesting, but I’m glad there’s no chance he gives up #600 to A-Rod.
Helickson should be in the pen not starting after Hickey pretty much costed our season by allowing horseplay with Balfour. Balfour was developing into an anchor of the 7th inning to get to Benny and Raffy. He was the only relief pitcher we could count on as opposed to the chokers Cormier, Wheeler and Choate. This incident involving Hickey could very well cost us the playoffs and the last chance for a very long time at the World Series. Don’t think that Chuck Hernandez or Mike Butcher, the previous pitching coaches, would allow that crap to go on.
You lost me at “costed”
Also please explain how Wheeler, having not lost a game, sporitng a sub-3 ERA, and a .200 opponents batting average gets labeled a “choker”? If you think that EVERY relief pitcher should be on the level of a Soriano/Benoit, you have a lot to learn about baseball.
He’s blown two out of his four save opportunities.
He’s only recorded 6 holds in 12 save situations.
He’s not the greatest guy but he is a good 6-7th inning kind of guy.
“He’s only recorded 6 holds in 12 save situations.”
You do realize that the scorekeeper is only allowed to award one “hold” per game? You make it sound as though failing to be the guy awarded this stat in a multiple reliever situation is always indicative of failure…its not.
“He’s not the greatest guy but he is a good 6-7th inning kind of guy.”
Exactly. To have such a good arm as one of your worst is a blessing, not a curse.
Lets play what ifs….Hellboy is called up to “pitch one game” after Ballfour gets hurt….
What if Shields gets bombed again today, Hellboy pitches a shutout tomorrow…
Why not let Shields be a long reliever…hes good for 3-4 innings,
HELLBOY would be our 5th starter!
Makes perfect sense…so don’t count on it!
Yea! This horseplay stuff is an outrage! How dare they have fun! Keep them in cages until they need to warm up! Cuz no one should ever horseplay or try to have a little fun in their lives, EVER.
Shit happens people. Get over it.
Where the hell is Dan Johnson. He’s killing it at triple A and we let him rot there. It pisses me off.
YESSSSSSSSSS! i have been waiting for this all season. hopefully now my friends will stop scratching their heads and giving me blank stares when i talk about hellboy. (i’m stuck in mass…. halpppppppp).
Finally. Andrew Friedman said on the Rays postgame show Dan Johnson will be brought up soon. And yes before the September call-up. About time. He could be the next Adam Dunn.
Meant pregame show.
Who’ll they drop for him? Kapler?