In Zach Levine's Minor League Notebook, he catches up with 2009 7th-Round pick Dallas Keuchel.
Keuchel:
“In the SEC, you’re facing lineups that have three, four, five guys that could potentially go in the top five in each draft. Facing those guys in freshman all the way through junior year, you’ve got to make some great pitches with the aluminum bats.”
Manager Tom Lawless:
“To be pitching at this level and make the jump that he’s made and be able to hold his own and doing very well the last month, he’s more confident in his ability to throw his pitches over the plate."
Ricky Bennett:
“We talked about Dallas quite a bit in spring training, and we all felt he was a guy who could move through the system rather quickly."
Keuchel's 3.52 ERA is almost two runs better than the next pitcher with 15+ starts, and only David Burner and Pat Urckfitz have better ERAs than Keuchel. At home, Keuchel is 3-2 with a 4.86 ERA and a 2.84 GB/FB ratio. On the road, he's 1-4 with a 2.36 ERA and a 2.86 GB/FB ratio. After posting a 6.39 ERA/1.78 WHIP in April, he has since lowered those totals to 2.54 ERA/0.99 WHIP.
Here's hoping he's in Corpus by the end of the season.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
