Lyles promoted to Triple-A

So...The Bailiff and/or the Juvenile Court Judge is in some trouble. How he can not post that Jordan Lyles has been promoted to Triple-A after his start last night is totally beyond the rest of us. He might just feel the knife.

Zach Levine's blog:
Lyles pitched five highly taxing innings, giving up two earned runs on seven hits with one walk and three strikeouts, working with a strike zone that was generous for both starting pitchers.

So does this mean that he's in line to come up in September? Levine asked Ed Wade:
"There's always a chance. In a perfect world, we don't have any more need for starting pitching at the big league level. I'd just like to see him go out every fifth day whether it's here or AAA or the big leagues, and just take the same approach."

So, uh. Isn't this something? Coming into last night's game, Lyles has appeared in 61 games, with a 3.35 ERA/1.24 WHIP, averaging 9.7 K/9 innings. This number has decreased from 2009's K/9 in Lexington, when it was 10.4 to 8.3 - but we're talking about a 2.1 K/9 drop after skipping a level, so it's not all that concerning. It's even less concerning when you consider that the Texas League K/9 average is 7.1. Lyles' K:BB ratio this season is 3.29, more than double the Texas League's 1.99 average.

Another thing to take note of is that Lyles is about 17 innings away from matching his 2009 total. Of course, that doesn't tell us the whole story. In 2009, Lyles faced 601 batters, getting 434 of them out. That's 1.38 batters faced per out. In 2010, that ratio is about 1.54. So at the point that he throws the same number of innings as 2009, at this rate we can safely project that he'll face about 84 more batters. And now he's jumping a level. Which is great, right? Should we see him in on the mound in Houston?

How about...no. Let him make his starts for Round Rock, get him to 160 innings, call him up to Houston, let him get flown around the country and experience the Big League Life, spend hours talking to Brad Arnsberg, and sit him right down on the bench until the end of the season.

Agree? Disagree?