Stars of the Day: May 27

Just two games on the ledger as the Midwest and Texas Leauges took the day off to switch dance partners.

Bakersfield and Oklahoma both lost and there wasn't much to write home about in either game, but Eric Hurley (2-4;  5.49) battled his way to a quality start in the Redhawks'  5-2 loss at beautiful Rosenblatt Stadium in sunny south Omaha.   The 2004 first rounder gave up three runs, one earned, on seven hits -- including two more bombs, giving him a league-leading 13 gophers -- and a pair of walks in six. 

Given that there's not much else to tell you about this morning, maybe this is a good time to take a look at where Hurley's season has been and where it's headed.

My enthusiasm for Hurley has always been pretty muted when compared to others who follow the Rangers minor league system and I've been critical of the way that he has failed to develop fully as a starter by leaning too heavily on his lively four-seam fastball as he rose through the system.  

Yeah, he consistently posted excellent ERAs at every stop, but his splits were horribly lopsided and he had a disturbing trend at every stop during his career that saw leagues catch up to him the longer he stayed around (his ERAs by month in Frisco last summer were 1.50 in April,  3.46 in May and 5.49 in June -- pretty standard for Hurley).   This, to me, signaled a problem in that a league's hitters consistently adjusted to Hurley rather than the other way around. 

By the time he left Frisco for Oklahoma last summer,  he was still hanging about half of his sliders and even my daughter Erin was able to see his changeup coming before he threw it because he telegraphed it so vividly by changing his arm speed and angle.   I didn't like it that he was leaving double-A with only one quality pitch he could go to reliably for strikes.

As I've often said,  I admire Hurley enormously for his tenacity and I have long suspected that he's one of those guys who has to learn the hard way.   Hitters never really made Hurley learn how to pitch because he enjoyed so much success coming at them with almost nothing but fastballs for so long. 

Well, the PCL is making Hurley learn.  In 133.2 Triple-A innings to date, Hurley has surrendered a ******** 26 homers, including the two yesterday.

This year, lefties are crushing him to the tune of a .306 / .370 / .537 line.    In other words, the average PCL left-handed hitter becomes Adrian Gonzalez when standing in against Hurley this year.

Having said all of that, I do think that Hurley's pride and desire will get him over the hump eventually, but you can't compare him to a guy like Chris Young or John Danks -- or even Doug Mathis --  right now because he came to Oklahoma with such a dramatically different experience in the lower minors than those guys did.  Adjustments most guys make before they get to the PCL, Hurley is having to make now.   Making adjustments is a skill and it's one that Hurley hasn't honed yet, but he's in the process of doing so.

I still suspect that Hurley's future may be in the bullpen where his plus fastball and intensity would seem to play well, and given his propensity for giving up the long ball, I wouldn't be surprised if he joins the armada of pitchers --  Young, Danks, Volquez, Galarraga, Cruceta, Duchsherer, Masset -- that the Rangers have sent packing just before or shortly after reaching the Show.