Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Wouldn’t it be great if at the start of every season a team could just expect one of their young pitchers to take a starting role and having a nice coming out party? The Pittsburgh Pirates are the lucky winners this season as they watch one of their young pitching prospects begin to come into his own on the mound. Jeff Locke is not having the best statistical season of everyone in Major League Baseball but he makes sure to leave an impact in just about every game he enters.
I would almost say it has been feast or famine for Locke early this season but it really hasn’t. He has pitched well enough to win in almost every start all year long. Generally he has either had shut down stuff or the kind of stuff where he battles for 5 or 6 innings and still only gives up 3 or 4 runs when he had the stuff that day to give up 8 or 9. Those are the moments that turn a young pitching prospect into a major league pitcher and you can see the maturity right there on the mound when he takes the hill.
Tonight Locke will comes against the New York Mets in a game that could be really good for him. The Mets are having a little bit of trouble scoring runs for the past several games and Locke is just the guy to help them keep struggling. The future looks bright for the Pirates because of a couple of dynamite young prospects in the minor leagues. Don’t overlook Locke as part of the crew that will learn a lot from A.J. Burnett over the next couple of years. He is just as big of a reason for the optimism in Pirates fans as anyone else.
David Miller is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google+.
