Rudy Owens' Tough 2011

In 2009, Pirates prospect Rudy Owens threw 124 innings combined with West Virginia and Lynchburg (both A affiliates) and compiled a 2.10 ERA while compiling an 8.2 K/BB ratio. That season kind of came out of nowhere, but Pirates fans were pleasantly surprised to see him nearly replicate that success again in 2010. In 26 starts with Altoona, Owens posted a 2.46 ERA with another sparkling K/BB ratio of 5.74; those numbers put him in the discussion to compete for a starting job in the major league rotation at some point during this 2011 season. However, what we have seen from Owens this year has been thoroughly discouraging.

Rudy has played the entire season at AAA Indianapolis, and has made 21 starts. He has thrown 112.1 innings in those starts and has an ugly ERA of 5.05. His normally sterling K/BB ratio has diminished down to 2.22 (71 K, 32 BB). His career average K/9 is 7.3, and it sits at 5.7 this year. His average BB/9 is 1.8, and that's at 2.6 right now.

Owens seems to be suffering from a bit of bad luck, with a 4.11 FIP (adjusted ERA based on only what the pitcher can control) and a .317 BABIP, but those numbers still don't take away the fact that he has struggled a lot this year and really doesn't look like a major-league caliber pitcher anymore.

He has had some injury issues this year, he was just up in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago getting his shoulder looked at, but the report was that there was no structural damage and he would be fine. His last start was August 5th, so he's missed some significant time. The minor league season is wrapping up soon, so I wouldn't expect to see Owens pitch again. The Pirates might choose to get him involved in some winter ball, but I'm not entirely sure what they are thinking on that issue.

At the young age of 23, there's no reason to write Owens off and say he'll never be a major league pitcher, but he's fallen quite a ways from where we thought he was a year ago.