Pirates Call Up Jeff Locke & Jared Hughes

The minor league affiliates wrapped up their seasons today, so we figured we would see some players called up from AAA as the rosters have already expanded. What we didn't expect however, was to see Jeff Locke and Jared Hughes. However, that's exactly what we saw.

Locke has been one of the only bright spots pitching wise for the Pirates in 2011. In 27 games and 148.1 innings, Locke put up a 3.70 ERA with 3.2 BB/9 and 8.1 K/9. That was split between AA and AAA. In Altoona, Locke pitch 125 innings with a 4.03 ERA and 8.2 K/9 with 3.3 BB/9. He was better in AAA surprisingly, posting a 1.93 ERA in 23.1 innings (4 starts) while striking out 7.3 per nine and walking 2.7 per nine.

He's got some good stuff, but I'm not sure he's major league ready yet. 23.1 innings in AAA is rarely enough for a pitcher to be prepared for the big leagues, but this is a low-pressure situation and I'm sure the Pirates just wanted to get Locke some more innings before the offseason starts.

Jared Hughes is a similar story. He doesn't have the prospect status that Locke does, but his 2011 has been good. He too has split time between AA and AAA. He threw 61.2 innings in Altoona with a 4.09 ERA, 2.6 BB/9 and 4.8 K/9 before being promoted to AAA where he too improved. He was pushed into a bullpen role at AAA but made 35 appearances and pitched 42.2 innings. His ERA there was a very tidy 2.11, and his strikeouts went way up with the shorter outings as his K/9 elevated to 9.5 while he walked 3.8 per nine. The bullpen move seemed to be a good one for Hughes, and he should get some innings in the majors out of the pen.

I don't know what they're going to do with Locke, my guess it that he'll get a couple starts and not work out of the bullpen, but I have been wrong before.

Either way, this makes the rest of the 2011 season much more interesting, and you should keep a close eye on these two players.

More moves may be announced later tonight or tomorrow. Keep an eye out for that.