Saturday, May 07, 2011

Prospect Debut: Julio Teheran

One day after Eric Hosmer debuted with the Royals, the Atlanta Braves have called up #5 prospect Julio Teheran (minor league numbers). The 20-year old will start tonight's game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Unlike Hosmer, who the Royals hope will take a permanent place in their lineup, Teheran's appearance will be one-and-done. The Braves had a rainout on Tuesday, forcing them to play a double header on Wednesday. Not wanting to use Tommy Hanson or Tim Hudson on short rest this early in the season, the Braves will turn to Teheran for the spot start, and will return him to the minors after the game no matter the outcome.

Teheran has pitched excellently for Gwinnett, but as Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus points out here, it's really sort of by chance that Teheran is getting the nod, since today is his normal turn in the rotation. If the schedule had fallen differently, it is possible that Mike Minor or Rodrigo Lopez, both who have also pitched quite well, would have gotten the start.

I've not yet seen Teheran pitch, so I can only go off of the glowing scouting reports.

On a personal note, Teheran will be the first major leaguer to debut who is younger than my little brother. So this makes me feel sort of old.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What did you think of Teheran's pitching on Saturday?

James Dunne said...

I wasn't able to watch, unfortunately. His stats for the game weren't so hot, but the Phillies are a tough team to debut against.

Back in the minors, he pitched 7+ strong innings last night in Pawtucket.

Anonymous said...

Wow, it's crazy how fast they move them between the minor and major leagues.