'Under the Radar' NL Minor League Pitching Performance of the Week (August 17 - August 23)

posted 8/24/11 2:11 PM PST
by Jim Brown

*MLBDepthCharts.com considers any player not on a team's 40-man roster, in AAA, or ranked as a top 10 prospect by Baseball America or top 11 prospect by Baseball Prospectus before the 2010 season as an 'under the radar' player.

Under the Radar Minor League NL Pitching Performance of the Week
RHP Andrew Robinson, Hi-A Lancaster (HOU) 

season stats: 6.21 ERA, 116 IP, 152 H, 32 BB, 76 K in 24 appearances, 18 starts (HiA/AA)
August 17-August 23: 6.1 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 12 K in 1 start

The earth shook yesterday in my corner of the U.S. as we felt the tremors from the quake that reverberated from somewhere in rural Virginia. It shook again last night as the gritty and gutsy kids from neighboring Clinton County (Keystone Little League) pulled off a big win to advance to the U.S semi-final in Williamsport. All this shaking has caused me to go against the grain when making my selection this week. While Robinson's overall stats for the season have a lot to be desired, his performance this week could not be ignored. Last year's 12th Round pick out of Georgia Tech struck out a career-high 12 batters over 6.1 scoreless innings while allowing only three hits and no walks. He had already surrendered 80 earned runs in 116 innings pitched which makes his performance even that much more spectacular.

Used mostly out of the bullpen while in college with the Yellow Jackets, the right-hander was given the opportunity to take the ball every 5th day late in the 2010 season with short-season Tri-City. The Georgia native finished the season strong, going 3-3 with a 2.66 ERA and a 3:1 K/BB rate over 37.2 IP. This success may have been the catalyst of his downfall during the 2011 campaign, as the Astros decided to have Robinson skip Lo-A Lexington and start with Hi-A Lancaster. The advanced hitters in the California League weren’t kind to the 23 year-old as he allowed runs over 27 innings. In what should have been a move back to the Lancaster bullpen, Robinson was promoted to AA Corpus Christi in mid-May. After two relief appearances there, he was shipped back to Lancaster to work in relief. He was inserted back into the rotation on June 10th and had moderate success until things became unglued on August 11th when he allowed 9 ER and 9 hits in just 1.2 innings. After returning from a brief stint on the disabled list, Robinson shook the California League with his Jeckle/Hyde performance on Saturday night. 

Relief Pitcher of the Week 
RHP Cody Martin, LoA Rome (ATL): 0.98 ERA, 27.2 IP, 17 H, 4 BB, 40 K, 8 Sv in 20 appearances (LoA/Rk); 5.1 IP, ER, H, BB, 6 K, 2 Sv in 3 appearances over the past week

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UTR Minor League NL Hitting Performance of the Week 
Under the Radar 2011 Archive