Baseball America | Blog | Baseball America Prospects Blog | HWB Dish: Brackman’s Struggles Continue

Honolulu 4, Waikiki 0

Yankees 2007 first-round pick Andrew Brackman’s return from Tommy John Surgery continued on Thursday. The Waikiki righthander’s struggles continued as well against Honolulu in a 4-0 loss for the BeachBoys. Brackman lasted only 3 1/3 innings, allowing one run and two hits, walking four and striking out four. Brackman now has a 5.91 ERA through three starts in the Hawaii Winter Baseball league. Brackman’s counterpart on the mound was Japanese righthander Satoshi Nagai (Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles), who tossed five scorless innings to pick up his third victory of the season. Nagai lowered his ERA to 0.64 with the strong outing and struck out six to give him 15 strikeouts in just 14 innings of winter ball. Offense was scarce in a game that featured six walks, three wild pitches, and two errors for the BeachBoys, which led to all of the Sharks scoring. Sharks catcher Tony Cruz (Cardinals) had the biggest night of any hitter going 1-for-2 with a walk and scoring two runs.

North Shore 5, West Oahu 4

Red Sox outfielder Ryan Kalish hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to lead North Shore over West Oahu 5-4. Kalish finished the game 3-for-5 with the home run and four RBIs. The twenty-year old Kalish hit .273/.365/.363 with five homers and 46 RBIs during the regular season between low Class A Greenville and high Class A Lancaster. Kalish was not the only hot hitter for the Honu. Royals third baseman Kyle Martin had another big game and took over the HWB home run lead with a solo shot in the fifth. Martin went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a double, finishing a triple short of the cycle. All of the Honu’s runs came off the West Oahu bullpen. CaneFires righthander Timothy Bascom (Orioles) went four scoreless and struck out six in a no decision. The CaneFires’ offense was led by second baseman Mark Hallberg’s (Diamondbacks) solo homer in the fifth. Marlins centerfielder Gregory Burns added a 3-for-4 night with a triple for West Oahu in the loss.

Were you able to come across any radar readings on Brackman in his first three professional outings since returning from TJ surgery? I heard he was already hitting 98mph on the gun during instructs and I think Jim Callis said Brackman is already back to his “old” velo, though the command is the last element to return to TJ surgery recoverees.

Thanks for all the info and keep up the great work

Posted by Jay Gatsby | October 10, 2008 at 1:03 pm | Shortcut

Why is’t the Astro players playing more often ? Are that bad ? I thought they were there to get some game time experience –They cann’t get experience sitting on the bench–. john brown

Posted by John Brown | October 10, 2008 at 4:02 pm | Shortcut

Your headline and opening paragraph on Brackman continuing to struggle was oh so close other than it was completely wrong! In Brackman’s previous start he pitched 5 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits and a walk while striking out 5. That means that in his last two starts he has allowed 1 run on 5 hits, walked 5 and struck out 9 in 8.3 IPs for a 1.08 ERA in his last two starts. That is continuing to struggle? Did you look at anything but his 5.91 ERA and his most recent pitching line before you began to write?

It seems much more accurate to write that after being rusty and amped up in his first start ( 6 ER on 7 hits and 2 BB in 2.3) Brackman has begun to show the stuff that had the Yankees pick him in the first round, allowing just 1 ER on 5 H in 8.3 IP while striking out 9 – and then note that he is still a bit wild, not that unusual given it is just his third start back after TJ Surgery and these are his first three starts as a professional.

Posted by jeff Wildfogel | October 11, 2008 at 3:36 am | Shortcut