Before the Angels drafted him last year in the sixth round, righthander Austin Wood mixed flashes of brilliance with a more frequent inability to get college hitters out.

You wouldn't know it from Wood's first two starts in 2012.

Wood, 21, threw five scoreless, no-hit innings tonight for low Class A Cedar Rapids, walked two and struck out five. Through two starts, Wood has allowed one run in 10 innings with 15 strikeouts and three walks.

Despite a fastball that has reached as high as 99 mph, Wood's results have never followed suit. Wood was outstanding in the Cape Cod League in 2010, but he didn't sign with the Rays that summer as a fourth-round pick, and he didn't have much success at any of his college stops, as he bounced from Florida State in 2009 to St. Petersburg (Fla.) JC in 2010 to Southern California last year.

Can the Angels help Wood translate his stuff to better performance? They have done it with Garrett Richards, their supplemental first-rounder in 2009 who had a 6.57 ERA in three years at Oklahoma and is now their No. 3 prospect. It's early, and Wood doesn't yet have a second pitch like Richards does to project on, but so far the results have been both promising and puzzling.