Pittsburgh Pirates: Luis Escobar Hit Around 2nd Straight Start

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitching prospect Luis Escobar has been roughed up over his last few starts in the minors. This comes after having a solid month long run.

Luis Escobar entered this season as a top 20 prospect for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  He got off to a fast start, quickly proving why he was gaining recognition.  Through his first four starts, he had racked up 41 strikeouts. However, after dominating in those first few starts, Escobar came back down to earth and regressed a bit.  He had back to back starts where he walked seven batters in 3.1 innings and then another five in four innings of work.  Essentially, Escobar proved that he had the ability to be a big-time strikeout pitcher, but like most young power arms, he has control issues.

MLB Pipeline has Luis Escobar as the Pittsburgh Pirates 17th best prospect, though they feel that Escobar might be better suited for the bullpen down the road.  His lack of a third quality pitch, along with command issues, could push him to a relief role.  Still, Escobar should have a legitimate shot at remaining as a starter.  Here is MLB Pipeline’s write-up on Escobar:

"“Escobar has made strides on all those fronts, though forearm strains have limited his ability to take the mound. He’s added a lot of strength and now tops 200 pounds, a far cry from the 155 he weighed when he signed. The right-hander throws what’s best described as “easy gas” that gets up to 95-96 mph consistently, coming from a very quick arm. He shows he can spin an improving breaking ball, but both his curve and his changeup are inconsistent and need to be refined. Escobar can get too amped up on the mound and needs to learn to manage his effort level, with an understanding that his stuff will still be there when he does so.”"

As mentioned earlier, Escobar has had an up and down season.  He will put together a couple of quality starts in, but then he will regress some and toss a couple of inefficient starts.  From July 3rd to August 10th Escobar made seven starts where he never gave up more than two earned runs.  So it seemed that Escobar was starting to find some consistency.  However, his last two starts have been opposite.  On the 16th, he threw 3.1 innings and gave up eight earned runs.  Last night, he was a little better, but still gave up four earned runs in 4.2 innings pitched.  Escobar pitched much better than in his previous result, but still not exactly what you hope to see in a potential top pitching prospect.

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All in all, Luis Escobar has to limit his really bad starts.  Should he be expected to dominate every time he goes out?  No, he is a prospect who is working on things and developing.  However, he does have to become more consitent and limit bad starts to a few runs instead of an ugly number in his box score.