His velocity never grew with him filling out. Now most scouts think he'll just be solid 4/5 innings eater. He's has never been unhittable at any level. If you look at his k/9 and h/9 they are no where near an elite prospects. And even with his good control, he's never been able to crack a sub-1.30 whip at any level with a considerable amount of innings.

His 75 IP in AA is like a 1.15 whip at this point (guesstimating), including him obliterating people tonight. He's coming into his own. He has been young at every level, which is very notable compared to his (and the rest of those young starters) success. Your facts are totally wrong. What scouts say is he is the 40thish best prospect overall in baseball. A 3rd starter, is the lowe (pun intended! And how appropriate he pitched tonight). It is doubtful he will be Webb because he is just flat out amazing, but Volstad could very very easily turn into "Brad Radke without the crazy HR numbers," which is an incredible pitcher. I can't wait for him to come up this summer and be a rock in the rotation for years. This dude ain't Jeremy Sowers.

 

I agree with you in un-quoted sections that Miller has more upside and should be the better pitcher when all is said and done because he has the pure stuff, but Volstad is not a chump. If you want to talk 4/5, let's talk Gaby Hernandez and Aaron Thompson. Let's keep Volstad out of that discussion.

Dude his last full season he gave up 26 more hits than innings pitched. don't get me wrong, a 40th best pitcher in the minor leagues would most likely project into a solid # 3/4 starter. But elite? Maybe elite is relative but I would see elite as Cueto, Miller, McGee, ect. Yes, he was young at all levels, but he hasn't really thrown up any surprising numbers over a long haul that would lead me to believe he will blow anyone away in the majors.

 

Let's not include Cueto in elite prospect talks. Yeah, he is doing pretty well, but he was not considered the elite prospect, that was supposed to be Homer Bailey. The fact that Cueto wasn't considered an elite prospect yet Homer Bailey and Andrew MIller are kind of shows how even top prospect lists are crapshoots.

Alot of people had Cueto as an elite prospect.

Yeah, the only reason he wasn't on most lists last year was because he started the season in Single A ball. But he had a ridiculous minor league season in 2007 which had him move from non-existent on most lists to within the top 50. MiLB had him at 47 after the 2007 season.

His velocity never grew with him filling out. Now most scouts think he'll just be solid 4/5 innings eater. He's has never been unhittable at any level. If you look at his k/9 and h/9 they are no where near an elite prospects. And even with his good control, he's never been able to crack a sub-1.30 whip at any level with a considerable amount of innings.

His 75 IP in AA is like a 1.15 whip at this point (guesstimating), including him obliterating people tonight. He's coming into his own. He has been young at every level, which is very notable compared to his (and the rest of those young starters) success. Your facts are totally wrong. What scouts say is he is the 40thish best prospect overall in baseball. A 3rd starter, is the lowe (pun intended! And how appropriate he pitched tonight). It is doubtful he will be Webb because he is just flat out amazing, but Volstad could very very easily turn into "Brad Radke without the crazy HR numbers," which is an incredible pitcher. I can't wait for him to come up this summer and be a rock in the rotation for years. This dude ain't Jeremy Sowers.

 

I agree with you in un-quoted sections that Miller has more upside and should be the better pitcher when all is said and done because he has the pure stuff, but Volstad is not a chump. If you want to talk 4/5, let's talk Gaby Hernandez and Aaron Thompson. Let's keep Volstad out of that discussion.

Dude his last full season he gave up 26 more hits than innings pitched. don't get me wrong, a 40th best pitcher in the minor leagues would most likely project into a solid # 3/4 starter. But elite? Maybe elite is relative but I would see elite as Cueto, Miller, McGee, ect. Yes, he was young at all levels, but he hasn't really thrown up any surprising numbers over a long haul that would lead me to believe he will blow anyone away in the majors.

 

Let's not include Cueto in elite prospect talks. Yeah, he is doing pretty well, but he was not considered the elite prospect, that was supposed to be Homer Bailey. The fact that Cueto wasn't considered an elite prospect yet Homer Bailey and Andrew MIller are kind of shows how even top prospect lists are crapshoots.

Alot of people had Cueto as an elite prospect.

Yeah, the only reason he wasn't on most lists last year was because he started the season in Single A ball. But he had a ridiculous minor league season in 2007 which had him move from non-existent on most lists to within the top 50. MiLB had him at 47 after the 2007 season.

 

MiLB had Cueto 47 and Volstad 39 so they are both elite prospects. Volstads a year younger

His velocity never grew with him filling out. Now most scouts think he'll just be solid 4/5 innings eater. He's has never been unhittable at any level. If you look at his k/9 and h/9 they are no where near an elite prospects. And even with his good control, he's never been able to crack a sub-1.30 whip at any level with a considerable amount of innings.

His 75 IP in AA is like a 1.15 whip at this point (guesstimating), including him obliterating people tonight. He's coming into his own. He has been young at every level, which is very notable compared to his (and the rest of those young starters) success. Your facts are totally wrong. What scouts say is he is the 40thish best prospect overall in baseball. A 3rd starter, is the lowe (pun intended! And how appropriate he pitched tonight). It is doubtful he will be Webb because he is just flat out amazing, but Volstad could very very easily turn into "Brad Radke without the crazy HR numbers," which is an incredible pitcher. I can't wait for him to come up this summer and be a rock in the rotation for years. This dude ain't Jeremy Sowers.

 

I agree with you in un-quoted sections that Miller has more upside and should be the better pitcher when all is said and done because he has the pure stuff, but Volstad is not a chump. If you want to talk 4/5, let's talk Gaby Hernandez and Aaron Thompson. Let's keep Volstad out of that discussion.

Dude his last full season he gave up 26 more hits than innings pitched. don't get me wrong, a 40th best pitcher in the minor leagues would most likely project into a solid # 3/4 starter. But elite? Maybe elite is relative but I would see elite as Cueto, Miller, McGee, ect. Yes, he was young at all levels, but he hasn't really thrown up any surprising numbers over a long haul that would lead me to believe he will blow anyone away in the majors.

 

Let's not include Cueto in elite prospect talks. Yeah, he is doing pretty well, but he was not considered the elite prospect, that was supposed to be Homer Bailey. The fact that Cueto wasn't considered an elite prospect yet Homer Bailey and Andrew MIller are kind of shows how even top prospect lists are crapshoots.

Alot of people had Cueto as an elite prospect.

Yeah, the only reason he wasn't on most lists last year was because he started the season in Single A ball. But he had a ridiculous minor league season in 2007 which had him move from non-existent on most lists to within the top 50. MiLB had him at 47 after the 2007 season.

 

MiLB had Cueto 47 and Volstad 39 so they are both elite prospects. Volstads a year younger

Cueto has atleast shown dominance consistantly. We extablished prospect lists are crapshoots. Look at the lists of prospects the last few years and see how many fail.

Volstad had a pretty good outing today.

 

7 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 5 K, 0 BB

Volstad has pitched very well since reaching AA, including the late callup last year. If he's still pitching this well or better in a few months, call him up. He'll have nothing left to prove in Carolina, and honestly I'm against sending any of our top pitching prospects to Albuquerque at this point.