Unpleasant Debut

The Milwaukee Brewers number six prospect according to Baseball America recently received his first big-league call up.

Hype has been surrounding 6'9" Johnny Hellweg since he, Jean Segura and Ariel Pena arrived in Milwaukee in last year's trade that sent Zack Greinke to the Angels.

He has an absolutely electric sinking fastball that sits between 94-98 mph, which can also top 100 mph when needed.  His curveball and changeup are both works in progress.

The problem however, which both scouts and Brewers personnel were aware of when acquiring him was control. Hellweg's K/BB ratio in 76 2/3 innings this season is only 50-44. Slightly discouraging considering the stuff he possesses. After putting up a 0.82 ERA in his previous five starts with the AAA affiliate of the Brewers, the Nashville Sounds, Milwaukee who is completely desperate for starting pitching help decided they will at least see what they have in the kid in a lost season.

In three starts, and one relief appearance he went 0-3 with an ERA almost touching 11. He pitched a total of 10 2/3 innings, allowed 19 hits and 20 runs (13 earned). His K/BB ratio was 3/13 and opponents hit .365 against him.

But, throughout all of the struggles Milwaukee did learn something in the small sample size about their 24-year-old. He can get right handed hitters out. Lefties were the problem. Righties against Hellweg went 5-26 (.192 BA), while lefties hit 14-26 (.538 BA) and walked 10 times.

The results are obviously not what the Brewers wanted to see, but he was clearly not major league ready at the time of his call up. He still needs to sharpen his off speed stuff and learn to get ahead of batters. That 100 mph fastball is powerful enough to get people out in AAA, but big league hitters won't miss it in predictable counts.

The Brewers sent Hellweg back down to the minors Wednesday, so he could get another start in before the All-Star break.

With the way the Brewers are going in 2013, expect to see Hellweg back in uniform in the near future. All we could do is hope for better results.