Gammons

Gammons has another article up today on Insider. This one's on "Future Stars", made up of players that have made their debut this season. Not surprisingly, our very own Mr. Duke makes the list at #5, ahead of guys like Felix Hernandez, Ryan Howard, and Ervin Santana (who pitched a lights out game against the Red Sox on national TV yesterday). This probably means Duke is screwed. Gammons' word on Duke:

To start 6-0, 1.87 ... "If he stays healthy," says one scout, "he'll be a legitimate number one. He had great command, he's tough to pick up and he's poised like he's 30."

The only other Bucco on the list is Ryan Doumit, who clocks in at #20, the last position on the list.

Later on in the article he has more about our plight in Pittsburgh. For what seems like the 5th time in as many years, he tell us there's light at the end of the tunnel because of our pitching. He of course mentions Duke, our prospects of a healthy Perez, Gorzellany, Maholm, Bullington, Burnett, Van Benschoten, Dave Williams, and a "deep bullpen anchored by Mike Gonzalez and Jose Mesa" (his words, not mine). He does an awful lot of Dave Littlefield fluffing though, which I'm not sure if I completely agree with.

When Dave Littlefield took over as GM, he knew the fastest way to rebuild the franchise was with pitching. "But now we're beginning to see position players get here," he says.

Still, I have to admit, that list of pitchers certainly looks promising. As I've said before, our hitters have been bad this year, but with what we've seen from the rookies this year I think that it can be sufficient if our pitching pans out. That's a big if, as I can't really think of a pitching prospect that's made forward progress under McClendon in Pittsburgh (but that's a whole different post). Hope is one thing it's always nice to have though.