Article on Townsend

[deerayfan072]

From BP

Wade Townsend, RHP, Low-A Columbus (Devil Rays)

If things had worked out a little differently, Townsend would like be in the same position of his Rice teammates Philip Humber and Jeff Niemann–-pitching in Triple-A and on the verge of a big league job. Instead, after not signing with Baltimore as the eighth overall pick in 2004, getting picked there again by Tampa Bay the following year, and missing all of 2006 recovering Tommy John surgery (hey, he did go to Rice), Townsend is still three levels below his former college rotation partners. The good news is that he's pitching well–-striking out a career-high nine over six innings on Saturday to lower his ERA to 2.37 in four starts, with an impressive 25/7 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 19 innings. The velocity of Townsend's fastball continues to improve, as he's touched 93 in the early part of the season, but his best pitch remains a hard-breaking curve. As if the Devil Rays needed more prospects...

[jlm53089]

i love reading articles like this...
now if we could just bring all that talent to a whole.

[deerayfan072]

He could be a good RP for the Rays in the future if he can stay healthy

[deerayfan072]

19 IP 13H 5 ER 7 BB 25 K 2.37 ERA

[deerayfan072]

Townsend is sidelined with "right arm fatigue"

[raiders_umpire]

Townsend is sidelined with "right arm fatigue"

Hopefully it is just fatigued. I still hate that draft in 05. That was one of the most loaded drafts in the last 10 years, and we use our top pick on a guy that had not pitched in a year. I remember hearing the rumors the few weeks before that we were eyeballing Townsend, and it about made me sick. If we had picked him the year before, it would not have bothered me as he is very talented, but I just hated the fact that he had been out a year, and we picked him over some great offensive talent such as Maybin, Bruce, and or McCutcheon. That was also the year our 3rd round pick was Bryan Morris who was our draft and follow, but we could not come to a deal due to him having such a super 06 season in college. We even had him signed in August of 05 before the idiot owner(I refuse to say his name ever again) backed out.