Valencia Stars Report: 3rd place 35-55 (.389) #4

[leejay56]

The Stars 2004 rookie draft is over and hopefully if there top pick pans out it could be a good pick...
The Stars drafted SP Brian Middleton with the 3rd overall pick..Middleton 18 years old 6 foot 170 pounds has had a fantasic high school career...For a HS kid his fastball toped out at 99 MPH, which is very rare for someone who is 18 years old....Last season Middleton started 9 games... He went 6-1, In 69.1 innings he had an era of 1.04, and only walked 4 batters all season...Middleton had an amazing 100 K's which holds a record for Pitchers in a season...Middleton averaged almost 13 k's a game....He had 2 games where he had 15 k's and one game back in 2001 where he recorded 17 k's in one game....
In his 4 years pitching Middleton went 20-7, 234 innings pitched he only walked 16 batters and had 329 K's...Middleton mainly had a fastball and changeup but last season added a cutter and made it very hard to hit him...Last year he won the 2003 HSAS BGL Outstanding Pitcher Award. So the Stars are hoping he will end up a ace one day but Middleton has a long way to go....

[mrbornac]

Good luck with him, unless of course you want to trade him to Buffalo! 8)

[leejay56]

haaaa, well not at this time,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,