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On Monday, the Tampa Bay Rays placed Wade Davis as well as Jeff Niemann on the Disabled List. Usually losing two starting pitchers, one of them being your second-best starter, in a pennant race is the end of that team’s season. But, never fear, Hellboy is here!

Jeremy “Hellboy” Hellickson was brought up along with Mike Ekstrom when Niemann and Davis were placed on the DL. And, in his second career start, he shined once again. Hellickson defeated the Tigers, allowing just three hits and zero runs while striking out seven over seven innings. Hellickson made a spot start earlier this month to give the rest of the starters an extra day of rest. He pitched seven innings against the Twins on August second, giving up just two earned runs.

This is just the beginning of yet another great young pitcher that the Rays have. Hellickson has long been a coveted prospect, and was the Rays’ biggest pitching prospect after David Price was promoted to the major leagues in the 2008 season. He was named the 18th best prospect in baseball by Baseball America for the 2010 season, and second in the Rays organization, behind only Desmond Jennings.

The Rays drafted Hellickson in the fourth round of the 2005 MLB first year player draft. Since then, Hellickson has made his way to “the show” mainly through his command, which is different than most prospects in today’s game. In the 14 innings he has pitched in the majors this year, he has walked just two batters while striking out 13. During his minor league career, Hellickson, in 573.2 innings, walked only 135 batters while striking out an amazing 630. That means he struck out 4 2/3 batters for each one that he walked. There aren’t too many guys who can say that that are 23.

Sure, the talks of Hellickson being a future star in this league are premature. But honestly, who would you take? The guy who just throws it 97 miles per hour each time and hopes that it’s a strike, or the guy who walks a guy just about every four innings, while still striking out one an inning? I’ll take the latter in Hellboy.

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