Prospect Watch: Carlos Borbon

Twenty-year-old pitcher Carlos Borbon has had a brief but illustrious and well-publicized professional baseball career. A military brat and native of Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, Borbon is the son of two talented Mexican-American soccer players. Despite the fact that futbol is in his genes, American hardball has always been in his blood. For years he played with athletes twice his age on the air force base fields, firing that signature high fastball past batter after batter. As he matured, he learned from some of the older players on the base how to throw a sweeping curve ball, sort of a slurve, to compliment that heater. 

When he finally went to pitch for the local high school team, he was simply too much for his opponents. Recording 516 strikeouts and racking up an incredible 56-8 record over the course of his career, Carlos considered heading straight for the major league baseball draft after his senior season. However, concerns about the low level of competition in his tiny Texas home town led him to be projected as a later round draft pick, so he headed for tiny Snow College, with an enrollment of only 2800 students.

The Snow Badgers had never seen anything like young Carlos before.  In his first practice with the club, he struck out every returning starter from the previous year's team; indeed, not a single hitter even made contact!  Over the course of his freshman season, Carlos Borbon made 21 starts and appeared in relief six times, compiling a 17-2 record, a 1.92 ERA, and 161 strikeouts.  That performance led him to be taken with the sixteenth overall pick in the Season 8 Draft by the New York Mets; Carlos was still only 19 years old at the time.  

Part of his development at Snow, and what led the Mets to spend such a high pick on him, was Borbon's development of a cut fastball to go along with his fastball-curve ball-change up repertoire.  Thanks to that cutter, Borbon went 8-0 in sixteen Rookie League starts for New York in Season 8, striking out more than one batter per inning.  After starting somewhat slowly at Low-A ball in Season 9, posting a 5.63 ERA in nine starts, Borbon was dealt to the Chicago Prime Movers straight up for Rule 5 Selection 2B Eric Corbin and cash.  

Owner evilleteache has high hopes for Borbon; the front office immediately assigned the young pitcher to the Double-A squad where he has been solid, if not yet special.  However, a 4.11 ERA at that level at only age 20 gives some indication of what kind of talent fans can expect to see on the mound at Wrigley Field in the not too distant future.  In fact, the fan base is already clamoring to see the young phenom take over the rotation spot of veteran starter Hee Martin, whose 6.20 ERA is about what can be expected from a pitcher whose career ERA is 6.14.

The club has shown admirable restraint and patience with the youngster thus far, however.  Double-A pitching coach Jason Reynolds believes that Borbon still has plenty to work on: "Down here, he can just blow these hitters away with his stuff, but at the major league level, he's gonna have to be able to hit his spots.  He can't do that well enough yet."  

Left-handed hitting Jeff Blank a slugging 1B prospect and teammate of Borbon at Double-A, agrees that the kid has even more potential than has been seen: "the righties already have a tough time with his velocity, but I've seen him flash that curve ball and just bend it right in on my hands," said Blank. "If he can do that consistently against left-handed hitters, the guy could be nasty.  I'm talking unhittable."  

With the major league club floundering just below .500 and 10 games back in the Division, such talk is welcome news everywhere within the organization.  "Great," said staff ace Bill Smith, whose unsightly 1.70 WHIP and gaudy 82/46 K/BB ratio are part of the problem creating the need for Borbon. "We're really hurting for guys who can give us quality innings right now." For a staff whose 5.81 ERA is third worst in the NL, Borbon's 30 Ks in 35 innings look like just the ticket. The question now is only how long the club will wait to move Carlos Borbon into a prime spot in Chicago.