The Tomahawk Take Top 20 Atlanta Braves Prospects: 6-10
#9. RHP Jason Hursh
In 2014, I had Jason at #5. This year, I actually had dropped him all the way to #14, though again, that was due to the incredible influx of newly-arriving talent. Baseball America still is very high on him, holding him in their #5 slot.
I got to speak with Jason in late August while he was with the Mississippi Braves. He’s from a small Texas Christian High School, and has a quiet, polite demeanor about him. He also seems to recognize his strengths and his needs. When asked about some of the ups and downs he’d had last season (he has been shelled the day before), his reaction was essentially “well, some days are just like that.”
Jason is now 23, and was drafted in the first round (31st overall) in 2013 out of Oklahoma State. He is already a Tommy John surgery survivor, having been through that while still at Stillwater. At that time, he was touching 100 mph with his fastball, though he seems to have backed that down a bit. Still, a low-mid 90’s fastball with “heavy” sinking action is a solid offering – one that will tend to both keep the infield busy and hold the ball in the park.
The Braves are pushing Jason through the system quite quickly: Rome in 2013 and straight to AA Mississippi in 2014. That leap in levels probably accounts for an uneven run in 2014, though overall he held his own with a 3.58 ERA over 148 innings. His strikeout rates are not what you might expect of a power pitcher (5 per 9 IP), but he is doing that with good control (2.6 BB per 9).
Jason looks the part of a workhorse pitcher as well: at 6’3″ 195 (officially, though I’d add 10 lbs. to that), he’s got the build for a durable starter – and indeed already has the innings’ build-up to get close to a 200-inning workload. The next question is “when”?
That’s the interesting bit for 2015: Jason may end up having to repeat AA for some part of 2015 simply because there’s no few available seats at the table in AAA. Cody Martin, Wandy Rodriguez, Chien-Ming Wang, either Eric Stults or Michael Foltynewicz could all be ahead of Jason in the new pecking order. That would be unfortunate, for AAA is the next logical spot for Hursh. My bet is that they do find a way to get him into Gwinnett.
All that said, the task of keeping pitchers healthy is difficult, and all it would take would be 1 or 2 bouts of arm soreness to get Hursh (and/or his M-Braves stablemate Williams Perez) moved up to Gwinnett.
Projection: Middle of the rotation workhorse
ETA to Majors: Difficult to say, given the new arms in the system. Developmentally, the answer is 2016. Depending on how other pitchers fare, I could see Jason offered in trade for some future need, though I personally hope not: don’t overlook the contribution potential of this strong and steady Texan.