Not sure what you're askin - what happened to Andrew Baldwin in AA? Nothing. He threw like that in A+ the previous year too. His highest BB/9 is 2.5 at any level. He doesn't give up a lot of HRs, just a lot of hits. Sometimes guys who give up lots of hits but have good control are helped in the bigs by having professional defenders behind them. The errors I've seen committed in the minors are staggeringly bad at times.
But nothing changed between AA and AAA except that his walks went back to "normal." He's still running a 2.5:1 ratio. I'm with Sandy on the 7:1 sorts of ratios for non-power pitchers as starters - it's not sustainable. It's a good indicator of control in general, but not predictive of future control ratios. You wouldn't expect a 5:1 or 6:1 guy to sudden go to 1.5 to one, but regressing to a still-good 2.5:1 isn't a crime.
Randy Johnson would run 3:1, 4:1, 5:1 ratios once he found his control, but that's because he was striking out 12 guys a a game. walking 2.5-3.5 guys is a perfectly reasonable expectation. Striking out 6 per 9 and walking .85 is not reasonable unless you used to pitch for the Braves.
Not on a consistent basis, not as a starter. As a reliever? Sure, bigger control ratios are possible. It's your specialty, and they don't see you for 3 ABs a start.
But being Brad Radke is hard, even for Brad Radke. His rate fluctuated from 2.5 to 4 K's per BB. You're not gonna get better than that for a soft-tosser unless your name is Greg Maddux, and they don't call strike zones like that any more.
Fister and Baldwin should stick to trying to be Brad Radke, and for that, 7:1 is never on the agenda long-term. Just take the stat as a measure of their control of the zone - as you should for Pineda - and understand that Fister will get forced to the edges of that zone in the Pros - which is why his off-speed stuff is critical for his longevity in the league.
He can't throw mid-90s and watch hitters miss when they know it's gonna be in the zone. Even Felix had trouble doing that.
~G
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