Indy Report: Ledbetter is the King of Ks
Sometimes the Independent Leagues are just tailor made for certain players who had quickly flamed out in organized ball. Such seems to have been the case for one-time Cardinal draft pick RHP Aaron Ledbetter.
Drafted by St. Louis in the 24th round in 2001, Ledbetter spent two awful seasons at Rookie Level Johnson City, going 3-11 with a sky high ERA that would have made a pre-humidor Rockies’ hurler blush.
The following year, at the age of 22, he wound up in River City of the Frontier League and he’s never looked back.
In fact, earlier this month, Ledbetter became the league’s all-time strikeout king, passing the immortal Matt Schweitzer’s Frontier mark of 434 career Ks.
You can add the K mark to an impressive list of Frontier League records Ledbetter already owned, including most career wins, innings pitched, starts and a share of the mark of complete games.
He’s made the last three all-star games, and last year, based on his sick season (14-2, 2.71, 103 Ks in 129 2/3 IP), won the Brian Tollberg Award as the Most Valuable Pitcher (by the way, how bizarre is it that a pitcher who went on to win 15 major league games is the standard that all Frontier League hurlers strive to match?).
Ledbetter has accomplished all of this before the age of 27 (which he’ll reach this coming weekend). So here’s a question for you: is there a major league organization paying attention to what Ledbetter has been doing the past few years? Would someone give this still quite young hurler an opportunity to be the next Brian Tollberg?
[...] this week, we speculated on whether the exploits of Indy League pitcher Aaron Ledbetter would be enough to garner him attention from a major league [...]
Obviously Ledbetter doesn’t have what the scouts are looking for. He was putting up those numbers against younger, inexperienced players. He went to spring training in the Atlantic League in ‘07 and didn’t stick there. Other Frontier League players went on to different leagues, against better competition while he didn’t. His ‘08 numbers aren’t very good at all either. He found himself a place where he could be successful but that is the only place he would have that type of success or a MLB team would have definitely scooped him up (especially with his size).
Perhaps that’s true, John, but in the endless search to unearth talent, I figured what this relative youngster was doing merited mention. Stranger things have happened, right?
If he really had the desire to get picked up, he would have went somewhere more competitive 2 years ago. What is the point of going back to a place where you know the competition compares to Rookie ball? Scouts aren’t going to be impressed when half the roster he is pitching against is fresh out of HS. Some people like to be a big fish in a small pond. If he had left and went to the Northern or Atlantic League, and put up numbers anywhere in the range he was in the Frontier league, he would have gotten more recognition.
So why hasn’t he been recruited by a more prominent Indy league? Surely they must be taking note of his accomplishments.
He may have had other opportunities in other leagues. I know that in ‘07 he did go to spring training with the Newark Bears but they did not keep him. He could have gotten other offers but just chose to stay in the FL. If that is the case, then that is his bad. If he would have put up similar numbers somewhere else, Major League organizations would have respected it a lot more. Look at some of the older guys that have been picked up in the past. Jason Shelley had very high strikeout numbers in 2003 when the Brewers signed him and Scott Patterson (not signed while in the Frontier League but less than a season after he left) had 41 K’s in 27 innings in his brief time with Gateway in ‘05. Ledbetter wasn’t putting up those kind of strikeout numbers and at 26 years old, he has to show that he is capable of pitching in AA. If you are pitching to contact in the Frontier League, how do you think that player will fare in AA against much better, stronger, competition? Now the routine groundballs and flyballs are singles and HR’s. No doubt he found a home in the Frontier League but to say he should be with a MLB organization is really stretching it.
No one said he should be in organized ball, but rather I’m curious what he would do if given the opportunity. But from the sounds of it, he’s not very condusive to even get that chance, never mind grab it and run with it.