M's young pitchers moving on...

[Providence A's]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...80_mari22.html

PEORIA, Ariz. — Like some kind of stealth pitcher, Clint Nageotte has climbed from the back of the pack into the Mariners' bullpen competition. His perfection in his last two outings is 180 degrees of separation from his last performances with the big-league club when he and Travis Blackley both flopped after being called up from the minors in mid-2004. Blackley, coming off a lost year of arm troubles exposed during his sorry stint in Seattle, showed flashes of his old self this spring, too, before being sent to the minor-league camp last week. But their failure two years ago, especially when no one knew of Blackley's injury, shook the organization so deeply that minor-league instructors second-guessed what they had been doing. It was one thing to rush young pitchers who might not have been ready. But these two had sizzled through the system. There was no suspicion Nageotte, 25, would get toasted to a 7.36 earned-run average and Blackley, 23, to a 10.04 ERA. "Back then, those guys were our 1-2 top prospects, and I think it sent some shockwaves through the entire system when they looked so bad," said Benny Looper, Seattle's vice president for player development. "Those were two guys we all felt would show something, even their first time in the majors."

If you click the link and read the rest of the story, then you'll see that it appears both pitchers have learned from what happened and may still pan out for the M's. This can only be good news for the short-term and for the long-term as it appears they were questioning the whole minor league system (pitching-wise) due to their initial failures.