He’s been one of the ‘go-to’ guys for long relief all year, but when placed in a starting role Nick Haughian has showed his worth. The lefty has stymied Hagerstown over his last two starts and hopes to conclude things on a high note tonight in what may well be his final 2010 outing against Kannapolis.
Over his three-season pro career, the 9th round 2008 pick out of the University of Washington has bounced between starting and relieving roles. For Aberdeen in 2008 he made 9 appearances with one start, but in 2009 all but one of his outings opened the game (including 2 starts at the tail end of the season here.) This year Nick began in the bullpen but moved into the starting rotation on August 8 and has stayed since.
As a whole, Nick has proven to be just effective enough to pile up strikeouts but allows more hits than innings pitched, which suggests that a starting role may work better because it allows him to develop three or more effective pitches – if he can do that the batting average against him should come down (hitters are batting .289 against him for the year) and he can maintain the great ratio of ground outs to fly outs he currently boasts. For every fly out, Nick gets 1.95 ground outs, which is impressive and means that runners getting on base can more easily be erased by double plays.
Looking at the more common stats, the 23-year-old out of Marysville, Washington is 6-3 with a 3.77 ERA in 34 appearances (including the most recent 4 starts.) Haughian (pronounced ‘Hoy-an’) has only allowed 29 walks while famming 84 in 88 1/3 innings this season and is among team leaders with 6 wins – five of those came in relief with the sixth earned in his last start.
One would think Nick may have moved a little faster up the organization given a relatively high draft pick status, but if he can put up good numbers at Frederick next year it would probably align him back to where he is supposed to be. Left-handers who can get guys out are always in demand and Haughian may just have the tools to put himself on the Orioles’ prospect map with a good season in 2011.
