Rockies Year in Review: Eddie Butler

Today, we are featuring Rockies Pitcher Eddie Butler.

Here at Rox Pile, we are starting a player review for each and every player that suited up in a Colorado Rockies uniform this season. This series will be going all the way up until Dec. 16 with player profiles posted every day.

Before the 2015 season Eddie Butler was rated by MLB.com as the 35th overall prospect in baseball. Butler lived up to the bill in spring training, and was supposed to anchor a historically bad and inconsistent pitching staff. Well, things didn’t go to plan. Butler ended up finishing pitching for the Triple-A staff, and frankly didn’t look all that good doing it.

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Things didn’t start off all that bad for the 24 year-old pitcher. Butler finished the month of April (4 starts) with an admirable 3.27 ERA… but then the wheels came off. Butler started a total of 16 games for the big league club, compiling a 3-10 record, a 5.90 ERA and had 42 walks to only 44 strike-outs. By June, the club had sent down their #2 pitching prospect to fine tune some things. Things didn’t get much better however. Butler started another 11 games for the Albuquerque Isotopes, posting a 5.40 ERA, and giving up 71 hits in 63.1 innings pitched.

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Remember the days when you could say that the Rockies finally had some pitching help on the way? Yeah, me too; it looks like those days are over my dear friend. Butler no longer looks shiny and new. That being said, Butler is still only 24 years old. That means that there is hope that he can right the ship with the right guidance. Consistency and improving his walk to strike out ratio will be vital if a turnaround is to be hoped for. You don’t get rated as a top 50 prospect unless you have the stuff, so we know the talent is there.

Next: Rockies End of Season Awards

The baseball gods were not very kind to Eddie in 2015. Heading into the 2016 campaign, all of Rockies Nation wants to see Butler back in the rotation. So in that end, showcasing improvement in spring training will prove to be huge for Eddie, and for the direction of the Rockies future for that matter.

Overall Grade: D