I wish the kid luck, you definitely cannot say the Astros didn't give this kid EVERY chance in the world.................I hope a change of scenery does the trick, go to some up and coming team where there is ZERO expectations and see what happens
Forrest Whitley could become Cardinals Chris Carpenter a late bloomer. A injury prone pitcher with the Blue Jays became a Control Pitcher and was durable with the Cardinals. Won so many Games in the World Series. Just needs a pitching Coach like the Cardinals or Braves.
Forrest Whitley still has enough talent that a team will more than likely take a flier on him. That being said, its a shame that a young man, once considered the top pitching prospect in baseball, to this point in his career has not lived up to expectations. Hunter Brown is who Forrest Whitley was supposed to become. Aside from the injuries, Whitley put himself squarely in this position with immaturity and lack of work ethic. Being DFA'd definitely has Forrest at a crossroads in his career and I sincerely hope that he is able to make the necessary changes (and get healthy) to live his dream of being a major league ball player --- be that with the Astros (if he makes it through waivers) or with another team. I wish the young man the best.
What is the bust rate of a #17 first round pick? 50%? Stuff happens. Whitley did make to The Show for a cup of coffee. He will always have that.
On the one hand it really sucks to draft a guy in the mid-1st round and then a year later he is the #1 overall pitching prospect in the league and then end up having him pan out as nothing more than an oft-injured AAAA reliever. When he was first in AA his 2 best comps were like Gerrit Cole and Chad Billingsly. But on the other hand, pitching prospects have an incredibly high bust rate, even the best ones, so this outcome really shouldn’t shock anyone. I’m a little surprised Whitley has no trade value. Surely a team like the white Sox or Rockies or Pirates could use him in their bullpen.
Considering we can turn Gusto and JP into more than serviceable MLB pitchers, it's a shame we couldn't do the same for someone with all the talent in the world. It goes to show it's more about work ethic than talent.
We seem to be a pitching factory, along with Cleveland, Tampa, and the doyers and this thick skulled, smooth brain couldnt take the time of day to listen.
He's unfortunately tanked his own value. I'm not saying those teams (or better) wouldn't take a flyer on him as a reclamation project. But he's turning 28 this year, can't seem to stay healthy, and has never been able to contain his walk rate to a reasonable level. The swing and miss stuff is a great start to a pitching career, but it's never come together for him. The last time he threw more than 40 IP was in 2019. I wonder if he'd been able to stay on the field, gotten more reps, if he'd have been able to find his footing better. It's too bad it turned out this way.
I think the single biggest detractor of his value is the fact that he has no options. Contending teams will likely he hesitant to claim him as they can't option him, limiting him to the bottom 1/3-1/2 of the league. Milwaukee would be interesting. But I still think a trade is made before he is even waived, though. If he passes through waivers and can be optioned, I see a team trading more for him, and trying to make him as a starter again.
I don't know what it is about Whitley's fastball but it's the most hittable 95+mph fastball I've seen. He might as well be a human batting cage.
Not surprised since he's the kid didn't really want llisten to the guy that pushed to draft him... Nolan Ryan. Kid missed a great chance early on. Great arm, too big of an ego.
Check article above on people that are like Whitley in some ways. He’s still got a chance to have a real career but the people most like him probably are pretty anonymous
I think it was Richard Justice that told the story. It was discussed that early on Nolan Ryan pushed to draft him. And then at some point in spring training he was called up to pitch with the Major Leaguers. It was said that he didn't really want to listen to Nolan at that time, Strom was turned off by his attitude too. There was another report that they brought in Redding to talk to him since he busted and didn't really want to listen to the vets in his day and basically his response was always he was good doing his own thing. I'm not saying he would have been a Cy Young if he'd listen to all those guys and tried to implement some of the things they were trying to share but everyone knows the Astros are rich in pitching history you think he'd want to tap into that resource. The flip side many other guys have listened and learned plenty. It's baseball plenty of first rounders never made it.
He's a knucklehead. They probably held on to him for too long and should have traded him a whle ago. Good riddance.
He was/is/has been a knucklehead. He wasn't like that before he was drafted, what, 7 years ago? He imploded at about 20 yo at AA when he had his first arm injury ever. It was smooth sailing his whole life until then, and he didn't know how to deal with it. Oh well.
I was sitting there nextish to Nolan watching this kid pitch innings on a couple of occasions. We talked about him every half/inning. There was nothing that wouldn't make you want to draft him in the 1rd, which is what the Stros did. I'm sure the Writer of Wrongs has some better info in the hindsight.
