Left-handed pitching prospect Rudy Owens was expected by many to reach the majors towards the end of the 2011 season. But unfortunately things didn\u2019t work out that way.<\/p>\n
Owens, who was ranked as the Pirates No. 7 prospect by Baseball America prior to the season, struggled in his first year with Triple-A Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old lefty went 9-7 with a 5.05 ERA in 21 starts (112.1 innings). Coming off a solid campaign with Double-A Altoona last season where he posted a 12-6 record with a 2.46 ERA, Owens has learned a lot through the struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was good for me,\u201c Owens said. \u201cI had some ups and downs, kind of gave me something to work off of for next year, kind of work through the failure of what I had for last year, bounce back and get back on my feet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a learning experience, really. Just going through, just seeing what I had to do to succeed. I had some failures and I had to work through it, had to make the adjustment and keep on going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Owens lasted just 2.2 innings and was tagged for five runs on eight hits in his final start this season on August 5th<\/sup> before landing on the disabled list with arm fatigue.<\/p>\n Owens has been pitching\u00a0in the Instructional League in Bradenton Fla., where he\u2019s getting back on track and healthy.<\/p>\n \u201cMy arm is feeling good, it\u2019s getting back into shape,\u201c Owens said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of what I\u2019m here for, to get going again and get ready to go for next season. The arm feels good, it\u2019s almost 100 percent so I\u2019m happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n After instructs, Owens will travel to the Dominican to play winter ball until December. There he will be able to get in more innings and get the opportunity to face some good talent.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really excited about that,\u201c he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great experience for me and it\u2019s going to be good baseball. After that, I\u2019m going to go home and hang out with family for two months, so I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Left-handed pitching prospect Rudy Owens was expected by many to reach the majors towards the end of the 2011 season. But unfortunately things didn\u2019t work out that way. Owens, who was ranked as the Pirates No. 7 prospect by Baseball America prior to the season, struggled in his first year with Triple-A Indianapolis. The 23-year-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1597,695,425,619,1596,986],"class_list":["post-7949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional","tag-indianapolis","tag-indians","tag-pirates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-rudy-owens","tag-triple-a"],"yoast_head":"\n