How old is tampa bay rays pitcher hellickson

But its just been weird not waking up early in the morning to go train and throw and not eating as good. It's a new life for Hellickson, who has been playing professional baseball ever since he was selected by Tampa Bay in the fourth round of the MLB Draft.

Hellickson, who pitched for five different teams, compiled a record with a 4. Besides the wins and losses, his resume includes some big accomplishments. In , he was named the American League's Rookie of the Year. A season later, he won a Gold Glove. Then, despite missing most of the with a shoulder injury, Hellickson won a World Series with the Nationals. Hellickson had planned on adding to the resume in He said he heard from probably 25 teams who offered him minor league contracts and offers to come to spring training.

All Hellickson would have to do is come to spring training and prove he was healthy and he'd likely land a spot in a big-league roster. But Hellickson couldn't even do that. During Hellickson's first time throwing off the mound this offseason, he felt the same discomfort in his shoulder that he did last season. He knew something was wrong but kept working out, throwing four or five more bullpen sessions.

Hellickson couldn't even finish the last. It was just really painful. Doctors discovered bone spurs in Hellickson's collarbone. To keep pitching, Hellickson would need surgery. He estimated it would have kept him out all of the season and part of the season. I have that to think about I want to be able to throw batting practice to my kids and play golf and basketball and just mess around with not having to worry about that.

Shortly before spring training, he notified teams that he wouldn't be signing a contract. He would instead be retiring. I'm still doing everyday stuff and it's still bothering and I'm still waking up every morning stiff and sore.

Hellickson came into the season ranked by Baseball America as the Rays No. Going into , he ranked as the magazine's No.

The year old Des Moines, Iowa born and raised right-hander, signed with the Rays in after the team drafted him out of high school in the fourth round. He didn't go sooner scouts mistakenly did not look past his lack of size or a flaming fastball. Listed at 6'1", and pounds, he wasn't exactly the prototypical first round pick.

However, the emergence of Mike Leake seems to have changed the way some teams look at drafting pitchers. In another five years, if a team is still drafting based on raw stuff rather than command, they'll most likely be looked at as old fashioned.

Pitches above the middle have backspin i. The horizontal location on the graph represents if a ball tails towards or away from a hitter. For example, Hellickson's changeup, shown in yellow, tails in towards a right-handed hitter with a good deal of backspin. His curveball, shown in purple, not only drops but tails away from right-handed hitters.

With this much movement on all of his pitches, Hellickson possesses a deadly arsenal. When watching Hellickson's debut against the Minnesota Twins, I had heard rumors of his excellent command.

After his 10 games in the majors, Hellickson had only walked eight hitters. He was throwing strikes and painting the corners of the strike zone. For a young pitcher, throwing being able to consistently hit the corners of the plate is an invaluable asset. Control, after all, usually only gets better with age. Hellickson is already an excellent control pitcher, and that control will only get better.

In the picture shown, Hellickson had just allowed a home run to Oakland's Jack Cust in his start on August 20th. It was Hellickson's roughest start of the year—6. Where many young pitchers including and especially former Ray Matt Garza would become flustered after making a mistake pitch, Hellickson thrives.

What happened following Cust's home run? Kevin Kouzmanoff struck out. Rajai Davis struck out. Travis Buck flied out to left. Inning over. That kind of poise and resiliency, the ability to come back from a mistake, is going to be a huge asset for Hellickson this year and beyond.

He is a young kid, still very raw as far as his potential goes. But that isn't to say Hellickson won't be a finished product until he's