I dont see how he's as risky now as he was then.
He's pitching. As we've seen with Rendon, if there was ANY issue at all with his health, he would not be playing. As far as Im concerned, he is healthy, and that was the issue.
The fact that he is getting it up into the low 90's is also positive.
While I was hoping he'd dominate, I didn't expect much out of him here. Reality - the kid pitched a season and a half of college baseball. He's going to be at Hagerstown next year. He's pitching after a lot of time off and some re-working of his mechanics, and is all of a sudden thrown out against the best prospects in the game. Many on the bring of the big leagues. While I am disappointed he has pitched so poorly, I don't think there's any cause for concern. The talk about his pitches being flat and control being non existent pretty much state the obvious - He's rusty. Combine rust, getting back into shape(also remember, all these guys are coming off a season that ended a month or so ago, and Purke hasn't done anything in 3-4 months), and playing against guys with pro experience at least two levels above him, and it doesn't add up to a recipe for success.
Disappointing, sure, but I don't think there's any reason to be worried long term. And the reason we keep running him out there is to get some innings under his arm. Ideally he'll get better with each outing, and get some confidence back so he has something to build on come spring, but we'll see how that goes the rest of the season.
