The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Burrows, Lockery finding their way in West Virginia
He was unscathed over his first four professional outings last summer, and that run of dominance extended through his first start for Class A short season West Virginia on June 17.
Then, five days later, it finally happened: Michael Burrows had the audacity to allow (gasp!) an earned run. On a 22 pitch in the top of the third inning on June 22, State College’s Moises Castillo hit a linedrive single to right field that scored Martin Figueroa.
It was the first earned run Burrows had allowed in 21 innings as a pro, since being selected out of Waterford High in the 11th round of the 2018 MLB Draft by Pittsburgh. No worries. Burrows got through the next two innings unscathed.
In his next start six days later against William sport, Burrows finally came back to earth a bit, allowing six earned runs on five hits (“there were a lot of paper cuts in that start, a lot of bleeders”) and four walks in just 1 2⁄3 innings. But the righthander has bounced back since then, allowing just one earned run and seven hits over his last two starts, striking out 12 over 9 2⁄3 innings.
In all, it’s been a pretty remarkable start to his professional career for Burrows, who spurned a scholarship offer from UConn last summer to ink a $500,000 signing bonus with the Pirates.
“It’s been going pretty well. I’m pretty happy with it,” he said by phone earlier this week. “Really, it’s about seeing myself get better every day. What happens on the field is just a bonus. It’s all about the work that I’m putting in between those starts.”
After taking about a month before signing with the Pirates last summer following the draft, he made up for lost time after being assigned to the rookielevel GCL Pirates in July. In four outings (three starts) that encompassed 14 innings, Burrows dominated like he had that spring at Waterford High, allowing just hits and four walks and just one (unearned) run.
Burrows attended his first spring training this year but didn’t break camp, instead staying back in extended spring training, as most recent high school hurlers do in the Pirates’ organization. He figured he’d be heading to the club’s advanced rookie affiliate in Bristol, Virginia. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised to be sent to West Virginia, which plays in the New York/Penn League.
When he hurled five innings of shutout ball in his Black Bears debut (against William sport, yet again), Burrows’ scoreless streak had reached 19 innings. Not that he noticed.
“I mean, I didn’t think much about it,” Burrows said. “I just went out there and competed. It wasn’t like a, ‘Oh my God, I did it again,’ type of thing. The main goal is to give up the least amount of runs I can, right, and help out the team. The whole idea is not giving up runners, keeping them honest on the basepaths. It all worked out, so I was happy with it. But every start’s that mentality, just keep those runners out of scoring position, keep them from scoring.”
The only hiccup was that “paper cut ”laden June 28 loss to William sport.
“But, it didn’t define me after that,” he noted. “I went back, and next time around against those guys, I gave up one run in five innings.”
And that one run came in on a squeeze bunt.
In all, it’s been a pretty good year for the Burrows family. Michael’s cousin, Maddie, a freshman, helped lead the Waterford softball team to the Class M state title. His other cousin, Jared, a junior, helped the Waterford baseball team to a Class L title.
The brother and sister were winning pitchers for their respective titlewinning teams on consecutive nights.
Meanwhile, Michael Burrows continues his stingy pitching, working on his fastball command and being sharper with his curveball, but overall, no major changes in his style.
“I’m just working towards small goals,” he said, “to make a bigger goal.”
LOCKERY LOCKED IN
Dean Lockery is four years older than Burrows and grew up in New Haven, so he only knew of Burrows from afar.
“I just heard about his perfect games once a week, whatever they were,” Lockery said with a chuckle. “We really didn’t know each other.”
Both drafted by the Pirates last year (Lockery in the 32nd round, out of Central Connecticut State), they finally got to know each other during instructional league last September.
“Now,” Burrows said of Lockery, “he’s one of my best friends here.”
Lockery, a Fairfield Prep grad, and Burrows are teammates and roomates at West Virginia. Lockery has played all over the infield in his first full season as a pro and has started to heat up at the plate a bit: entering the weekend, he’s hit .333 with four walks over his last five games, raising his season average to .241 with the Black Bears.
“Everything is starting to come together,” said Lockery, who’s been working on his mechanics with hitting coach Johnny Tucker. “For me, it’s just being comfortable and being confident. I’d say that’s right where I’m at right now, so that’s good.”
Lockery hit a solid .274 in 39 games at Bristol after being drafted last summer, and spent most of this past spring training with Greensboro, the Pirates’ Class A affiliate. He played well, but at the end of spring training, an infielder from High A was sent down, and Lockery was moved to Morgantown, whose season doesn’t start until mid-June. He stayed in extended spring training, though he did get to play a few games with High A Bradenton, one of them at Steinbrenner Field at the Yankees’ spring training complex in Tampa.
Lockery had four hits in his first two games with West Virginia, then cooled down a bit before his recent uptick. And that’s come at just the right time, as the Black Bears venture into Brooklyn’s MCU Field this weekend to face the Brooklyn Cyclones. The threegame set began Saturday and concludes Monday at 11:30 a.m. It’s the closest the team will come to Connecticut this season, and Lockery was expecting about 100 people, from his parents, high school baseball and hockey coaches to friends from high school and college and “my Italian family feud.”
“I’m definitely looking forward to this trip to Brooklyn,” he said earlier this week. “I’ll get to play in front of a lot of people who I haven’t seen in a while, who’ve been following me through their phones. So, it’ll be good for them to get to see me play in person.”
ODDS AND ENDS
Shelton’s Matt Batten drove in seven runs in TripleA El Paso’s 86 win over Salt Lake on July 6. Batten, a Quinnipiac grad, is hitting .327 for the Chihuahuas and .394 in his last 10 games … After spending most of the season with HighA Charlotte, where he hit .310, Monroe’s Thomas Milone has been promoted back to DoubleA Montgomery … The Hartford Yard Goats made Minor League Baseball’s list of top 25 teams in licensed merchandise sales for 2018. In all, 160 affiliated teams set a record with more than $73.8 million in retail sales.