rico43
<B>Director of Minor League Reports</B>
MiLB has a nice piece on Allard's game:
Kolby Allard entered his third professional season with a list of goals, one of which was to reach 150 innings for Double-A Mississippi. The Braves No. 3 prospect came into the opener of Friday night's doubleheader exactly seven innings shy of that mark.
"I told my pitching coach [Derrick Lewis] before the game, 'I got to go seven today,'" Allard recalled. "He was like, 'All right, man. You do you.'"
The left-hander did just that as he allowed one hit and one walk with five strikeouts for his first career shutout in Mississippi's 3-0 win over Birmingham. In 27 starts, Allard (8-11) logged a 3.18 ERA with 129 strikeouts and 45 walks.
"I had my ups and downs just like any year would have," the 20-year-old said. "I think I learned more about myself and more about pitching this year than I have any previous year in my life. This year, I can't thank our pitching coach enough. He's helped me through it and we've done a lot of things and I've become a lot better pitcher because of it."
With the M-Braves' season ending Monday and a callup to the Major Leagues not likely, Allard's third professional season is complete. The California native has tentative plans for the start of the offseason typical of an Orange County resident before his focus shifts back to baseball.
"I might go home for a couple weeks and chill and go surf a little bit," Allard said. "Then going to start back at square one. I'm trying to put on a couple pounds this offseason, trying to get bigger and stronger to hopefully handle a bigger workload next year. That's the goal is to go up and help us win ballgames in Atlanta."
Kolby Allard entered his third professional season with a list of goals, one of which was to reach 150 innings for Double-A Mississippi. The Braves No. 3 prospect came into the opener of Friday night's doubleheader exactly seven innings shy of that mark.
"I told my pitching coach [Derrick Lewis] before the game, 'I got to go seven today,'" Allard recalled. "He was like, 'All right, man. You do you.'"
The left-hander did just that as he allowed one hit and one walk with five strikeouts for his first career shutout in Mississippi's 3-0 win over Birmingham. In 27 starts, Allard (8-11) logged a 3.18 ERA with 129 strikeouts and 45 walks.
"I had my ups and downs just like any year would have," the 20-year-old said. "I think I learned more about myself and more about pitching this year than I have any previous year in my life. This year, I can't thank our pitching coach enough. He's helped me through it and we've done a lot of things and I've become a lot better pitcher because of it."
With the M-Braves' season ending Monday and a callup to the Major Leagues not likely, Allard's third professional season is complete. The California native has tentative plans for the start of the offseason typical of an Orange County resident before his focus shifts back to baseball.
"I might go home for a couple weeks and chill and go surf a little bit," Allard said. "Then going to start back at square one. I'm trying to put on a couple pounds this offseason, trying to get bigger and stronger to hopefully handle a bigger workload next year. That's the goal is to go up and help us win ballgames in Atlanta."
