The Fast Track Part I: Clear Fork grad AJ Blubaugh blazing through Houston Astros' farm system
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is Part I of a 3-part series.
SUGAR LAND, TX – He was stuck in Texas gridlock during rush hour on a hot Monday afternoon and was still sporting a smile.
The trifecta of capricious events that could send anyone into a rage, AJ Blubaugh was unfazed. He was on his way to Sugar Land, Texas from Corpus Christi where he had picked up his belongings, hopped in his car and took off for the Houston Astros’ Triple-A assignment.
It was five days after he received the call that he was being promoted from Double-A to Triple-A in the Astros’ farm system and he had plenty to be happy about. He was fresh off of his first outing with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys when he pitched five scoreless innings in a 5-2 victory over the Albuquerque Isotopes. He struck out six, walked two and allowed just two hits holding the Isotopes to a .111 batting average against the hard-throwing right-hander from Bellville.
He had received his call up and things started churning so quickly that he didn’t even have time to grab his personal belongings. He was told he was being promoted, hopped on a plane that afternoon and arrived in New Mexico two hours before game time. The next night, he was on the mound, right where he belongs. Not in rush hour traffic on a Monday after picking up his belongings in Corpus Christi and driving back to Sugar Land.
It was such a whirlwind that Blubaugh, a 2019 Clear Fork grad, really didn’t have time to even think about what was happening before his first Triple-A outing.
“I do really think it helped,” Blubaugh said of the quick turnaround from call to mound. “It really didn’t hit me that I was in Triple-A until after my outing. Yeah, I was wearing a different uniform and in a place I had never pitched before, but all I thought of it as was another opportunity to pitch and just another game. The way I approached that first outing is helping me prepare for all of my future ones and the mentality I need to take into those. It is baseball. I get to play once every six days and I get to watch five other games.
"It is a blessing that every childhood dream of mine is coming true. It is beautiful.”
Blubaugh skyrocketing through Astros’ farm system
It may be just as beautiful as his professional baseball journey.
Ahead of the 2022 draft, Baseball America had Blubaugh penned.
"Blubaugh has an athletic build with prototypical size for a starter and a clean, athletic operation," the scouting report said. "He mixes four pitches from a high-three quarters slot. His fastball sits 91-93 mph touching 94 with ride and run."
The Astros saw it, too, and decided to draft him in the seventh round of the 2022 draft out of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and assign him to the Florida Complex League Astros Blue on August 6 of that year for evaluation as the season came to a close. He made three appearances with two starts posting a 3.18 earned run average in 5 2/3 innings pitched with four strikeouts. He allowed just three hits and two earned runs while striking out four and that was all the Astros needed to see out of their new rookie right-hander.
Just 16 days later, he was assigned to the Fayetteville Woodpeckers, the Astros’ Single-A affiliate in the Carolina League. He went 2-1 with a 4.85 ERA in 13 innings with 20 strikeouts earning the September Pitcher of the Month award and just like that, his first season in minor league baseball was over.
On April 3, 2023, Blubaugh got his assignment to the Asheville Tourists, a high Single-A team in the South Atlantic League, so far his longest stay of his short career. He went 6-3 with a 4.94 ERA making nine starts and working one complete game. He threw 85 2/3 innings registering 93 strikeouts and by season’s end, on Aug. 26, 2023, he was called up to Double-A Corpus Christi to play for the Hooks out of the Texas League. He made three starts working 14 1/3 innings allowing just four hits and holding opponents to a .093 batting average with 19 strikeouts.
It earned him an invite to the Mesa Solar Sox playing in the Arizona Fall League so the Astros could get even more looks at him.
He played so well, he was named to the American League Fall Stars, Arizona Fall League's All-Star game, where he faced just one batter.
It was also where he threw his first 100-mile-per-hour pitch prompting the game to stop, remove the ball and ship it back home to Bellville for his mother, Erin, to have as a keepsake. Not a bad way to end his second year in pro baseball.
He earned a non-roster invite to the Astros’ Spring Training in January before being optioned back to Corpus Christi where he pitched in just one game working four innings, allowing just two hits with five strikeouts. It was enough for the Astros to ship him to Sugar Land on April 10.
Within a span of two years and less than 150 innings of work, Blubaugh went from being drafted to one step away from The Show.
“If I was asked what my goal was with how fast I wanted to move along, I would have told you I didn’t have one, but if I was forced to answer, I would have thought one level every year would be great,” Blubaugh said. “The fact this is happening this fast, I like it because it shows what the organization thinks of me because I feel like they believe in me just like my family did growing up and Milwaukee did in college. That belief propelled me into who I came to be.”
And that is a pitcher who is on the fast track. It is rare to see a pitcher work his way through a farm system so quickly. But Blubaugh is making short stays wherever he goes.
“To be on a fast track, you cannot be disappointed in it because that is the goal,” Blubaugh said. “I ask myself if I will be ready if it happens and that is unanswerable right now. I do feel like I can compete at any level I am put at, but it comes down to being consistent. I believe in myself, my stuff, my pitches and it is just a matter of am I the better baseball player on that given day, or are the other nine guys in the opposing order better? That is what is funny about baseball.”
And what is even funnier about baseball is how quickly it can make you feel like a kid again.
Read Part II of AJ's journey tomorrow.
jfurr@gannett.com
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X: @JakeFurr11
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Houston Astros minor league pitcher AJ Blubaugh knocking on MLB doorstep
