Edinson Volquez

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**Edinson Volquez**
Major League Baseball debut
Texas Rangers — No. 38
Starting Pitcher
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
August 30, 2005 for the Texas Rangers
Selected MLB statistics (through the end of the 2006 season)
Wins – Losses	1-10
ERA	9.20
Strikeouts	26

Edinson Volquez [VOL-kays] (born July 3, 1983 in La Segunua, Dominican Republic) is a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who plays for the Texas Rangers. He bats and throws right handed.

Listed at 6'0", 200-pounds, Volquez made his major league debut on August 30, 2005 after rising rapidly through Texas' farm system. Together with John Danks and Thomas Diamond, Volquez was one third of the vaunted "DVD" trio of Rangers pitching prospects [1]. Now that Danks has been traded to the White Sox and Diamond will be undergoing Tommy John surgery, Volquez will be the only prospect of the original "DVD" trio still active in the Rangers organization, at least until Diamond recovers.

[edit] Volquez's Future

Volquez's future is not as sure as it used to be. He has come up to the majors at the end of the 2005 and 2006 season and performed poorly, struggling with control. He has walked 27 batters in 46 career IP for the Rangers, which computes to 5.28 BB/9 IP, which is very poor. Even in AAA, he walked 5.37 batters every 9 IP, indicating that his problem is with control, rather than the caliber of the players he is facing. For comparison, teammate Vicente Padilla walked 3.15 batters every 9 IP last season, and 2.57 batters every 9 IP in his first full season for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2000. Volquez was optioned to the Rangers A-league affiliate in Bakersfield, the Bakersfield Blaze, to work on his control. This move, optioning a near-ready prospect to a low minor league level, is not unprecedented. Roy Halladay was optioned to class A Dunedin to rebuild his delivery in 2001 and won the Cy Young two years later. Mark Connor, the Rangers current pitching coach, was the pitching coach for the Blue Jays at the time of Halladay's demotion, so the idea was most likely his. Volquez should get a chance to prove himself and move rapidly up the ranks of the Rangers' minor league system this summer.