Aaron Blair

Aaron Daniel Blair (born May 26, 1992) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Atlanta Braves organization. Blair attended Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, where he played baseball for the Marshall Thundering Herd baseball team. Prior to that, he attended Spring Valley High School in Spring Valley, Nevada and played for the school's baseball team. The Houston Astros selected him in the 21st round of the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft but decided to go to college instead. The Arizona Diamondbacks selected Blair with the 36th pick of the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft.^[1] He was traded to the Atlanta Braves by the Diamondbacks as part of a five-player deal announced December 9, 2015.^[2]

Early life

Blair was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, by his mom, Janice, and his dad, Craig. When Blair was 4 years old, he started playing Little League baseball on the same t-ball team as his big brother. From age 9-12 Blair played on the same Little League All-Star Teams with Kris Bryant and Nick Kingham.

Career

He threw a no-hitter in his sophomore year at Spring Valley High School, was 7-0 his junior year and became a Nevada 1st Team All-State^[3] player his senior year while leading all Nevada 4A pitchers with 91 strikeouts in 64 innings. He had 9 complete games out of 10 starts. He added a .449 average with 7 home runs and 43 RBIs his senior year.

Though not highly recruited coming out of high school, Blair caught the eye of Marshall University while playing for the Ohio Warhawks in the WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Florida during the fall of his senior year. Blair agreed to attend Marshall on a scholarship, where he would play college baseball for the Marshall Thundering Herd. As a freshman, Blair led the team in ERA with a 2.72 while being named to the Conference USA All-Freshmen team. His sophomore year Blair led the Thundering Herd pitching staff in starts (14). innings pitched (83 2/3) and strikeouts (82). During the summer between his sophomore and junior year, Blair was invited to play in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. This is where his draft stock really began to rise. He was named Pitcher of the Week for the 1st and 2nd weeks of the season^[4] as he went on to lead the Cape Cod Baseball League in ERA with a 1.17 while going 6-0 and then adding two wins in the Cape Cod Baseball League playoffs. In a do-or-die game in the championship series, Blair went 7 innings while allowing only 2 hits and striking out 10 to force a final game.^[5]

As a junior, Blair was added to the Golden Spikes Award watch list.^[6] Blair was named a 1st Team Conference USA pitcher.^[7] Included in his season was an 8 inning, 2 hit, 11 strikeout and no run game against the 19th ranked Houston Cougars in a 4-0 win to earn Blair Louisville Slugger National Pitcher of the Week.^[8] He finished his Marshall career with 200 strikeouts in 202 innings. Blair then became the highest drafted player in Marshall University baseball history when the Arizona Diamondbacks selected him in the 1st round with the 36th pick.^[9]

Arizona Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks selected Blair with the 36th pick in the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft.^[10] Blair signed with the Diamondbacks for a $1.435 million signing bonus and was assigned to the Hillsboro Hops of the Class A-Short Season Northwest League.^[11] He was promoted in August to the South Bend Silver Hawks of the Midwest League, where he won 2 playoff games. Blair started the 2014 campaign in South Bend but was quickly promoted to High A advanced Visalia Rawhide after only 6 starts in South Bend.Blair's debut for Visalia went great, as he went 7 innings, allowing only 1 run on 3 hits, walking 2 and striking out 9. Blair would make 12 more starts for Visalia before being promoted, this time to the Southern League with the AA Mobile BayBears.Blair dominated in his first two Southern League starts, pitching a combined 13 2/3 innings, allowing only 1 run and 8 hits while striking out 16 and walking only 1.^[12] Those performances also earned him the Southern League's Pitcher of the Week award. He has continued his rise through the Diamondbacks system as he has a 4-1 record with a 2.18 era in 7 starts. In those 7 starts, which includes 41 1/3 innings, Blair has allowed only 28 hits while walking only 10 and striking out 39. Blair finished the 2014 season with Mobile with a 4-1 record in 8 starts, covering 46 1/3 innings with an 1.94 era to go along with 46 strikeouts. The season totals were a 9-5 record over 27 starts and 154 1/3 innings. He struck out 171 hitters while walking only 51. He was also named ^[13] the Arizona Diamondbacks 2014 Minor League Pitcher of the Year.

Blair started the 2015 season back in Mobile and made 13 starts, finishing with a record of 6-3 and an ERA of 2.70 over 83 1/3 innings before he was promoted to the AAA Reno Aces, where he continued his successful 2015 campaign. Blair ended his Reno stint with a record of 7-2 and an ERA of 3.16 in the notoriously hitting-friendly Pacific Coast League. He was also named ^[14]the Diamondbacks 2015 Organizational Pitcher of the Year.

Atlanta Braves

On December 9, 2015, the Diamondbacks traded Blair along with Dansby Swanson and Ender Inciarte to the Atlanta Braves for Shelby Miller and Gabe Speier.^[15] In January 2016, it was announced that the Braves had invited Blair to MLB Spring Training as a non roster invitee .

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Marshall Baseball Bio