When Eddie Butler broke camp as a member of the Rockies rotation, it wasn’t expected for him to be elite right away. His numbers in AA Tulsa weren’t otherworldly and it was a large consensus that he would have to develop a bit in the majors before living up to the hype as one of the best pitching prospects the Rockies have ever had.
But, even beyond that, there’s a concerning trend in Eddie Butler’s first twelve starts that was highlighted by Fangraphs before the season began: his strikeout rate. In the lower levels Butler was an elite strikeout pitcher, striking out over eight batters per game in his meteoric rise from Asheville to Tulsa in 2013.