Prospect spotlight: Rangers' Barret Loux making the most of his second chance

Few players in professional baseball have had to deal with the extreme highs and lows of a career arc so early in their pro career as right-hander Barret Loux.

In 2010, Loux was the sixth overall pick in the draft by the Diamondbacks out of Texas A&M and had agreed to a $2-million contract with the team. But when he visited Phoenix to sign the contract, an MRI showed a slight tear of his labrum and worried about an elbow that the team believed could need Tommy John surgery in the future. So the Diamondbacks yanked Loux's contract offer and instead decided to wait a year and collect its compensatory No. 7 pick in the 2011 draft.

So, instead of finding himself with a rich new contract and the start of a promising career, the 6-foot-5 fireballer was left in limbo.

"I didn't know where I was going to be, if I was going to have to play independent ball or what," Loux said by phone on Thursday.

In August of 2010, two months after the draft and the day after the deadline to sign drafted players, Major League Baseball declared Loux would become a free agent on Sept. 1, 2010. After several workouts and even more prodding and poking, Loux signed a free-agent deal with the Rangers. Although Loux lost more than a million dollars in the process, one thing was clear -- he'd be playing professional baseball.

"Just hearing that I was going to be lucky enough to follow my dream, it was a real blessing for me, I was just very lucky that that could happen," Loux said.

Loux hasn't had surgery since the Diamondbacks decided he wasn't up to snuff, but he's pitched and pitched well. For Double-A Frisco of the Texas League, Loux improved to 7-0 with a victory over Corpus Christi on Thursday night and now has an ERA of 2.37. In 38 innings over those seven starts, he's struck out 39, walked 11 and given up 35 hits. Last season at high-Class A, he was 8-5 with a 3.80 ERA in 109 innings, striking out 127.

And all those numbers have come with his supposed bum shoulder.

"Like a lot of people, I have damage, but it's just how your body handles it," Loux said. "I'm sure there are guy with shoulders that an MRI would look worse than mine that have never had a problem and people with less damage than mine, it bothers them a lot. It's an individual basis and how you feel."

He was first diagnosed with a shoulder impingement in high school, but did have surgery, instead rehabbed the shoulder. Looking back on it, Loux feels the rehab made him throw hard and he hasn't had any issue with it since. He did have surgery after his sophomore year at Texas A&M to remove bone spurs in his elbow, but he said that hasn't bothered him since then, either.

Loux throws a mid-90s fastball, but said he's becoming more comfortable with his other pitchers, a slider, curveball and changeup.

"In college I was more of a fastball guy, I throw hard, so I was coming at them with that," Loux said. "But you work really hard doing that, and I realized that, so far I've been trying to use a good mix and throw all four pitches for strikes and throw it in any count and keep guys off balance."

The Rangers certainly have what seems a backlog of talent for the rotation at the moment, so it doesn't look like there's an immediate place for him in the big leagues -- or he could be moved to the bullpen. But at this point, it's not something that he's worried about.

"I try to put things like that out of my mind, I feel like you just try to control only what you can control. I can't stress and think about things I can't control, you just do what you can and let the rest take care of itself."

That's something he's learned not just on the field, but off the field, as well.

PROSPECT TALK

• The Braves' Evan Gattis already has 40 RBI on the season between high-Class A Lynchburg and Double-A Mississippi. According to David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Braves have moved Gattis from out behind the plate to left field to see if they can get his bat into the lineup. In just his second year of pro baseball, Gattis is slugging a robust .771 with 13 homers.

• This space has become a weekly Dylan Bundy update, so why not continue that tradition as the Orioles' top pick from last season's draft gave up his first professional run on Monday? That run, though, was unearned as Charleston's Mason Williams struck out with two outs in the third inning, but advanced to first on a wild pitch. He then scored on a wild play that had catcher Gabriel Lino overthrew Bundy after a pitch, with the ball going into center field. Williams not only took second on the play, but went for third and center fielder Glynn Davis' throw went out of play, allowing Williams to score.

Bundy also gave up a double to Gary Sanchez in the first inning -- marking the first extra-base hit against him, and just the second hit he's allowed in 20 innings of his pro career. He's struck out 33 batters in those 20 innings, including eight in three innings on Monday.

• While Bundy has been the belle of the ball among pitchers, this year's top minor-league story on the position side has been Reds speedster Billy Hamilton. He stole his 33rd base of the season on Thursday (in his 30th game), while hitting his fifth triple of the season. He's hitting .364 on the season with a .430 OBP. He did committ his 10th and 11th errors of the season, as well.

• Michael Pineda wasn't the only pitcher the Mariners sent to New York in the trade that brought Seattle Jesus Montero. Right-hander Jose Campos had gone 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA in his first four starts at low-Class A after being part of one of the off-season's biggest trades, but then struggled in his next two starts, seeing his ERA rise to 4.01. Campos, 19, was put on the disabled list last week.

• Double-A Jackson of the Southern League has perhaps the most exciting minor-league pitching rotation. The Mariners' affiliate has the trio of James Paxton (3-1, 2.60) Taijuan Walker (3-1, 1.71) and Danny Hultzen (2-3, 2.35 ERA) as the headliners, but don't overlook what Andrew Carraway (4-0, 2.61) and Brandon Maurer (2-0, 3.46) have done. The starting depth in the minors is one of the reasons the team felt it could deal Pineda in the offseason.

• Brad Eldred hit his 15th home run of the season on Thursday. The 31-year-old is hitting .346/.400/.894 so far this season at Triple-A Toledo.

• The Royals' Greg Holland, Chris Dwyer, Brendan Lafferty and Kendal Volz combined for a no-hitter for Double-A Northwest Arkansas on Thursday night over Springfield (Cardinals). Holland, on a rehab assignment, started the game and struck out the three batters he faced in one inning. Dwyer went 6 2/3, walking two and hitting a batter, while striking out five. Lafferty retired the one batter he faced, while Volz worked a perfect ninth. It was the second no-hitter in franchise history.