Serious question - who was the last pitcher to go from having such pedestrian minor league numbers at AAA (59/32 K:BB ratio in 67 innings), even at a young age, to go onto be an ace?

Someone probably exists, but I can't think of him.

Carlos Zambrano was 46:40 in 57 AAA innings during the last half of his age 19 year.

OOTP 6.5 didn't like him.

Randy Johnson : 113 ip, 111K, 72BB
Curt Schilling : 185 ip, 109 K, 59 BB

59 Ks in 67 innings isn't bad. Plus he's young (like the article said). Verlander (for example) hadn't even pitched in AA by the time he was Bailey's age.

I don't know if you consider him an ace, but Ben Sheets had a 59:31 K:BB ratio in 82 innings in his first taste of AAA at 21.

I don't know if you consider him an ace, but Ben Sheets had a 59:31 K:BB ratio in 82 innings in his first taste of AAA at 21.

This seems like a fair comparison.

Ben Sheets would be the definition of ace if he could stay healthy. His 2004 is going to end up one of the great forgotten seasons at this rate - .98 WHIP, 10 K/9, 8.25 (!) K/BB, 162 ERA+ in 237 innings.

Record? 12-14. D'oh.

(And how about 2006? 106 innings - but 116 strikeouts to 11 walks! [10.54 K/BB])

I should have been clear that I consider him an ace but his career numbers don't back that up for various reasons, so I think reasonable people can disagree on that.

For me, the biggest issue with Bailey is his inability to adjust. In HS, his heat could simply blow people away and having a useable breaking pitch made it even worse. In the minors, he's not only never adjusted to the fact that he's hittable, he's shown no interest in adjusting. Third pitch? Nah. Mechanically, that long takeaway and the lack of balance at release is going to end up costing him the talent that got him this far.