Biggar's Garrett Hawkins played rookie ball last year in the Arizona Complex League as a San Diego Padres draft selection, now moving over to pitch in California for their Single-A Affiliate Lake Elsinore Storm of the California League. Hawkins has had a strong start to the season after a decent run last year facing just over 60 batters in the development league, as he is the Storm's current team leader in both strikeouts and WHIP.

Hawkins has a 1-0 record in collecting 26 strikeouts through just over 18 innings pitched this year, and the 0.76 WHIP shows an early propensity as to why he has been dubbed a strikeout king in his career so far, and another label from his current team as you can see below.

He will need to continue with these stats to be accepted as the ace, but the team obviously feels comfortable putting him in their starting rotation so early in his time with the team. The stats mentioned above across his four starts this season have resulted in a sub 2 ERA, and a chance to help his team into first place in their division with a 15-6 record to start things off.

Hawkins and the Storm are set for a weeks work of games at home after an off day today, before the life of a ballplayer sets in and they hit the bus for a solid stretch of road games the following several days.

Related Stories