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Jeremy Hellickson Named AL Pitcher Of The Month For May

From the press release:

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Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Jeremy Hellickson has been voted the American League Pitcher of the Month for May.

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Hellickson, who was also named the Gillette Presents American League Rookie of the Month for May, compiled a 4-1 record with a 1.36 ERA in five starts, leading all Major League rookies in wins for the month and finished tied for first among all A.L. pitchers.

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His 1.36 ERA was third-best in the league and was the second-lowest May ERA in franchise history, trailing Scott Kazmir's 1.22 ERA in 2008. It is the third-lowest ERA of any month in club history, trailing only Kazmir and Matt Garza (1.27 in August 2010).

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In his first full season in the Rays' rotation, Hellickson has been awesome so far. His 2.80 ERA is second-best of the starters - trailing only James Shields by .03 points - and he's been consistently good, something the Rays have needed with the status of Jeff Niemann and Wade Davis.

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To put my analyst hat on, Hellickson isn't likely to stay quite this good over the next few months. His strikeout rate could use to climb a bit and he's walking nearly four batters per nine innings right now, but hey, he's also got a huge amount of potential and can very easily make both those things happen. Regardless of how you look at it, he's still an exceptional young pitcher.

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Congrats, Jeremy - you deserve this.

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Photographs by cstreet.us, thelastminute, turtlemom nancy , fesek, kthypryn, justinwright, sue_elias, pointnshoot, and scrapstothefuture used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.