Pitcher Jeff Locke has been promoted to Altoona, BUCCO Fans tweets. Locke was one of three players, along with Charlie Morton and Gorkys Hernandez, the Pirates acquired for Nate McLouth. At the time of the trade, I thought Locke was the best player the Pirates got. There now appears to be a very good chance that will be the case. While Morton and Hernandez have mostly been abysmal this year (although Hernandez has hit well in the past few weeks), Locke has shined, posting six strikeouts per walk for Bradenton. He had already had a lot of time at the Class A+ level, so the promotion is, if anything, overdue. If all goes well, Locke could be a rotation regular by the start of 2012.
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