'King Kong' in waiting: Cedar City's Talbot has high hopes with Devil Rays

Mitch Talbot considers himself a work in progress, and so do the Tampa Bay Devils Rays.

"I just want him to get his feet on the ground. I want him to be King Kong," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon told MLB.com in mid-March.

"There are all the strengths he has, but there were other things we want him to conquer, and when he's ready we'll bring him up at the right moment."

Talbot, who spent parts of four seasons in the Houston Astros' organization, is now with Triple-A Durham and is knocking on the door of the big leagues. A little more refinement will get him there.

"Mitch Talbot's stuff is really, really good — very composed," Tampa pitching coach Jim Hickey told MLB.com. "He throws strikes. He has the ability to change speeds. He could project as a very good major league starter."

With lofty expectations, he started the season in Durham just 2-5, but in his last 10 games he's 4-2 with an 3.59 ERA.

"I started out pretty rocky," Talbot said of his first season in Triple-A. "I'd have a good outing and then a bad outing. Now they're starting to be a little more consistent."

Armed already with a nasty change-up, which was voted by Baseball America as the best change-up in the Astros' organization, he is adding a slider and cutter.

"Both of those pitches I started working on last year and I'm just starting to get a good feel for it. It's starting to be a more consistent pitch," he said.

He won his third game of the year on May 21 and preceded to win two of his next three (one was a no-decision). In wins over Rochester and Ottawa, he threw 15 innings, allowed just seven hits and didn't give up a run.

In eight innings against Rochester, he didn't allow a run on two hits, and against Ottawa two starts later he threw a complete-game (seven-inning) shutout where he allowed just five hits.

After Saturday's outing at Buffalo, in which he gave up eight earned runs in six innings, he is now 6-7 with a 5.21 ERA in 18 starts. He's struck out 73 and walked 38 and has allowed just six home runs.

Last year, he appeared to be climbing the ladder with the Astros before he was traded along with Ben Zobrist to Tampa Bay for Aubrey Huff.

He was 4-3 for Double-A Corpus Christi and had recently come off a franchise-record 12 strikeouts, surpassing the record of 10 previously held by Jason Hirsh and Roger Clemens before the trade.